Spotify is one of the biggest music streaming platforms. It has millions of users who actively pay for the premium service. So, is there a way that you can make money on Spotify? Yes, there is. Here we take a look at the two primary ways that people generally earn money using Spotify.
Earning on Spotify As An Artist
The primary way for a person to earn money on Spotify is to earn revenues and royalties from their music. This is like the traditional way a musician makes money. You make something that people like and then you get paid every time someone buys or listens to your tracks.
A Look At The Numbers
What you need to understand is that earning money is a numbers game. It is boring but if you understand it then you can figure out more efficient ways to reach your monetary goals.
Every time someone streams or plays their music on Spotify they get a small amount. This amount varies from artists to artists depending on their popularity and impact on Spotify. Of course, most artists do get a general amount of around $0.00357. So, if you are new to this game then chances are you will be making that amount. This means if you get 100 streams you will make 35 cents.
A thousand streams will get you 3 dollars and 57 cents. It will take around 3 and a half million streams a year to help you make 12000 bucks. Which you can consider as a thousand bucks a month. Now, the reason why we need to look at all those numbers is to give you an idea about the math behind. Nobody starts earning a six-figure income from their music in a day. You have to get 9 times the play mentioned above to reach the 6 figure mark.
So, that means you have to average around 2.3 million streams per month. All this is not to scare you off but rather to give you a sense of reality. This way you can start by setting a realistic goal. Like for example, you can set a goal that in the next few months you want to be able to earn $100 per month from your music. Yes, it will not pay all the bills or the mortgage but it may help you with groceries. Or you may want to invest it. So, start small and work your way up efficiently and effectively.
Ways To Earn Money As an Artist
There are primarily two ways to earn money on Spotify as an artist. The artist gets royalties because of the master rights to the track or the artist gets revenues from mechanical reproduction or performance rights. The first one is the one that the performing artists, for example, the singer, gets for each stream. If you are the one singing the song then the label you recorded it for will get the master royalties.
Of course, your label will pay you a percentage of it. The mechanical royalty is what you can earn as a songwriter, composer etc. whenever the music is streamed. Now, the first one is simple. You just register with a music distribution company or a label. They will get your song on Spotify and you will earn a percentage from your stream. The second one is a bit tricky as if you are an independent songwriter or composer you won’t get the revenue directly.
It goes to a collection agency. Unless you have a publishing administrator then it can be a hassle to get the money. You can easily register with a publishing administrator. A lot of music distribution companies act as one. So, now that we know the ways to earn money on Spotify and the math behind the earnings let’s see how to get more streams as more streams mean more chances of earning royalties.
How to Get More Streams on Spotify
Spotify is just like any other social media platform and you have to treat it like one. It is a social media platform where people go for streaming music. So, the only way to grow on Spotify is to make high-quality and entertaining music and promote the hell out of it. Take a look at other social media platforms. If you want to grow on YouTube you have to make entertaining video content. But you can’t stop there as there are millions of YouTubers competing for the spotlight. You have to promote your videos on other social media platforms and try to do some keyword research to make it rank higher. A similar approach is required for Spotify as well. Below we mention three primary ways you can increase the number of streams in your Spotify account.
Get Your Tracks On a Playlist
There are several ways to do it. You can submit your tracks to popular playlist curators. Chances are if you end up getting on their playlists you will get thousands of streams. Yes, the competition is high but there are a lot of popular curators as well. So, keep submitting your tracks. Another way is to make your own playlist with popular songs and then slip a couple of your tracks on it. Of course, they should be relevant to the playlist. Now, you can submit your playlist to multiple different websites which people use to find nice playlists to return on repeat. There’s even a subreddit for it, r/SpotifyPlaylists.
Use Instagram Stories
You can now share tracks as Instagram stories directly from Spotify. This is a hot feature that a lot of musicians are using to get more streams on their songs from their followers. So, do not shy away from using the power of other social media platforms to pull in more streams. Similarly, you can give a link to your Spotify tracks on your YouTube videos or Facebook posts. Try to use as many avenues as you can.
Collaborate With Artists
This is another way to promote your tracks and get more streams. Collaborations can help all the artists involved as each of their fans may get interested in the other artists on the strong and thus you can use each others’ fanbases to grow. If you feel that you are really good, you can reach out to slightly bigger artists and request them for a Collab. Be patient as they might already get hundreds of such requests. Try to send them a sample of your song that you would want them to Collab on. Don’t lose heart if they don’t reply or reject you, just keep at it.
Earning As a Playlist Curator
There is a way that people earn money on Spotify by curating playlists. But it is only viable if your playlist is quite popular and receives hundreds of thousands of streams. If your playlist is popular that means if you put a track by a new artist on it then they will start getting more streams. It will get them more followers. So, you can charge artists to pay you to review their songs. If you think that it’s a good track only then you will publish it.
There is another way that playlist curators can make some money. This is by making their own playlists and getting money for each stream. There are websites and platforms which pay playlist curators for the plays that their curated songs get. Since a lot of people may not have an idea about this we will mention the steps to help you get started.
So, let’s take a brief look at the steps.
Create a playlist
First, you have to create a Spotify playlist. It is not too hard to do that. Just head over to Spotify app and go to your library section. There you will find the playlist section. Here, you can create a playlist and add songs to it.
Submit Your Playlist to a Website Which Pays
Now, you have to find websites that pay you for each play that a song from your playlist gets. You can do a quick Google search and find websites that do this. You can read or look at YouTube reviews for such sites before using them.
So, How Do You Get More Exposure to Your Playlist?
Now, how can you ensure that your playlist gets more streams? There are websites for that as well. People go to these websites to find playlists which they can enjoy on repeat. For example, if you are looking for a nice playlist for your gym sessions then you can visit these websites and pick a playlist that matches your taste. These websites are a great way for people to find nice tracks or listen to multiple songs on repeat.
Another place where you can get exposure for your playlist is on r/Spotify Playlists. Millions of people visit this subreddit to find a nice playlist to listen to. A good feature of this is that people can listen to the songs on the playlists of this subreddit without having to switch apps. This is why it is so popular.
Final Words
So, that’s how you can earn money on Spotify. Yes, it is not an exhaustive list but these are the primary ways. Just remember, Spotify is not a get rich quick scheme. It takes patience, efficient and effective hard work and the most important thing of all, the quality of the content be it the music or the playlist. We wish you all the best.