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As we recently did with Deezer, we have now analyzed Pay Per Stream (PPS) again for Apple Music. The updated numbers are based on iGroove customer data from the last 6 months. In total, we analyzed 84 countries; we had to omit some states due to insufficient available data. The original data is available in Euro, we converted it to USD (1 Euro = 1.054 USD). 

If we had exactly the same number of streams from all countries examined, this would result in $5,461.88 per million streams. The PPS has thus dropped slightly compared to the last evaluation, when it was $5,992.65. If you only take into account the countries that were already evaluated last time, it is $5,278.87. Part of the difference can be explained by the change in the exchange rate. 

Iceland at the top

The clear frontrunner is Iceland, where you get almost $25,000 for a million streams. However, it must be taken into account that only very few streams from this small country were included in the evaluation, which means that falsifications are possible.

Otherwise, the top 10 includes many of the usual suspects, such as the Scandinavian countries Norway, Denmark and Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and Ireland. The various European countries are joined by Kuwait and Oman.

The winners

Significant increases in the PPS occurred primarily in African countries such as Botswana, Ghana, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda. The sharpest increase in PPS occurred in the Philippines, where it more than doubled. Countries such as Lebanon, Azerbaijan and Peru also saw strong growth.

The losers

The PPS fell most sharply in Armenia, Indonesia and Jordan. It also fell sharply in the major markets of India and Turkey.

English-speaking countries in comparison

PPS fell for all six English-speaking countries, least for the U.S. and Canada, which nevertheless remain at the bottom. While Ireland and the UK managed to stay in the top 10 despite quite a drop, the U.S. and Canada are not found in the top 30.

PPS significantly below 0.01

Finally, we wanted to know if Apple Music was paying out the announced $0.01 per stream. Since Apple includes Publishing Rights payouts in this, we factored those in as well. On average, this results in a PPS of $0.0070, which is far from the $0.01. In total, only 15 countries reach this one cent according to our evaluation.

The PPS of 84 countries in comparison

Below you can find the complete list with all 84 evaluated countries. For each country, you can see the PPS and the extrapolation of how much you get per million streams. In addition, you can see how high the amount for one million streams was in our last evaluation and how this has changed in percentage terms since then. The table can be sorted in any order.

Less than a year ago, we analyzed Deezer’s Pay Per Stream (PPS) for the first time. Now we have the updated numbers based on iGroove customer data from the last 6 months. In total we analyzed 93 countries, some states we had to leave out due to not enough available data. We have the original data in Euros, we converted it to USD (1 Euro = 1.054 USD). 

If we had exactly the same number of streams from all the countries analyzed, this would result in 3,787.74 USD per million streams. In the last evaluation, this value was still 4,776 USD, but at that time there were significantly fewer countries. Comparing only these 66 countries, the PPS has decreased slightly less and results in 4,309.45 USD extrapolated to one million streams. Part of the difference can be explained by the change in the exchange rate. 

Bulgaria remains front runner

In our first evaluation, we were extremely surprised to find that Bulgaria has by far the highest PPS. This is now confirmed by the latest figures, with the Eastern European country remaining at the top by far. As last time, three Arab countries – Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia – are in the top 10. As usual, Scandinavian countries, specifically Denmark and Norway, are at the top and the big climbers are Austria and the UK. Rather surprisingly, Belarus and Macedonia are both in the top 10.

The winners

Macedonia is then the biggest winner, with its PPS increasing by 300% compared to the first evaluation. Other Eastern European countries such as Slovenia, Croatia and Slovakia also made significant gains. Other winners are Israel, Italy, Belgium, Turkey and as already mentioned Austria and UK.

The losers

The biggest losers come mostly from South America, namely Ecuador, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia and Peru. Ivory Coast, Greece, Egypt and Hungary also went down.

English-speaking countries in comparison

In our last evaluation, the USA was still at the top of the list of English-speaking countries. Now, however, with the UK up 26% and the US down 24%, the UK now has the clear highest PPS. While Ireland has remained more or less stable, Australia and New Zealand’s numbers have dropped by around 30% and Canada has also lost 15%. Again, some of this can be explained by exchange rate fluctuations.

The PPS of 93 countries in comparison

Below you will find the complete list with all 93 evaluated countries. For each country you can see the PPS as well as the extrapolation of how much you get per million streams. In addition, you can see how high the amount for one million streams was in our last evaluation and how this has changed in percentage terms since then. The table can be sorted in any order.

Those of us who are interested in different sources of revenue for musicians are sure to have stumbled across the term “sync licensing.” But what’s behind the concept exactly? How do you secure a placement? And how do you make money from it? We’re here to shed some light on the matter.

In today’s day and age, musicians have to make use of many different sources of revenue. Most will nevertheless put their focus mainly on streaming services, social media, and perhaps some live shows. The fact that many are not entirely sure what sync licensing is, is precisely the reason why this income idea has often been overlooked. But with some luck, you can actually earn a significant amount of money from syncs.

The basics

Sync licensing (also known as “synchronization rights” or “sync rights”) refers to the licensing of music for various media such as TV, film, series, advertisements, or video games. A connection is essentially formed between a piece of music and visual media, which is known as synchronization. If someone wants to use your music for a film, for instance, they would need the permission of the rights owners, and pay a handsome sum for it, generally. In addition, the placement will widen the song’s and therefore also the artist’s reach.

Or, as our lawyer puts it in slightly more eloquent terms, “The right to couple music with visual media is a stand-alone economic good, which means the rights owner may demand compensation for the coupling process (synchronization) itself. Potential compensation sources therefore include all makers of audiovisual media, e.g., TV, film, series, advertisements, or video games.”

How big is the sync business?

Worldwide revenues from sync licensing currently amount to around 432 million USD per year. This is despite a 9.4% drop due to COVID. While the revenues from ads tend to decline due to advertisers having music specifically made for this purpose instead of licensing it, new opportunities have opened up in other areas of sync licensing. Some of these include fitness, wellness, and e-sports. Streaming providers such as Netflix or Amazon Prime have also shown an increased demand for music. Due to their international market, they are also seeking more and more music from different countries written in different languages. The demand for non-English music seems never to have been as big as now.

Who needs to be asked for permission?

Just like when you want to use a sample of a song, sync licensing, too, requires the permission of all rights owners, meaning the master owners as well as the publishing owners as well as any potential ancillary copyrights owners (especially when the original recording is used). Remember, the publishing rights are in the hands of the composers and lyricists of a song (or the song’s publisher). The master rights, on the other hand, are the rights to the recording and are either owned by the artists themselves or often by the record label. So, in order for a song to able to be used in a film, for instance, all rights owners must first give their permission.

If the song is a cover, then the artist is only in possession of the master rights. That means, in order for the song to be used, the songwriters and composers of the original song must agree to it, as well. That might sound complicated at first, but it is certainly worth a try, since covers are often licensed, especially when it is of a very famous song and the original would simply be too expensive to license.

The situation gets much more complicated, however, when your song contains samples which have not been cleared. Music supervisors pay very close attention to the ownership of the rights so that their clients will not be sued. Therefore, they are not likely to license a song containing uncleared samples. This is also the reason why most supervisors will only work with sync agents.

What does a sync agent do?

Of course, theoretically, it is possible to do the research yourself and find out who the music supervisors are that pick out the music for TV programs, series, or ads. But it will take enormous effort and making direct contact yields fairly slim chances of success. Sync licensing, just like many other areas in the music industry, is a people business, which is where sync agents and their contacts come into play. Sync agents, who can work independently for music publishers, record labels, or distributors, are the contact persons for music supervisors. When the music supervisors are looking for a song for a particular movie scene, for instance, the sync agents will propose different tracks that they think could fit. They will also proactively approach the supervisors and pitch songs from their repertoire. Last but not least, they will negotiate the price and take care of the administrative duties which are not to be underestimated. In exchange, they will, of course, receive a portion of the generated revenues.

Often, sync agents will ask for songs to be “pre-cleared” already. That pretty much means that you give them the right to negotiate deals in your name and that the permissions from all the rights owners are already at hand. This eases the negotiation process, and more importantly, makes it faster and less complicated. This is a factor that should not be underestimated, since today, things often need to get done quickly, and if there are too many issues that still need to be settled, the supervisor might decide to go with another song instead.

If you work with a sync agent, the cooperation doesn’t necessarily have to be exclusive. That means that you can deposit your song with multiple sync agents to increase your chances of getting a placement. But you should be careful, since different agents may offer the same song at different prices. And naturally, the supervisor will then choose the cheapest offer. Additionally, it can be exhausting for music supervisors to have the same song pitched to them multiple times.

Before you sign a contract with a sync agent, it is imperative that you verify them first with an expert (e.g., a music lawyer).

How much do you make from sync licensing?

In general, there are two ways to make money from sync-licensing your songs:

• An individual fee
• Revenues from a copyright collective

Individual fee

The individual, often one-time fee will in many cases be divided proportionately between the owners of the master and publishing rights. If you own all the rights, you will also get all the dough. You can also forego the one-time fee – for instance, if you allow a small film production without a real budget use your song. But even then, you should still receive compensation of equivalent value, such as sufficient exposure.

Copyright collectives

In some countries (for example Germany and Switzerland), producers of audiovisual media have the alternative option of acquiring the sync license directly from the copyright collectives. Examples include SUISA and GEMA, to which artists may hand over their sync rights for collecting purposes. So, as an artist, you need to decide whether you want to negotiate the individual fee yourself (or via a sync agent) or whether you want the copyright collective to handle the process. While the personal negotiation may yield higher monetary gain, licensing through a copyright collective could mean a higher chance of actually getting placed, precisely because of the lower licensing fee, especially when the client represents a smaller production. This decision is therefore very much a personal one. So, take a careful look at what your collection agreement says about sync licensing. Once you have handed over the rights to a copyright collective, in some cases, you may have no more influence over the precise use of your music. That means that a TV channel could use your song for a daily soap that you may not want your music to feature in.

Difference between sync licensing and use licensing

But even if your sync license isn’t handled by a copyright collective, it will still generate revenues. A sync license remunerates artists for the permission to create an audiovisual product in which their music is used. But on top of that, there is also the remuneration for the actual use (e.g., for TV, film, ads, games, etc.).

For example:

A film producer wants to add a specific song to the opening scene of their movie. To be able to do that (=creation), they need to pay a general license fee to the rights owners. This is the sync license.

If the film is picked up by cinemas, the operator must pay for another license to be able to show it (= actual usage). If the film is played on TV, the channels must equally acquire a license for the broadcast (= another actual usage), and so forth and so on.

That means that revenues can still flow via the copyright collectives when your song is broadcast on TV. This is comparable to the revenues generated when your song is aired on the radio, your music video is shown on TV, or your song is played in a bar or club. These revenues will be paid out accordingly by the copyright collective that you are registered with.

In some cases, everything is compensated with a one-time fee and the regular revenues through the copyright collective are dispensed with (however, this only applies if and as long as there is no relevant collection agreement made).

Let’s recap:

How much one effectively earns in a particular case can’t be predicted in exact numbers. In fact, it is always different for each placement and depends on numerous factors, such as:

• Which medium is used (usually, you will get more if your song is used in an ad than in a small film or a video game)
• Which territories the song is licensed for (worldwide or only specific countries)
• Whether the whole song is used or only a small part
• How long you grant the rights for (a specified timeframe or in perpetuity)
• Whether there are any limitations such as noncompetition clauses (for instance, if you hand a sync license to cellphone company A, you can’t then license the same song to cellphone company B)
• The music supervisor’s budget or their client’s
• The artist’s level of popularity
• The purpose for which the song is used – is it only played in the background or is it theme song of the film?
• The negotiation skills of your sync agent

So, it may very well be that the one-time fee only amounts to a few hundred Euros, but it is also not uncommon for Netflix, for instance, to pay a five-figure sum to a rather unknown artist. Ads and blockbuster movies may even spend six figures.

The sync market is known to be unpredictable. Sometimes, songs that you are confident in end up not getting used, while another track that you would never expect is chosen out of nowhere. So, you can’t really plan sync revenues into your budget, but when they do get paid out, you will definitely find yourself with some sweet extra income.

What else do I need to keep in mind?

• You should always keep track of who owns the master and publishing rights to your songs. Are the master rights yours or your label’s? Which songwriters were registered? If this still needs to be figured out, the deal might already be off the table.
• Find out whether your songs are registered with a copyright collective and in what scope it will assume and collect on your rights.
• Make sure that your songs don’t contain any samples that have not yet been cleared.
• Don’t just focus on your newest or most popular tracks. Music supervisors look for the most fitting songs, and these don’t necessarily have to be brand new or extremely well known. Sometimes, they want exactly the opposite. It is therefore best to make your whole catalog available to your sync agent.
• Make sure that you have instrumental versions or even individual audio tracks of your songs ready. Oftentimes, movies and ads will only use the instrumentals, because the lyrics might distract from the dialogue or simply don’t fit the content. Other times, the supervisor just wants the dreamy piano melody or the funky bassline. Having these ready at all times will definitely increase your chances.

Wider reach

Even though the revenues from sync licensing can be very lucrative, they are not the only benefit that come with placements. You know how it goes – you hear a song in a movie or even an ad and you immediately open Shazam afterwards. With the right placements, you have the opportunity to introduce your music to an entirely new audience through a different medium. Ideally, this can open new doors for you, as well. It is therefore only fitting to celebrate a successful placement on all your platforms and let everyone know about it.

After we’ve shown you recently how greatly the Pay Per Stream (PPS) at Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer can vary depending on the country, we will now compare the three streaming services directly. To sum up our findings briefly: Apple Music always pays more than Spotify. Deezer, too, always has a higher PPS than Spotify, except in Israel. And finally, with the exception of 8 countries, Apple always pays more than Deezer, as well.

Spotify vs. Apple Music

On average, Apple Music pays 2.63 times as much as Spotify. In our last assessment, it was 2.84 times as much. In most countries, we observe a factor ranging between 1.5 and 2.5. In various Balkan states and in Jordan, it can even be between 6.34 (Serbia) and 10.43 (Macedonia). In the English-speaking countries, the factor is always below average and ranges from 1.54 (USA) and 2.29 (Ireland).

Spotify vs. Deezer

These two services are easy to compare, since both have a premium subscription as well as a free subscription option. In most countries, Deezer’s PPS is at most twice as high as Spotify’s. In 16 countries, you even get more than double the amount per stream, primarily in Eastern European countries but also in the US. Aside from the US with its factor of 2.63, the other English-speaking countries are either average or slightly below average.

Apple Music vs. Deezer

As expected, you will receive more at Apple Music than at Deezer, since the former does without a free subscription option. However, it is only 38% more on average. In 8 of the countries we examined, you even get more per stream at Deezer than at Apple Music. In most countries, the difference is not too big. Only in Jordan, Italy, Macedonia, Bosnia, and Israel you’ll find a factor higher than 3. In the UK and Ireland, the factor is slightly above average, in Australia you would get approximately the same amount from either service, while for streams from the US and Canada, Deezer actually pays better than Apple Music.

For those who find these PPs numbers and factors to be too abstract, we present the concrete comparison between the English-speaking countries. For one million streams you would receive the following amount of money (in USD) in each country:

The next table shows you how many streams it takes from each country to get to USD 4,000:

The comparison clearly shows that it takes a much greater number of streams on Spotify to receive a good amount of money. But since Spotify has significantly more users than its two competitors, most musicians still receive their biggest share from Spotify.

Here find the complete assessment covering 45 countries:

After our recent assessment of Spotify’s and Apple Music’s numbers, we have now analyzed Deezer’s Pay Per Stream (PPS) for the first time. Here too, we aim to show you how much influence the origin of a stream can have on the payout. It is not much of a surprise that Deezer’s numbers, too, vary greatly from country to country.

Surprising frontrunner

We were rather taken aback to see which country showed the highest PPS: Bulgaria is on first place by quite a large margin – this despite the fact that it can only be found somewhere in the midrange at Spotify. We are already curious to see whether this will be reaffirmed in our next assessment or whether this is just a single outlier.

What also stands out is that a whopping three Arabic countries, Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, are among the top 10. The Ivory Coast, meanwhile, represents Africa in the top 15. Apart from these, you’ll find some of the usual suspects in the front rows, such as the US, Austria, and the Scandinavian countries. As is the case at Spotify, Turkey is again at the back of the list, as are various Asian, African, and Latin American states.

The English-speaking countries in comparison

In contrast to Spotify and Apple Music, Deezer sees the US rank first among the English-speaking countries. While Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK are pretty much neck and neck, Canada, as we’ve also seen before, brings up the rear.

PPS twice as high as Spotify’s

Assuming you had the same number of streams in each of the 66 countries we assessed, you would receive $4,776 per one million streams. Even though Deezer offers add-supported subscriptions, as well, their PPS is about twice as high as Spotify’s and only around 25% lower than Apple Music’s. We will compare these three streaming services in more detail in an upcoming post.

Deezer wants user-centric model

In a recently released video, Deezer’s CEO emphasizes once again that his company absolutely wants to make a switch to the user-centric distribution model. However, he also points out that this will not be possible without the labels, distributors, artists, and fans. He is therefore asking for people’s support for this model that Deezer views to be fairer and more transparent. It will definitely be interesting to see what impact a system change would have on the PPS.

The PPS of 66 countries in comparison

Here you can find the complete list with all 66 evaluated countries. For each country you can see the Pay Per Stream (PPS) as well as the extrapolation of how much you get for one million streams from the respective country.

Just as we did recently with Spotify, we have now given our Apple Music assessment from last year an update, too. The reasons are the same as the ones for Spotify: One, the Pay per Stream (PPS) is always fluctuating, and two, there were some more countries to add here, as well.

The assessment can help you to determine which countries you could step up your marketing game in but also to better understand how Apple Music pays you as an artist.

PPS below the announced $0.01

Apple Music has recently mentioned in an announcement that their PPS is at $0.01. However, this number only takes standard subscriptions into account, and not any of the cheaper ones, e.g., family subscriptions. They also add up the payouts for the master and publishing rights, while our assessment is solely focused on the payout for the copyright owners, which will then be forwarded to the artists via the distributor.

Even though Apple Music clearly pays more per stream than the majority of their competitors, they are still pretty far away from those $0.01.

On average across all countries, Apple Music pays $0.00599265 per stream. As mentioned above, this number only accounts for the master rights, which make up 52% of the generated revenues. If we add the 14.7% that are paid out for the publishing rights, we would thus get $0,0077.

Based on our calculations, it is only the top 23 countries that, when combining master and publishing rights, receive $0.01 or more per stream. For the US, Canada, Germany, or France, for instance, this is not the case.

PPS decreased in majority

Generally speaking, our new assessment has shown that the PPS in most countries has decreased since our last assessment. In many states this difference is only minimal, but in others it is in the double digits. The countries suffering the biggest losses are, among others, Japan, Portugal, Indonesia, the US, Hong Kong, China, Chile, and, as it was the case with Spotify, Turkey.

The average payout across all countries has decreased, as well. In our last assessment, we calculated $6,872 for one million streams. Now, however, if you had the same number of streams in all the countries we examined, you would get only $5,992.65. The reasons for this are, on the one hand, as we already mentioned, the decreasing PPS in many countries, but on the other also the fact that we included 30 additional countries in our assessment this year.

Northern European countries on top

The decidedly biggest payout can be observed in Norway. The other Scandinavian countries, too, are among the top 10 along with the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK and Switzerland. While a majority of Central European countries can be found at the top also, the other end of the list is made up of African, Asian, and Eastern European countries, as well as a few Latin American countries. The US and notably Canada only fall into the midrange.

The English-speaking countries in comparison

If we only compare the English-speaking countries, we can see that the differences here are even more massive than at Spotify. In Ireland and the UK, you get about twice as much per stream than you do in the US and Canada, while New Zealand and Australia are sitting somewhere in between.

The PPS of 81 countries in comparison

Here you can find the complete list with the 81 evaluated countries. For each country you can see the Pay Per Stream (PPS) as well as the extrapolation of how much you get for one million streams from the respective country. In addition, you can see how high the number for one million streams was in our last evaluation and how high the percentual change is.