Apple has confirmed that it pays artists one penny per stream, double that of Spotify.
The company wrote to artists to confirm the amount, adding that 52% of all revenue from its subscription service goes direct to record labels and artists.
The letter was published in the Apple Music for Artists app, where the company revealed it wanted to detail how payments worked and be more transparent about its revenue.
The announcement comes at the same time as the company faces pressure from many bodies, including the UK Government, on paying artists fairly for their work.
“As the discussion about streaming royalties continues, we believe it is important to share our values,” Apple said in its note. “
We believe in paying every creator the same rate, that a play has a value, and that creators should never have to pay [for music being promoted].”
Whereas Apple has been open and transparent with creators about its revenue model, Spotify takes a slightly different approach, as the company offers both a free and premium subscription tier.
According to data from The Wall Street Journal, Spotify pays the same rate as Apple sometimes, and sometimes even more, at percentages of around 50% and 53%.
However, when you average out Spotify’s payments, the company typically pays half of what Apple does per stream, so around $0.001 per stream on average. Overall, the company pays more in artist revenue than Apple, as it has a much larger user base than Apple.
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