Qobuz reveals average payout per stream – and claims it is higher than rivals

Qobuz has claimed its average payment per stream is higher than rival streaming platforms.

It also claims it's the first streaming platform to have its average per-stream payment independently examined. We asked by whom, and received this response: "The distribution rates have been validated by a leading international audit firm. However, in accordance with their confidentiality policy, we cannot disclose its identity."

Qobuz pays a princely $0.01873 (£0.014 / AU$0.030) per stream. It claims this is "significantly higher than reported industry norms."

These payments are to labels and publishers (i.e. the rights holders), who then distribute payment to the artists according to their contracts. So you can bet the actual musicians are getting a fraction of that.

For 1000 streams, Qobuz pays $18.73 (£14.45 / AU$29.78) to the rights holders.

It says its average revenue per user is $121.13 (£93.46 / AU$192.58) per year. It claims this is five times the market average of $22.38 (£17.26 / AU$35.58) per year.

Without directly comparable figures from its rivals, it's hard to compare it to other streaming services.

Niche classic and jazz streaming service Presto Music claims to pay rights holders more than both Qobuz and Spotify. Its figures vary from about 40p to £1 per album listen, while it says Qobuz's equivalent payments are 27p and 64p, and Spotify's are 6p and 14p, respectively.

But because Presto Music calculates its figures on a per-second basis, the amounts will vary wildly. Presto Music claims it pays up to 10 times more per album listen than its rivals.

Last week Spotify – the world's biggest music streaming service – released its annual report on its royalties. It claims that in 2024, over 1500 artists earned over $1m on Spotify alone, but didn't say how much it pays rights holders per stream.

Estimates vary between $0.003 and $0.005.

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