Bones hit 100,000 streams (and Spotify pays me $334)
Hey friends,
A little milestone to share: Bones just hit 100k streams on Spotify. People have hit play 100,000 times on a song I wrote in my basement! I’m genuinely really proud of it and it feels like a monumental number that took so much effort to achieve.
Here’s the catch though. after a year, those 100,000 streams paid out $334. That’s a few dinners out or barely a week of daycare.
if it had 10x the streams - 1,000,000! - it’d be $3,334
And if somehow bones hit 10,000,000 streams (like a MAJOR pop-hit!!), that song would have earned $33,340 in a year
big steraming numbers can make you feel “famous”, but still not come close to making music into a sustainable income
Meanwhile, on Bandcamp, my new Half Alive EP has already earned $70 in a week from just seven fans!! It’s the difference between direct fan support and chasing an algorithm.
I’ll still promote the hell out of this EP on streaming platforms (because that’s where most of us listen), but to be honest I don’t know how much more of that I have left in me.
And if this all sounds a little jaded and ungrateful- well, it’s just because I really care about this stuff.
If you’ve personally streamed, shared, or picked up the EP, thank you. You’ve all helped this tiny song travel way farther than I ever expected. ❤️
-Dave