Not the musicians I speak to. And if you research how artists are paid, they both use the pro-rata system, which is somewhat shady in itself. They pay people the exact same way, but Apple technically pays more per stream. Apple has also looked at going away from the pro-rata style of payment and actually paying people for the amount of times they’ve had their music streamed, and not as a ratio of all music streamed. Spotify has simply said No to that.

What hurts Apple is the stigma regarding their brand. Conversely, Spotify has a much better “feel or vibe” amongst most people. So it feels like it should be a better deal. And people make the assumption that Apple is this big faceless company so there is no way they pay people more.

However, the simple truth is that Apple pays a higher per stream rate, and also allows people to purchase tracks to actually download and keep, an additional source of revenue for artists. Something that Spotify does not allow you to do. Spotify also has their free option. So payment to artists can vary because it is dependant on how many people actually pay and subscribe to the service. Apple is a paid service, guaranteed income. So that is what you are going to get.

In an article written yesterday. Spotify pays at $0.00437 per stream = 1000 streams pays $4.35 Apple pays at $0.00735 per stream = 1000 streams pays $7.35 Amazon pays $0.00402 per stream = 1000 streams pays $4.02 YouTube music pays $0.00069 = 1000 streams pays $0.69

That said, each one of them is considered “up to” that amount because it’s all in a pro-rata style.

Just because Spotify feels like it’s not a “big company”, doesn’t mean they are the best thing out there for musicians.