As an aspiring artist, Spotify outstrips the competition as the leading online platform for music streams. It dwarfs the competition by a huge margin, often accounting for the lion’s share of all streams of popular artists. Consider, for example, the top 10 DSP/stores and average payouts for music streams, notably:
- Spotify – $0.00318 per stream
- Apple iTunes – $0.008 per stream
- Pandora – $0.00133 per stream
- Google Play – $0.00611 stream
- Amazon Music – $0.00402 per stream
- Deezer – $0.0011 per stream
- Tidal – $0.01284 per stream
- Rhapsody – $0.01682 per stream
- YouTube Music – $0.002 per stream
- Xbox Music – $0.0273 per stream
Spotify completely dominates the music streaming market. Despite lower royalties per stream, this platform guarantees significantly more follower volume, which compensates for lower revenues per stream. According to Statista, Spotify rules the global subscriber market with a 30.6% share. Apple iTunes follows in a distant second at 13.7% of the market share. The Swedish-based Spotify racked up 210 million subscribers by Q3 2023, with 515 million MA users (monthly active users) during Q1 2023.
The top gaming tracks on Spotify include an enviable collection of superstars and up-and-coming artists. Titles like Carnival by Kanye West, Ty Dolla $ign, and others rule the roost. Redrum by 21 Savage, Lovin On Me by Jack Harlow, Strangers by Kenya Grace, and Whatever She Wants by Bryson Tiller are incredibly popular. Reddit users routinely point to their desire for nightcore and hardstyle playlists while gaming, with top performers like Dance with the Dead, the Tron Legacy Soundtrack, Purge by Brand of Sacrifice, or Mix Dance floor anthems.
It’s all about personal preferences and styles, but there’s always plenty of adrenaline in gaming tracks on Spotify. As an up-and-coming artist on Spotify, your first point of call is to submit your music for Spotify playlist submission. That’s where it all begins. And to the raison d’etre of this article, yes, it’s entirely possible to earn money from your gaming tracks on Spotify. As an artist, you earn money largely from royalties.
The aforementioned averages indicate a ballpark figure of what you can expect per stream. For every 1000 plays, the figure translates into approximately $3.18. But, there is certainly room for more earnings on Spotify, as much as $0.008 per stream Which translates into $8.40 per thousand plays. Fortunately, this is only part one of the income earning puzzle for creating top-tier gaming tracks on Spotify.
Why Spotify for Music Artists?
As a playlist curator, earning money is even more lucrative. According to House of Tracks, your specific level of expertise as a playlist curator can reward you with anywhere from $1.00 up to $14 per reviewed track. Artists wanting to generate more money should focus on volume. The more tracks you release, the better. Complete your profile by gaining as many streams as possible, racking up a huge fan base, and complementing it with effective marketing strategies to spread your network influence far and wide. That’s how the bigwigs are earning sizeable earning potential from Spotify.
Millions of songs and playlists are featured prominently on Spotify. A huge user base guarantees near-limitless potential as an artist, especially if you are good. The complex revenue structure of Spotify ensures that there are more ways to earn a living from your playlists than a simple play-to-pay structure. While precise figures remain a mystery, experts peg the figure at between $3000 and $5000 for 1M plays. Individual play negligible amounts. Therefore, volume is the key to driving sales. Among the top performers, payouts of hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars are common on Spotify.
Once your gaming music streams are up and running, either through distributors or Spotify playlist curators, you can hit the big time. It is essential that your tracks are approved and delivered to Spotify by those with the power to approve them. There are many distributors working with Spotify, and some charge an annual fee, but they collect your earnings and distribute them to you as soon as the music goes live on Spotify. The Swedish streaming platform tracks all the analytics for you. Royalties are distributed to artists and rights holders based on the agreed-upon percentages.
Depending on who creates the music, profits are divided between the record label, the artist, the producer, and the songwriter. Distributors take a small slice of the pie, the bulk of which ends up going to the rights holders. As somebody interested in generating more revenue for your gaming music streams and Spotify, you want to release your music regularly. Aficionados routinely point to the importance of frequent track releases and volume releases. A good marketing and promotional strategy is essential to get noticed – that’s why it’s important to showcase your skills on as many platforms as possible with redirects to Spotify.
For this purpose, Spotify advertising channels are available to market yourself on the platform. Additionally, you want to put lots of energy into your fanbase – interact with them, engage with them, encourage them with pre-saves, email mailers, marketing resources, and the like. If you are willing to go the whole 9 yards, consider live performances, sell merchandise, get busy on your, use affiliate sales through your business site, engage in licensing for TV, film, commercials, et cetera. While it can certainly be a long road to superstardom on Spotify, it’s lucrative when you get there!
