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Deezer royalty calculator

See what your Deezer streams are worth, or how many it takes to reach the payout you're after.

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How much does Deezer pay per stream?

Deezer pays roughly $0.004 – $0.0064 per stream, so 1,000 streams earn you somewhere between $4 and $6.40. That's the range artists' royalty statements show, and it's what the calculator above uses.

StreamsEstimated earnings
1,000$4 – $6.40
10,000$40 – $64
100,000$400 – $640
1,000,000$4,000 – $6,400
10,000,000$40,000 – $64,000

Where your listeners are matters most. A stream from a paying subscriber in France or the US pays several times what a free, ad-supported stream from a lower-revenue country does, so two artists with the same stream count can see very different payouts.

How Deezer royalties work

Each month Deezer works out your music's share of all streams and pays that share of its revenue to whoever controls your recording, usually your distributor or label. They pay you under your contract with them.

Deezer weights some streams more than others. Once you pass 1,000 streams a month from at least 500 unique listeners, your streams count double. Streams a fan chose on purpose, like a search for your name, count double too, and the two add up. A fan who searches for you and plays your track counts four times as much as a stream from a smaller artist the app picked.

Deezer's biggest market is France, so it's worth a look in your stats if your listeners are there.

Deezer vs other platforms

Per-stream rates are estimates that move around from month to month. Here is roughly where Deezer sits next to the other big platforms.

PlatformPer stream100,000 streams
TIDAL$0.0125$1,250
Apple Music$0.007 – $0.01$700 – $1,000
Deezer$0.004 – $0.0064$400 – $640
Amazon Music$0.004 – $0.005$400 – $500
Spotify$0.003 – $0.005$300 – $500
SoundCloud$0.0025 – $0.004$250 – $400
YouTube Music$0.0007 – $0.001$70 – $100

Deezer pays a little more per stream than Spotify, but Spotify has far more listeners, so for most independent artists it brings in the most money in total. Landing on the right Spotify playlist can bring you more listeners in a week than months of posting on your own.

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Deezer royalty calculator: estimate your streaming earnings

How much money can you earn from Deezer streams? Whether you're an independent artist releasing your first track, a producer managing several releases, or a label evaluating streaming revenue, understanding Deezer royalties is part of planning your music finances.

The Deezer royalty calculator estimates what different streaming volumes earn. Enter a number of streams to see an approximate revenue figure, or work backward from an earnings target to see how many plays it takes.

Deezer revenue takes more than multiplying streams by a fixed rate. Deezer's Artist-Centric Payment System gives extra weight to artists with real audiences and to listening that fans choose on purpose, and it limits the money that fraudulent streams and non-music content can take. Two artists with exactly the same Deezer stream count can be paid different amounts. This guide explains how the calculator works, how the artist-centric model works, and what decides your actual payments.

How to use the Deezer earnings calculator

The free Deezer earnings calculator uses a range of $0.004 – $0.0064 per stream, the range artists' royalty statements consistently show. Deezer doesn't publish an official rate.

Calculate royalties from your streams

Enter the number of Deezer streams you want to evaluate. 100,000 streams, for example, come to about $400 – $640.

Estimated royalties = Streams × Average royalty per stream

Calculate the streams you need for a target

The Deezer payout calculator also works in reverse. Earning $1,000 takes about 156,000 streams at $0.0064 per stream, and 250,000 at $0.004.

Required streams = Target earnings ÷ Average royalty per stream

What the calculator leaves out

The result is a simplified estimate. It can't tell whether you qualify for artist-centric weighting, which of your streams count as active, or how revenue is split in each country. It also doesn't deduct distributor commissions, label shares, publishing splits, collaborator shares, or taxes. Your statements confirm what you earned.

How much does Deezer pay per stream?

There's no fixed amount for every artist and every play. Deezer shares out royalties according to its revenue, licensing agreements, and artist-centric rules, so any average you find online is an estimate. In practice, $0.004 – $0.0064 per stream, or $4 – $6.40 per 1,000 streams, covers what most artists see.

Why there is no universal rate

Subscription revenue, country, licensing agreements, and eligible listening all shape the value of a stream. On Deezer, qualifying artists and intentional listening also carry extra weight, and fraudulent streams are left out entirely. Identical stream counts don't produce identical payments.

Why your statement may differ from the calculator

If your distributor reports a different average, neither number is necessarily wrong. The reporting period, countries, revenue sources, artist-centric weighting, and your contract all play a part. Compare like with like before drawing conclusions.

What is Deezer's Artist-Centric Payment System?

Deezer's Artist-Centric Payment System, or ACPS, changes how recording royalties are shared out. It rewards artists who build real audiences and listening that fans choose on purpose, and it reduces the money that goes to activity with little real music listening behind it.

How it differs from a standard stream-share model

A standard model shares revenue by each rights holder's share of the listening. Deezer adds weighting on top, so a stream from a qualifying artist, or one a fan actively chose, counts for more in the split. Raw play counts alone can't explain your share. Deezer also caps the influence of any single listener at 1,000 streams a month.

Why Deezer introduced it

Catalogs keep growing, and automated listening, fraudulent streams, and content made only to farm royalties all take money from real artists. The artist-centric model moves more of the money toward artists whose fans deliberately choose their music. Whether a particular artist earns more depends on their audience.

Does it apply everywhere?

The model has grown through agreements with different rights holders, so the rules aren't identical for every territory and royalty type. Deezer and SACEM, the French collecting society, also apply an artist-centric approach to publishing royalties in France. Check the arrangements for your territory and rights administrator.

Deezer's 1,000 streams and 500 listeners rule

Deezer gives a double boost to artists with at least 1,000 streams a month from at least 500 unique listeners. Both conditions have to be met.

  • The stream condition. At least 1,000 qualifying streams in a month. On its own, that isn't enough.
  • The listener condition. At least 500 different listeners in the same month. 2,000 streams from 100 listeners misses it, while 2,000 streams from 600 listeners meets both.
  • It's per artist. The threshold counts your listening as an artist, not track by track.

A double boost is extra weighting in the royalty split. It doesn't guarantee that your payment exactly doubles, because the final amount depends on the pool and on everyone else's weighted listening. For emerging artists, the lesson is simple: a broader real audience matters more here than lots of plays from a few people.

Active and passive listening on Deezer

Deezer also weights streams by how the listener got there. Active listening, where a fan deliberately searches for an artist, album, or track, or chooses the music themselves, counts for more. Passive listening, where the app or an algorithmic feed picks the track, is still legitimate and still pays, but carries less weight.

Not every playlist stream is treated the same either. The source of the stream and how Deezer classifies it both matter. An artist whose fans come looking for them builds a different royalty profile from one whose plays come mostly from automated programming.

Can the boosts add up?

The artist boost and the active-listening boost are separate, and Deezer's implementation decides how they combine. A fan searching for a qualifying artist counts for more than a passive stream of a smaller artist. Don't multiply a per-stream estimate by two or four and expect that to match your royalties: the weighting changes your share of a pool, not a fixed bonus on top. That's also why no calculator that only knows your stream count can predict your exact boost.

Deezer royalty estimates for different milestones

These examples use the calculator's range of $0.004 – $0.0064 per stream.

  • 1,000 streams: $4 – $6.40. Reaching 1,000 streams alone doesn't qualify you for the artist boost. The 500-listener condition still applies.
  • 10,000 streams: $40 – $64. Weighted listening can move your actual earnings either way.
  • 100,000 streams: $400 – $640. Time to compare listener numbers, countries, and real statements.
  • 500,000 streams: $2,000 – $3,200. Your share depends on recording ownership and your distribution deal.
  • 1 million streams: $4,000 – $6,400. The artist-centric model means one average can't cover every outcome.
  • 10 million streams: $40,000 – $64,000. Keep detailed records and know your contractual share.

How Deezer handles fraudulent streams

Artificial streaming tries to inflate plays without real listeners, through bot accounts, coordinated manipulation, or services that sell plays. When Deezer detects manipulation, it leaves those streams out of royalty payments, so an inflated play count doesn't become extra money. Be wary of any promotion that promises a set number of streams without explaining how real listeners will hear your music.

A streams-to-money calculation assumes every stream you enter is eligible. If some are flagged as fraudulent, your payment will be lower than the estimate.

AI-generated music and Deezer royalties

Deezer has built technology to detect fully AI-generated music, tags those tracks for listeners, and keeps them out of algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists. It has reported that fully AI-generated tracks at one point made up more than half of its daily new uploads, and that up to 85% of the streams on those tracks were fraudulent. Deezer excludes those fraudulent streams from royalties and removes AI tracks used to inflate streams.

Detection and fraud are separate things. Deezer's policies don't mean every AI-generated track earns nothing, and the figures describe the whole catalog, not each track. For real artists, the measures keep more of the money with music people actually choose to hear.

Recording royalties and publishing royalties

Master recording royalties

These pay for the recorded version and go to whoever owns or controls the master. Independent artists usually receive them through a distributor, and signed artists through their label contract.

Publishing royalties

These pay for the composition and go to songwriters and publishers, through publishers and collecting societies. In France, SACEM and Deezer apply artist-centric rules to publishing royalties too, with weighting for qualifying artists and active listening. That model doesn't automatically apply worldwide.

Why the money arrives separately

If you own both your master and your composition, the two kinds of income can arrive through different organizations on different schedules. Check what each statement includes so you don't count anything twice.

How to get your music on Deezer

  • Choose a distributor. Compare pricing, commissions, catalog tools, and reporting. Some charge a yearly fee, some charge per release, and some keep a share of royalties.
  • Get your metadata right. Artist name, track title, artwork, release date, credits, and ISRC codes help Deezer credit the right release and the right people.
  • Know who owns what. Settle ownership of the master and the composition, and put splits with collaborators in writing.
  • Claim your Deezer for Creators profile. Once your music is live, Deezer for Creators lets you manage your artist presence and see your audience.
  • Read both sources. Deezer for Creators shows listening. Your distributor's statements show money. Their periods and numbers won't always line up.

Calculate your actual Deezer royalty rate

With real statements, you can work out your own average:

Effective royalty per stream = Reported royalties ÷ Corresponding streams

If your distributor reports $420 from 80,000 Deezer streams, your average is $0.00525 per stream for that period. Make sure the statement and the stream count cover the same usage period, and check whether the amount is recording royalties, publishing, or both. Look at your unique listeners too: they tell you whether you clear the artist-centric threshold. With a few months of data, build low, expected, and high forecasts on your own rates.

Deezer compared with other streaming services

Most artists release everywhere at once, and each service shares out royalties its own way.

The highest rate isn't always the best result. $400 from 100,000 streams on one service is less than $600 from 200,000 on another, even though the second rate is lower. Audience size and real earnings together tell you more than any headline rate.

How to grow your Deezer audience

Under the artist-centric model, it pays to reach listeners who choose your music and come back for more.

  • Build a consistent identity. Accurate artist information and recognizable branding help fans find your official releases.
  • Grow unique listeners. The 500-listener condition rewards a broad real audience, so track listeners as well as streams.
  • Get fans searching for you. Clear titles and consistent promotion make direct searches easy, and those count as active listening.
  • Pick relevant channels. Playlists, socials, your website, and music communities work best when they reach people who actually like your sound.
  • Share one link for every service. A Deezer fan won't open a Spotify-only link. A free smartlink opens your release on the service each fan uses, and a link in bio page keeps all your releases in one place.
  • Watch what lasts. Check whether listeners return after each release, and compare streams, listeners, followers, and real royalties over time.

Reach new listeners through Spotify playlists

If your music is on Spotify too, the right playlist puts your track in front of people who already love your genre. On Soundmango, every playlist is vetted, one at a time, and the listeners on it are real. You choose your criteria and see the price before you pay. A curator who fits your sound rates your track honestly and publishes a promotional post about it, and approved tracks have a 99% chance of landing on at least one playlist. If no curator takes on your campaign, you get 100% of your money back.

Spotify streams don't change your Deezer royalties, but fans who find you on one service often search for you on the others. Read more about growing your audience with Spotify playlist promotion, or open a track inside a playlist with our deep link generator.

Common mistakes when estimating Deezer royalties

  • Assuming every stream pays the same. Weighting rules mean one average can't reproduce the real calculation.
  • Expecting 1,000 streams to double your income. You also need 500 unique listeners, and the boost changes your share of a pool, not a fixed payment.
  • Ignoring active listening. A raw stream count doesn't show which plays fans chose themselves.
  • Treating gross royalties as income. Distributors, labels, publishers, and collaborators may all take a share first.
  • Comparing different periods. Payment dates and listening dates rarely match, so line them up.
  • Counting fraudulent streams. Deezer excludes them, so leave them out of your forecasts too.

Deezer royalty calculator FAQ

Is the Deezer royalty calculator free?

Yes, with no sign-up, like the rest of our free music tools.

How much does Deezer pay for 100 streams?

About $0.40 – $0.64.

How much does Deezer pay for 500 streams?

About $2 – $3.20.

How much does Deezer pay for 10,000 streams?

About $40 – $64.

How much does Deezer pay for 50,000 streams?

About $200 – $320, before any contractual deductions.

How much does Deezer pay for 500,000 streams?

About $2,000 – $3,200.

How many Deezer streams do you need to make $100?

About 15,600 – 25,000 streams.

How many Deezer streams do you need to make $1,000?

About 156,000 – 250,000 streams.

What is the 500-listener rule on Deezer?

Artists with at least 1,000 streams a month from at least 500 unique listeners get a double boost in Deezer's royalty split. Both numbers count.

Does Deezer pay double royalties?

Qualifying artists and active streams get double weighting. That raises your share of the pool, which isn't the same as a guaranteed doubled payout.

Do algorithmic playlist streams pay?

Yes, but they count as passive listening and carry less weight than streams fans choose themselves.

Does Deezer pay artists directly?

No. Recording royalties go through your label or distributor, and publishing royalties through publishers and collecting societies.

Does Deezer pay more than Spotify?

Per stream, often a little more. In total, it depends on your audience on each service, where they are, and how they listen.

Does Deezer pay for AI-generated music?

Deezer tags fully AI-generated tracks and excludes fraudulent streams from royalties. That isn't a rule that every AI-generated track earns nothing.

How long does Deezer take to pay?

It depends on your distributor, label, or publisher. Streams from one month often show up on a later statement.

Can I calculate Deezer earnings for an album?

Yes. Add up the streams across the album and enter the total. Keep track-level figures where ownership or splits differ.

Plan your next release with better royalty insights

Deezer rewards artists whose fans choose their music. Use the Deezer royalty calculator to estimate what your streams could earn, your statements to confirm what they did, and your listener numbers to see how close you are to the artist boost. Our free tools for artists and curators, from royalty calculators to smartlinks, help you share each release and follow what it earns.