Amazon Music royalties calculator: pay per stream in 2026

What Amazon Music pays per stream in 2026

Amazon has several tiers (Unlimited, Prime, free) and the sources do not split the figure by tier, so this is a blended average that depends on which tier your listeners use. The table shows what that range means for common totals and three typical distributor cuts.

Rate: $0.0052 to $0.0088 per stream ($5.16 to $8.80 per 1,000), sources 1 2. Distributor cuts: 0% is DistroKid's subscription model 1, 9% is CD Baby 1, 15% is RouteNote Free 1 and AWAL 1. All checked 15 October 2026. If you are signed to a label, multiply the last columns by your royalty rate.

How Amazon Music pays

Amazon pays from a pool like the others, but it runs several tiers at once: Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music for Prime members, and a free ad-supported tier. Duetti's 2024 data put independent master owners at $8.8 per 1,000 on Amazon, the highest of the services that report quotes (Duetti), while a distributor calculator gives $5.16 to $6.30 per 1,000 (LANDR).

Why it is a range, not one number

No source measures every Amazon Music payment, and each one covers different countries, years and plans. Here is what each says, word for word. The low end of our range is the lowest credible recent figure and the high end the highest.

Unlimited, Prime and free listening

Unlimited is the full paid service; Prime Music comes with a Prime membership and the free tier runs on ads. Neither source we use publishes a separate figure per tier: Duetti's $8.8 per 1,000 (Duetti) and LANDR's $5.16 to $6.30 (LANDR) are both blends. If many of your listeners come through Prime or the free tier, plan with the lower half of the range.

Worked examples

• 1 million streams on Amazon Music pays about $5,160 to $8,800 to the rights holder. After a 15% distributor cut you keep $4,386 to $7,480.
• 100,000 streams pays about $516 to $880; 10,000 pays about $52 to $88.
• $1,000 takes about 114,000 to 194,000 streams with a 0% cut.
• Rent of $1,500 a month takes about 170,000 to 291,000 streams every month, before tax.
• A 50/50 split with a producer on 1 million streams: each of you gets about $2,580 to $4,400. Add collaborators in the calculator to see each person's share.

What these figures leave out

Every number here is the recording (master) side: what the platform pays the account that owns the recording, usually your distributor account. Songwriting money is separate. Mechanical and performance royalties for the composition go to the publisher, collection society or PRO, and US radio-style plays also earn SoundExchange money. None of that is in these figures, so a songwriter who owns their masters earns more than the table shows.