{
  "_meta": {
    "title": "Published per-stream rates: a disagreement audit",
    "version": "1",
    "publisher": "RapCanon",
    "license": "CC-BY-4.0",
    "attribution": "Data by RapCanon (rapcanon.com). Free to reuse, including commercially, with attribution and a link back.",
    "collected": "2026-08-12",
    "method": "Published per-stream figures were collected from sources returned for platform-payout queries. We are NOT publishing a rate. We are recording what different publishers state the rate is, so the spread between them can be measured. Where a source gives a range, both bounds are recorded.",
    "what_this_measures": "Disagreement between published figures, expressed as the ratio of the highest published upper bound to the lowest published lower bound for the same platform.",
    "limits": [
      "These are PUBLISHED CLAIMS, not measurements. We did not audit any royalty statement and we hold no payout data of our own.",
      "Sources may be measuring different things: gross versus net of distribution, one territory versus global, one subscription tier versus blended.",
      "Collected on a single day. Published figures are revised frequently and often silently.",
      "A wide spread does not prove any source is wrong. It proves the question is underspecified, which is the finding.",
      "No per-platform sample of actual statements was used, because we have none and will not estimate one."
    ],
    "variables_measured": ["platform", "published_low", "published_high", "source", "source_sells"]
  },

  "structural_facts": [
    { "fact": "Streaming payouts on the major services use a pro-rata pool: total subscription and ad revenue for a period is divided by each rights holder's share of total streams.", "implication": "A 'per-stream rate' is an OUTPUT of that division, not an input to it. It cannot be quoted in advance because it does not exist until the period closes." },
    { "fact": "A premium subscriber stream is worth roughly 2.5 to 3 times an ad-supported stream.", "implication": "The same song earns different amounts depending on who played it, so a blended average conceals more than it reveals." },
    { "fact": "Tidal and Apple Music have no free tier, so every stream comes from a paying subscriber.", "implication": "Their higher published rates are largely a composition effect, not evidence of a more generous deal." },
    { "fact": "Since 1 April 2024 Spotify tracks must reach 1,000 streams in the preceding 12 months to be eligible for royalties.", "implication": "For a track below that threshold the effective per-stream rate is exactly zero, regardless of any published figure." }
  ],

  "published_rates": [
    { "platform": "Spotify", "low": 0.003, "high": 0.005, "source": "Chartlex", "source_sells": "unclear" },
    { "platform": "Spotify", "low": 0.003, "high": 0.005, "source": "platform comparison roundups", "source_sells": "varies" },
    { "platform": "Spotify", "low": 0.004, "high": 0.004, "source": "commonly cited independent-artist average", "source_sells": "n/a" },
    { "platform": "Apple Music", "low": 0.006, "high": 0.007, "source": "comparison roundup A", "source_sells": "varies" },
    { "platform": "Apple Music", "low": 0.007, "high": 0.01, "source": "comparison roundup B", "source_sells": "varies" },
    { "platform": "Tidal", "low": 0.012, "high": 0.015, "source": "comparison roundup A", "source_sells": "varies" },
    { "platform": "Tidal", "low": 0.008, "high": 0.015, "source": "comparison roundup B", "source_sells": "varies" },
    { "platform": "Amazon Music", "low": 0.004, "high": 0.005, "source": "comparison roundup A", "source_sells": "varies" },
    { "platform": "Amazon Music", "low": 0.004, "high": 0.006, "source": "comparison roundup B", "source_sells": "varies" },
    { "platform": "YouTube", "low": 0.0007, "high": 0.0007, "source": "comparison roundup A", "source_sells": "varies" },
    { "platform": "YouTube Music", "low": 0.003, "high": 0.015, "source": "comparison roundup B", "source_sells": "varies" }
  ],

  "disagreement": [
    { "platform": "YouTube", "lowest_published_low": 0.0007, "highest_published_high": 0.015, "spread_ratio": 21.4, "note": "The widest disagreement in the set. Two published answers to the same question differ by more than twenty times. Part of this is YouTube versus YouTube Music being treated as one thing." },
    { "platform": "Apple Music", "lowest_published_low": 0.006, "highest_published_high": 0.01, "spread_ratio": 1.67 },
    { "platform": "Tidal", "lowest_published_low": 0.008, "highest_published_high": 0.015, "spread_ratio": 1.88 },
    { "platform": "Spotify", "lowest_published_low": 0.003, "highest_published_high": 0.005, "spread_ratio": 1.67 },
    { "platform": "Amazon Music", "lowest_published_low": 0.004, "highest_published_high": 0.006, "spread_ratio": 1.5 }
  ],

  "context_figures": [
    { "figure": "$11bn+", "what": "Royalties Spotify reported paying rights holders in 2025", "source": "Spotify Loud & Clear 2026" },
    { "figure": "13,800", "what": "Artists generating at least $100,000 a year from Spotify alone in 2025", "source": "Spotify Loud & Clear 2026" },
    { "figure": "1,500+", "what": "Artists generating over $1 million from Spotify alone in 2025", "source": "Spotify Loud & Clear 2026" },
    { "figure": "~86%", "what": "Share of tracks reported as affected by the 1,000-stream eligibility threshold", "source": "press reporting on the April 2024 policy" },
    { "figure": "99.5%", "what": "Share of streams Spotify states are on tracks above the 1,000-stream threshold", "source": "Spotify, in defence of the policy" }
  ],

  "findings": [
    "Published per-stream figures for the same platform disagree by up to 21x, with YouTube the widest case.",
    "The disagreement is not primarily dishonesty. It is that the question is underspecified: gross or net, which tier, which territory, which period.",
    "Because payouts are pool-divided, a per-stream rate is an output of a division rather than a published price, so no figure can be correct in advance.",
    "For any track below the 1,000-stream annual threshold on Spotify, every published rate is wrong by the same amount: the real figure is zero.",
    "The useful question is not 'what does a stream pay' but 'what determines my share of the pool', which is answerable and rarely answered."
  ]
}