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Musicians Make Money on Spotify From NPR: Spotify, the online music streaming site, may not pay the artists much, but they do pay. Independent musician Erin McKeown did the math and figured out that she makes 0.4 cents per play, which is a better payout than YouTube, but not as much as iTunes. Most of the money McKeown sees from online activity comes from iTunes, she says. Jonathan Johansson is a popular Swedish musician who made $20,000 in royalties from Spotify the first week his new album came out. Spotify was born in Sweden though, and recent estimates show that more than 10% of the population there are users of the site. Martin Mills, who runs several independent labels, worries that in the future, the big labels - who own part of the site - will use their clout to force the service to promote their own artists. "That's our daily struggle as the small guys," he says. "The big guys can always try to squash you."

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