Introduction

The music industry has been in constant flux since the internet’s creation. Back in 1999, when Napster was first released, for the first time in history, music was somewhat accessible to people. Before this, the primary way people listened to music was through the radio, where, while they could choose stations and listen to specific genres of music, they could never really select exactly what they wanted to listen to. To do that, they had to buy the albums themselves. This meant two key things:

• Smaller artists couldn’t get their music out to the masses effectively without signing with a major label, and even then, it was super challenging to get a record deal.
• The diversity of music was somewhat limited. People could only effectively create music that appealed to a large enough demographic, which meant that more niche genres and styles were limited.

When Napster came out, it made music more accessible to people, and at the time, The music industry saw this as a threat, so they sued, and Napster was eventually shutdown in 2001.

In the years since, the music industry has experienced a lot of change due to the modern technological advancements that have been made. The iPod was a huge game-changer; it allowed people to listen to many songs at no additional cost. This later evolved into the iTunes and Apple Music platforms, which, along with Spotify, have become the main way people listen to music.

Within the last month, Spotify enabled free listeners to select and listen to any song they wanted. After 30 years of innovation, you can listen to any song you want for free without any video streaming.

During these years of change and innovation, the music industry has also had to evolve with technology.

The Current Music Industry

A great way to analyze the music industry is to look at 3 of my favorite songs:

The Difference

This song was a single released in 2020. It was released on the Australian independent label, Future Classic. Future Classis is an independent, privately owned label founded by Nathan McLay. It is not owned by a major label. According to The Music Australia to in 2023, they made a statement that they “will remain a wholly independent owned and operated company,” but would utilize the infrastructure of Virgin Music Australia and New Zealand to more effectively promote their artists.

How much did they make on this single?

Let’s start by trying to break down the per-stream baseline earnings for this single. This is often referred to as the “DSP per-stream baseline” (I call it P_dsp in the code). P_dsp is the gross amount a streaming service allocates to a single play before any label/publisher contract splits or recoupment. I split P_dsp into two pots, master_payout and publishing_payout using master_fraction_of_rights_pot and pub_fraction_of_rights_pot. I then apply an artist’s master royalty (artist_master_share) to the master_payout (giving performer_combined) and account for a publisher’s cut (publisher_take) on the publishing_payout (giving author_combined). Adding those two gives total_combined, the combined dollars per stream attributable to the credited artists/writers, and dividing by num_artists yields a per-artist estimate. Swap the P_dsp value and the contract percentages to model other platforms or deals; the script prints both per-stream and per‑1,000,000‑stream figures for easy comparison.

Now since this process actually seems to be quite repeatable, I made a python script where I can do that for any song once I do a bit of research on the artists and their labels.

{...}
"""Variables used:- P_dsp: DSP per-stream baseline (gross amount platform allocates per stream)- master_fraction_of_rights_pot: fraction of P_dsp allocated to masters- pub_fraction_of_rights_pot: fraction of P_dsp allocated to publishing- master_payout: dollars/stream that flow to masters (label side)- publishing_payout: dollars/stream that flow to publishing (writers/publishers)- performer_combined: artists' combined share from the master_payout- author_combined: writers' combined share from the publishing_payout- total_combined: performer_combined + author_combined (collective amount  attributable to the credited artists/writers per stream)"""from typing import Dict
def compute_stream_payout(    P_dsp: float,    artist_master_share: float = 0.40,    publisher_take: float = 0.0,    num_artists: int = 2,    num_authors: int = 1,    master_fraction_of_rights_pot: float = 0.8214286,    pub_fraction_of_rights_pot: float = 0.1785714,) -> Dict[str, float]:    """    Compute per-stream payouts and return a dict with the named variables.    - artist_master_share: fraction of the master pot that artists receive      (e.g., 0.15 conservative, 0.40 typical indie).    - publisher_take: fraction of the publishing pot that the publisher keeps      (e.g., 0.5 means publisher takes 50% and writers keep 50%).    - num_artists / num_authors: used to produce per-artist / per-author splits.    """    # Split the DSP baseline into master and publishing pots    master_payout = P_dsp * master_fraction_of_rights_pot    publishing_payout = P_dsp * pub_fraction_of_rights_pot    # Apply contract splits    performer_combined = master_payout * artist_master_share    author_combined = publishing_payout * (1.0 - publisher_take)    # Combined amount attributable to artists/writers (before other deductions)    total_combined = performer_combined + author_combined    # Per-person splits (guard against zero)    per_artist = total_combined / float(num_artists) if num_artists else 0.0    per_author = author_combined / float(num_authors) if num_authors else 0.0    return {        "P_dsp": P_dsp,        "master_fraction_of_rights_pot": master_fraction_of_rights_pot,        "pub_fraction_of_rights_pot": pub_fraction_of_rights_pot,        "master_payout": master_payout,        "publishing_payout": publishing_payout,        "performer_combined": performer_combined,        "author_combined": author_combined,        "total_combined": total_combined,        "num_artists": num_artists,        "num_authors": num_authors,        "per_artist": per_artist,        "per_author": per_author,        "per_1m_total": total_combined * 1_000_000,        "per_1m_per_artist": per_artist * 1_000_000,        "per_1m_per_author": per_author * 1_000_000,    }
{...}
if __name__ == "__main__":    # DSP baselines    dsp_rates = {        "Spotify": 0.004,        "Apple Music": 0.010,        "YouTube": 0.0007,    }    # Two common scenarios    #  - conservative: artist gets 15% of master, publisher takes 50% of pub    #  - typical indie: artist gets 40% of master, writers keep full publishing    scenarios = {        "Typical indie (artist_master_share=0.40, publisher_take=0.0)": {            "artist_master_share": 0.40,            "publisher_take": 0.0,        },        "Conservative (artist_master_share=0.15, publisher_take=0.50)": {            "artist_master_share": 0.15,            "publisher_take": 0.50,        },    }    for dsp_name, rate in dsp_rates.items():        print(f"=== {dsp_name}    P_dsp = ${rate:.6f} per stream ===\n")        for scen_name, params in scenarios.items():            res = compute_stream_payout(                P_dsp=rate,                artist_master_share=params["artist_master_share"],                publisher_take=params["publisher_take"],                num_artists=2,  # e.g., Flume & Toro y Moi                num_authors=1,  # adjust if there are multiple songwriters            )

What does actually mean?

When you take these numbers and account for the number of streams, all the artists combined made just under $1,000,000 from music streams. This is with a very rough estimate for apple music since their data is hard to get.

Fine Whine

This song appears on A$AP Rocky’s 2015 album AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP (released May 26, 2015). “Fine Whine” (feat. Joe Fox, Future & M.I.A.) is credited to A$AP Worldwide / Polo Grounds Music / RCA Records — A$AP Worldwide is Rocky’s artist imprint, while Polo Grounds and RCA handled the commercial release/distribution (RCA is a major‑label imprint within Sony Music Entertainment). See the album credits on Wikipedia, the Discogs release page, and the official release metadata on YouTube which lists “A$AP Worldwide / Polo Grounds Music / RCA Records” in the track credits.

What does the money look like?

Notes / assumptions (used to produce the table)

• master_fraction_of_rights_pot = 0.8214286; pub_fraction_of_rights_pot = 0.1785714 (illustrative split of the rights pot).
• platform keeps ≈ 30% of gross (rights pot ≈ 70% → gross_per_stream = P_dsp / 0.70).
• Conservative major‑label scenario used here: artist_master_share = 0.15; publisher_take = 0.50; distributor example fee = 15% of the artist’s receipts.
• Numbers rounded for display.

Now I cannot actually make a reasonable estimate for the total amount of money earned from this song since the album sales as well as radio and talk show revenue are not very quantifiable and easily net over $1,000,000 since this album was a massive hit.

Perfect Places

This song appears on Lorde’s 2017 album Melodrama (released June 16, 2017). “Perfect Places” (released June 1, 2017) is credited to Universal Music New Zealand. Melodrama was released through Lava / Republic and distributed by Universal Music Group. See the single/album credits on Wikipedia and Melodrama (album), Spotify streaming history on Kworb, and the official upload/metadata on YouTube (which lists ”℗ 2017 Universal Music New Zealand Limited”).

What does the money look like?

Notes / assumptions (used to produce the table)

• master_fraction_of_rights_pot = 0.8214286; pub_fraction_of_rights_pot = 0.1785714.
• platform keeps ≈ 30% of gross (rights pot ≈ 70% → gross_per_stream = P_dsp / 0.70).
• Conservative major‑label scenario: artist_master_share = 0.15; publisher_take = 0.50; distributor example fee = 15% of the artist’s receipts.
• Numbers rounded for display.

Conclusion

Digital media has been transformational, greatly expanding who can create and distribute music and amplifying global reach, while also creating persistent economic stress for most creators by shifting value toward platforms and a small set of superstars. Cheap production tools and streaming/social distribution democratized music‑making and multiplied niche scenes. However, the move from ownership to access (subscription/ad‑supported streaming) produced low per‑stream payouts and a winner‑takes‑most market that favors hits and established rights‑holders. Algorithmic gatekeepers, playlists, and short‑form social trends now shape discovery and artistic strategy, encouraging hook‑forward, highly promotable formats. At the same time, richer audience data, direct‑to‑fan tools, and new revenue paths (merch, sync, memberships) empower artists who can use them. However, leveraging those opportunities requires business skills and rarely fully replaces lost recorded‑music income. Artists should diversify revenue, prioritize owning publishing/masters where feasible, and cultivate direct fan relationships. At the same time, the industry should pursue fairer payouts, transparent data, and better artist education to make the digital era more sustainable.