Learn · Fees
What do music platforms actually take?
The fee lives wherever the money flows through the platform. That one sentence explains every number below, all of them taken from each platform's own published documentation, linked at the bottom, checked 2026-08-17.
Streaming services. Spotify's own documentation is direct about this: there is no per-stream rate. Net revenue, after costs, is divided among rightsholders by streamshare, and those rightsholders (labels and distributors) pay artists according to whatever agreements they signed.[4] The artist stands at the end of a chain that starts from net, not gross, and the platform doesn't even know what the artist's share is.
Distributors. DistroKid (from $24.99/year[2]) and TuneCore (from $24.99–$54.99/year[3]) charge subscriptions and pass through 100% of store royalties. It is genuinely a fair model for what it is, though TuneCore takes 20% of social-platform earnings.[3] The real cost isn't the fee; it's that they deliver you into the streaming economics above.
Direct-to-fan stores. Bandcamp, the best of the traditional options, takes 15% of digital sales, dropping to 10% after $5,000 in sales, plus 10% on physical, plus payment processing that typically runs 4–6%.[1] On a $10 album that's roughly $2 gone before the artist sees anything. Card processing alone puts a floor under every fiat platform: around 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction at standard rates.[5]
Bitcoin-native platforms. Lightning fixes the processing-fee floor, but the platform cut usually survives: Wavlake's published split has artists keeping 90%, with the remaining 10% shared between the platform and app developers.[6] When payments route through the platform, the platform can take its share on the way past, and understandably does.
On Lightning FM, a buyer pays a Lightning invoice minted by the artist's own wallet. The sats settle from the buyer to the artist. There is no moment when the money is ours, so there is no point in the flow where a percentage could be taken. Our cut isn't low. It is structurally uncollectable. The same architecture is why we can't issue refunds and can't freeze an artist's earnings: we never hold the money.
What we do charge for is what we actually provide: hosting files and gating delivery, priced flat: a free tier with storage quotas today, a Pro tier (about $10/month, paid in sats) coming for more. Never a percentage. The pricing page has the details, and the exit-rights page explains the other half of the deal: leaving costs you nothing either. Prefer video? Zero is structural, in under a minute.
How can Lightning FM take 0% and stay in business?
Because we charge for what we actually provide, hosting your files and gating delivery, as flat convenience pricing, never a percentage of your sales. The free tier includes hosted delivery with storage quotas; a Pro tier (about $10/month, paid in sats) is coming for more storage. The money from a sale never passes through us, so there is no point in the flow where a cut could be taken. That's architecture, not policy.
Does 100% really mean 100%?
100% of the sale price settles to the artist's own Lightning wallet. We add nothing and hold nothing. Your own wallet or Lightning service provider may have its own fees (routing fees are typically fractions of a cent; hosted wallet providers vary), but that relationship is between you and your wallet. Nothing on our side touches the money.
What does Bandcamp take from artists?
Per Bandcamp's own help documentation: 15% of digital sales (dropping to 10% once you pass $5,000 USD in sales), 10% on physical items, plus payment processing fees that typically run 4–6%.
Do distributors like DistroKid or TuneCore take a cut?
Their store-royalty model is subscription-based: DistroKid from $24.99/year and TuneCore from $24.99–$54.99/year, with artists keeping 100% of store earnings, though TuneCore charges a 20% fee on social-platform earnings (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube). The subscription isn't the catch; the catch is that streaming-store royalties are small to begin with, and leaving a distributor means taking releases down and re-uploading through another one.
How much does Spotify pay per stream?
Spotify's own documentation says it doesn't pay per stream at all: it distributes net revenue to rightsholders in proportion to streamshare, and those rightsholders (labels and distributors) pay artists according to their individual agreements. The artist is at the end of a chain that starts with net revenue, not gross.
Fees change. Every number above links to the platform's own published documentation as of the date shown. Check the source, and if we're out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.
Or see what leaving a platform actually costs. Prefer to hear it? The fee comparison is on YouTube.