T-Pain sets social media on fire with chart showing how many streams it takes to earn $1

T-Pain took to Twitter to share what he says are the actual payouts from various music streaming services. Of particular interest was the disparity in payments between the different digital service providers.

Others in the industry have reported similar payouts.

Cut off in this graphic, Spotify’s payouts were reportedly at 315 streams to earn $1.

Fans were outraged and then the rapper went a step farther to remind them that after label and other cuts as well as income splits with bandmates, producers and others most artists recieve only a fraction of the dollars that he shared.

“I see a lot of ‘well I guess I’ll use the best one’ and not ‘we gotta make our own’ keep in mind, most artists don’t even get the whole $1,” T-Pain tweeted. “I’m just letting the up and coming know what the real is. I worked for mine and there are tons of ways around this if you move right.”

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.