Music lovers are sharing their listening stats from the year with Spotify Wrapped. Find out how those music streams translate to dollars for artists. 

Answer: Around $4,370

Questions:

1. Have you ever thought about how the artists on platforms like Spotify are paid?
2. Do you think around $4,000 per 1 million streams is high or low?
3. How else do you think artists earn money?
4. Would you ever pursue music as a full-time career? Explain why or why not.

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (from Di++o):

"Spotify pays artists between $0.003 - $0.005 per stream on average.

That works out as an approx revenue split of 70/30 - so that’s 70% to the artist/rights holders and 30% to Spotify. 

REMEMBER: The rights holders of a song can include; the publisher, songwriter and the master recording owners (i.e. the artist and/or label if they’re signed to one)."

About the Author

Kathryn Dawson

Kathryn (she/her) is excited to join the NGPF team after 9 years of experience in education as a mentor, tutor, and special education teacher. She is a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in policy analysis and management and has a master's degree in education from Brooklyn College. Kathryn is looking forward to bringing her passion for accessibility and educational justice into curriculum design at NGPF. During her free time, Kathryn loves embarking on cooking projects, walking around her Seattle neighborhood with her dog, or lounging in a hammock with a book.