Payments vary by Digital Distribution retailer and may be revised occasionally. Please get in touch with our digital distribution team if you have questions about specific Digital Distribution retailer payouts.
Our distribution provider's data feed is processed on our servers to generate each metric whenever new files arrive.
- Total streams: Sum of every completed play of your music across all reporting services within the selected date range.
- Total play time: Cumulative listening time in minutes for those plays.
- Total listeners: Count of each unique account or device that streamed your music at least once.
Top-performing tracks and releases are determined by ranking your content in order of highest to lowest total streams.
For detailed information on how Spotify calculates and pays out royalties, please refer to the following article: Spotify for Artists – How Streaming Royalties Work
This explains the pro rata payment model, average per‑stream rates, and how factors such as subscription type and listener location affect your total earnings.
There are several reasons why high stream counts may not translate directly into high payouts:
- Per‑stream rates vary depending on each platform's subscription revenue and listening hours
- The pro rata model pools all royalty revenue and distributes it based on your share of global streams, which means broader listening trends impact your earnings.
- Fees from intermediaries and rights holders are deducted before you receive payment.
- Withholding taxes and currency exchange fluctuations can reduce the final amount in your account.
Understanding these factors can help set realistic expectations and guide strategies to improve revenue, such as targeting higher-paying markets and encouraging premium subscriptions.
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