How many streams do you need to get to make $12.45 on Spotify?

That depends. Did you get at least 1,000 streams (the minimum for any payout on Spotify)? Did your fans stream on a free account or a paid account? Where are your fans located? Which service did you use (or what label are you on) to deliver to Spotify – different companies have different agreements with Spotify.

All these factors boil down to an average of $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, so…

Calculating… 🤖

2,490-4,150 streams, on average, depending also on any rev shares you have with digital aggregators, labels, bandmates, etc.. As car ads say, mileage may vary.

Now, do you have at least 1 family member, friend, or fan that loves your music and wants to support you as a musician? Selling that person a single $15 retail CD nets you $12.45 after manufacturing costs – the same as 2,500+ streams.

I’ll bet you have more than 1 family member, friend, or fan that loves your music. 5? 15? 20? Do you also gig around town or tour?

You get where I’m going with this. A digital only release strategy just isn’t enough. You need to press and sell physical albums, too. It’s not just about making money (though that’s much better with physical); it’s about fan engagement. Fans love physical albums. They get to share the artist’s vision as originally intended – artwork, lyrics, liner notes, and uncompressed music.

Physical isn’t a fad. As noted in Music Week, Key Production and Vinyl Alliance polled vinyl fans worldwide and found that “The proportion of people listening to physical music (vinyl, cassette and CDs) is greatest amongst those aged 18 to 24…” The younger generations, in particular, are latching on to physical albums across all formats.

So where to start?

First, acknowledge that digital only isn’t enough. You spent some serious time, tears, energy, and cash writing, performing, recording, and mastering your music. Getting paid $.003 for every listen just isn’t going to cut it. You and your music are worth more than that.

Second, plan physical albums into your marketing and fan engagement budget. How much do you need? If you’re pressing physical for the first time, I suggest a humble 100 CDs. Disc Makers did a nice job in a recent blog costing that out. Press 100 CDs: manufacturing costs, around $255.

Third, get help. Well, I mean get help storing, listing, selling, and fulfilling your physical albums to fans. Spinney Media is the best and most affordable option for that, and we save you time and energy to write more music, book some gigs, work your day job, whatever you need. Keep 90 CDs for your gigs; send us 10 CDs.   Restock us when you need or want to.  Budget $20 for a full year of Spinney (or $15 with the Disc Makers discount code: dmdisc25).

So for under $300, you can press 100 CDs, get help from Spinney doing all the storage, listing, and order fulfillment work and make some real money while engaging your fans.

Is it worth it?

Sell to those 10 friends, family, and fans at $15 each CD: $150 earned back (half your total physical album budget) + engaged fans that are more likely to show up at your gigs and tell their friends about you.

Sell to those 10 + 10 people they refer you to (all of whom can buy on Spinney Media’s Marketplace 24/7): $300 earned back. You’ve now earned back everything you spent on this pressing and engaged 20 super fans who will spread the word.

Gig? Sell at your merch table? Sell 24/7 to fans online through Spinney Media?  Sell all 100 initial CDs pressed? You’ve made $1,255+ in profit. How many Spotify streams would that take? 251,000 – 418,333 streams to make the same as selling 100 CDs.

You deserve to make money from your music (and delight those super fans). Make sure physical albums are part of your release strategy. And Spinney is here to help.