I pulled my Spotify for Artists dashboard last week and stared at the numbers. Three hundred thousand streams on my old band’s catalogue over the past year. Total payout: just under $1,200 AUD. That’s the reality for most independent Australian musicians right now.

But where does the rest go? It’s a question I’ve been digging into for months, and the answer involves more middlemen than you’d expect.

The Basic Split

When someone streams a song on Spotify, Apple Music, or any major platform, the money doesn’t go straight to the artist. Here’s the simplified version of the chain:

The platform takes its cut first — typically around 30%. The remaining 70% goes to rights holders, which sounds straightforward until you realise that “rights holders” means a whole stack of entities.

For a typical independent release distributed through a service like DistroKid, TuneCore, or CD Baby, the flow looks something like this. The distributor takes their fee (either a flat annual rate or a percentage, depending on the service). Then the money splits between the recording rights holder (usually the artist or their label) and the publishing rights holder (the songwriter).

If you wrote and recorded the song yourself with no label deal, you should theoretically see most of that 70%. In practice, it’s never that clean.

The Publishing Problem

Here’s where Australian artists often lose track of their money. Publishing royalties are separate from recording royalties, and they’re collected by different organisations.

APRA AMCOS handles performance and mechanical royalties in Australia. If your music plays on streaming platforms, radio, in shops, or at live venues, APRA AMCOS should be collecting on your behalf. But only if you’re registered, and only if your works are properly documented.

I’ve spoken to dozens of independent artists who didn’t register their songs with APRA AMCOS for years. That money doesn’t just sit in a holding account waiting for you. Some of it gets distributed to other rights holders based on market share. Some of it just vanishes into administrative pools.

What the Numbers Actually Look Like

Let’s get concrete. Based on current rates and conversations with Australian artists across different levels:

A song with 100,000 streams on Spotify generates roughly $300-$400 AUD in recording royalties for an independent artist using a standard distributor. Publishing royalties from APRA AMCOS might add another $80-$120 on top of that, depending on the split.

For context, 100,000 streams is a lot for most independent Australian acts. The median release from an unsigned artist probably sits somewhere between 5,000 and 20,000 streams in its first year. That’s $15 to $80.

Apple Music pays slightly better per stream — roughly double Spotify’s rate in my experience. But Spotify still dominates market share in Australia, accounting for about 40% of streaming activity.

The Label Factor

Artists signed to independent labels typically receive between 15% and 50% of net recording royalties, depending on the deal. The label takes its share after the distributor’s cut. Major label deals are generally worse, with artists seeing 12-20% of net.

Australian independent labels like Ivy League, Remote Control, and Mushroom have been relatively transparent about this. But “relatively transparent” still means most artists I talk to can’t clearly explain where their money ends up.

What Actually Helps

First, register everything with APRA AMCOS. Every song, every version, every remix. It’s tedious, and their portal isn’t exactly user-friendly, but it’s money you’re leaving on the table otherwise.

Second, check your distributor agreement carefully. Some distributors take a flat fee, others take a percentage. For artists with consistent streaming numbers, a flat-fee distributor like DistroKid often works out better. For releases that might not stream much, percentage-based deals mean you’re not paying upfront for nothing.

Third, look into neighbouring rights collection through PPCA (Phonographic Performance Company of Australia). If your music plays on commercial radio or in public spaces, PPCA collects separate royalties that many artists miss entirely.

The streaming economy isn’t going to suddenly become generous to independent artists. But understanding where the money flows — and making sure you’re actually collecting what you’re owed — is the minimum viable strategy for anyone trying to sustain a music career in Australia right now.

The system is complex by design. But it doesn’t have to be opaque if you know where to look.