Starter Pack:
Music Streaming
Platform Models

Streaming is one of the music industry’s most critical and contentious topics. The format generates nearly $18 billion globally every year, and yet fails to yield a sustainable living for the vast majority of artists.

We hear consistently from artists and their teams that the basics of streaming payments are still broadly misunderstood. Often, analyses only concern per-stream pay rates, and overlook the underlying payment mechanisms and their consequences for artists' career strategies.

We hope to address those knowledge gaps by providing this high-level overview of the streaming business and its payment models, to help artists develop better strategic and tactical approaches for navigating this complex landscape.