T-Pain reveals just how many streams musicians need to make $1

Lawrence Scotti
t-pain

Legendary rapper T-Pain shone a light on just how little musicians make for each play they get on popular music streaming apps.

T-Pain has been a famous rapper for almost 20 years, and has become a veteran of both the rap game and the music industry itself.

Understanding the ins and outs of the business of music, the “Bartender” rapper knows how hard it can be for up-and-coming artists to both make a name for themselves and a profit on the side.

In a post on social media, he showed the numbers which highlight the small amount musicians make off fans streaming their songs.

T-Pain Roasts Twitch Hater
T-Pain is all about shouting out small artists on his Twitch stream.

T-Pain calls out streaming platforms

The rapper went viral on December 28 when he broke down just how making money from creators streaming music works.

His tweet included a chart showing off how many streams you need on a song to make a single dollar. YouTube Music was by far the most difficult to make a dollar on, as a musician would need their song to be streamed 1,250 times.

Many on social media were shocked to see Napster, the former file-sharing software, coming in as the easiest to make a buck on at just 53 streams.

T-Pain went further into detail in a follow up tweet and said, “Keep in mind, most artists don’t even get the whole $1. 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.”

In addition to being a musician, T-Pain has become somewhat of a Twitch personality as well,  showing just how dynamic the Auto-Tune rapper truly is.

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About The Author

Lawrence is a former Dexerto writer, based in New York City, who covered entertainment and games for Dexerto focusing on Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, NBA 2K, and any indie game he can review.