I have received the Q3 results of  the Spotify sales. In this period Spotify landed in the US, how did this affect the payment per stream?.

As far as I have been able to figure out Spotify recalculates the payment per stream for each month based upon the revenue and the total number of streams. When users streams more while Spotify makes the same revenue, the pay out per stream drops. An interesting article on this subject was published by MusicThankTank some time ago.

Because of the US launch there must have been more streams in Q3, so I predicted a drop in the pay out per stream. Spotify probably did well, because the payment per stream grew to 0.47 Euro cent (about $ 0.0063).

Here is a snapshot of the statement showing the pay out per stream in September.

For the release of the album by Little Things That Kill I have picked Zimbalam.com. If you use CDBaby, your statement will probably show completely different amounts. Don’t ask me how the Spotify payments to CDBaby work, so far no one has been able to explain them to me. On the other hand if you add them up and divide them by the number of streams the outcome will be about  0.47 Euro cent as well.

Just to make things clear. This is no way an attempt to promote Little Things That Kill with the purpose of filling my or their pockets. All the money goes to Stop the Traffik, an organization fighting  human trafficking and modern slavery.

March 2012 I will receive the Q4 results. That will tell us if and how the Facebook integration affects the payments. Stay tuned