Here’s How Much 1,000 Streams Makes In 2026
Music streaming royalty calculators have been around for a while now, and you can find a number of them online. They all give you roughly the same result, but the one I trust the most is from Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips, the large entertainment legal practice.
I thought I’d give it whirl just to see how much you’d make from 1,000 streams. The following is the royalty payout from the three largest distributors according to Manatt’s royalty calculator.
| MUSIC STREAMER | Sound Recording Royalty | Mechanical Royalty | Performance Royalty | TOTAL |
| Spotify | $3.76 | $.42 | $.57 | $4.75 |
| Apple Music | $6.70 | $.82 | $.84 | $8.36 |
| Amazon Music | $7.66 | $1.15 | $.98 | $9.79 |
As you can see, both Apple Music and Amazon Music pay substantially more that Spotify. The problem is that Spotify holds about 32% of the market share, while both Apple and Amazon are in the 13% range each.
The Variables
The thing is that you can’t depend on the same amount of streams on each platform. Your listeners may favor one service over the others, plus users are always changing services depending upon the deal offered. This is now happening more than ever before.
That being said, remember that 1,000 streams is not equal even on the same platform. For instance, if most of your streams come from the free tier as opposed to the paid tier, you’ll earn a lower royalty.
If most streams are coming from a country like India where the monthly price is $1.59 per month as opposed to the United States where it’s $12.99, you’ll make less because the royalty pool is smaller.
If most of your streams are coming from the ad-supported tier, then the time of year that you get your streams will determine your payout as the ad price changes with the seasons. Also, the type of advertisers that you get will make a difference.
And the biggest reason of all, you’re not getting paid per stream, but a percentage of the total royalty pool. That means 1,000 streams will be worth more in a month with a larger royalty pool and a different division of that pool.
What that all means is that my 1,000 streams will earn a different amount from your 1,000 streams, which will be different from just about every other artist’s 1,000 streams. What you see in these numbers from the calculator are the average amount per stream that’s paid out.
Use these figures only as a guide.
Obviously, you can extrapolate these numbers out beyond 1,000, or just use the streaming royalty calculator yourself to get a better idea of your situation.