That is mostly correct. I saw this on the web a year or two ago...
If an artist or band is unsigned, they can make the most money by selling a physical album themselves. That's because there's no middle man, so they earn 100% of the profits. But, putting together the upfront money to create a CD can be difficult for many musicians, so they turn to digital services. In that case, their best bet is selling album downloads with a distributor through cdbaby, ReverbNation or tunecore. With those services, the artist can earn $8.99 if they sell an album for $9.99.
Bandcamp is another good choice for musicians, because they can earn $8.50 for every $10 album they sell. Popular services like iTunes, Amazon and Google Play aren't such a good deal. A $9.99 album on iTunes will earn a signed artist just $1.11. Single track downloads that cost $0.99 will earn signed artists only $0.11 on iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.
Unsigned artists, on the other hand, can earn $0.69 per $0.99 download on iTunes.
Streaming services aren't a great deal for musicians, either. Unsigned artists earn $0.0179 per play on Google Play and signed artists take home even less, around $0.0073 per play. On Spotify, unsigned artists receive $0.007 per play, and signed musicians get $0.0011 per play.
Bandcamp makes money through their revenue share on sales, which is 15% for digital, 10% for merch. If an artist or label makes $5,000 worth of annual sales, then they are only charged 10% of the profit from digital sales.
Bookmarks