What you need to know
- The Trichordist has published its annual figures regarding streaming payouts and revenue.
- Their figures suggest that Apple Music provides the best value to artists per stream.
- Apple reportedly accounted for 25% of streaming revenue, but only 6% of consumption in 2019.
New figures from The Trichordist suggest that Apple Music offers the best value to artists per stream compared to its competitors.
According to their 2019-2020 Streaming Price Bible:
Apple Music is again the best value per stream accounting for nearly 25% of all streaming revenue on only 6% of consumption. Spotify generates the most overall revenue of any streamer (no surprise) at 44% of all streaming revenue on 22% of consumption. As stated before, and which can not be overstated enough, You Tube's Content ID is the major issue limiting growth contributing only 6% of revenues on over half of all streams, at 51% of total consumption. That's a staggering statistic.
As you can see from the chart, Spotify takes the number one spot thanks to its massive grasp on the market share by revenue category with 44.33%. Apple came second with a 24.79% share of paid out revenue. On the face of it, Spotify is the clear winner here. However, take note of the 'Market share by streams' category. Apple paid out nearly 25% of the industries streaming revenue, despite only accounting for 6.36% of streams.
That's because Apple's price per stream is $0.00675, a good deal higher than Spotify's $0.00348. to put that into perspective, Spotify pays out between $3,300 - $3,500 for every one million plays a song gets, whereas Apple is paying around $6750 for the same amount.
The report also notes that YouTube is really letting the side down:
As stated before, and which can not be overstated enough, You Tube's Content ID is the major issue limiting growth contributing only 6% of revenues on over half of all streams, at 51% of total consumption. That's a staggering statistic.
Apple's payment per stream is climbing back up to its 2017 level of $0.00783 per play. The number dropped sharply to just $0.00495 in 2018, The Trichordist cites expansion into new territories and a high number of free 90-day subscriptions.
