New figures reveal amount of streams it takes for artists to earn minimum wage #BuyIrishMusic

Data collated by The Trichordist shows how many streams it takes for an artist to earn minimum wage on each of the major streaming platforms.

As part of his #BrokenRecord campaign, PRS director Tom Gray shared a chart of the data on his Twitter feed Saturday. The chart details the average payout per song stream, number of streams it takes to earn £1, and finally, how many streams the artist would need to earn one hour's UK minimum wage across Amazon, Tidal, Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora and YouTube.

Gray noted that these figures only work out "if you own all the rights" to the music.

Last month, musicians called on Spotify to triple their royalty payments to cushion the loss of earnings caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Musician Evan Greer started a petition to ask Spotify to boost its royalty rates for artists permanently, as well as donate $500, 000 to music charity Sweet Relief. Days later, the platform announced that it would team up with charities MusiCares and Help Musicians to make a significant donation to each. A COVID-19 Music Relief fundraiser was also put in place, with Spotify matching donations up to a total of $10 million (€92m).

If you are looking for more information on the record industry and streaming services, I highly recommend a subscription to Penny Fractions, David Turner's music business newsletter.

Terrifying. The most up-to-date streaming rates adapted for £ and for UK minimum wage. Data from the excellent
@thetrichordist. #BrokenRecord pic.twitter.com/XOoZ3IGisT

— Tom Gray (@MrTomGray) April 18, 2020