Receipt generator

(try the pie chart maker)

* How are the estimated royalties (the AMT column) calculated?
Heavily inspired by Receiptify. Source for royalties: 2024 Music Economics Report
How do you calculate the royalties generated? Is this number really accurate?

Short answer: I use the average dollars generated per 1000 streams for the selected platform, as reported in the Duetti 2024 Music Economy Report. And no, it's not accurate, but it serves to illustrate a point.

Long answer: Contrary to popular belief, streaming platforms like Spotify don't pay a fixed amount per stream (the famed $0.003). The actual earnings an artist receives depend on a variety of factors like the location of the listeners, their subscription type (paid or ad-based), whether the artist is signed with a label (that will take its share) and which distribution service they use.

Most streaming platforms use a pro-rata system: all revenue from subscriptions and ads is pooled, and, after the platform takes its cut, the remaining amount is distributed proportionally based on total streams. This means your subscription fee primarily benefits the most-streamed artists with millions of streams rather than the ones you actually listen to.

Also, since the revenue pools are based on location and subscription tier, artists that have more listeners in regions with lower subscription fees will earn less per stream than artists that are popular in the most expensive markets. Finally, Spotify doesn't pay out royalties at all unless an artist has received at least 1000 streams a year from a minimum amount of unique listeners.

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