Musicians Can Now Earn Bitcoin For Streaming Their Songs

Fans can now tip their favorite artists in bitcoin.

From singer-songwriters to Hip Hop artists, musicians from across the world are now earning satoshis (sats) — fractions of a bitcoin — for streaming their music.

Many of these artists are actually earning more in bitcoin by sharing their songs through platforms like Wavlake and Fountain than they are in traditional currencies for streaming their music through Digital Streaming Platforms (DSPs) like Spotify and Apple Music.

“In five years on the traditional DSPs, I’ve made only $750 in streaming royalties from over 500,000 streams,” American pop rock artist Ainsley Costello shared with me via email. “In one year distributing to the Valueverse, I received over 21 million satoshis, equivalent to $13,278.72 USD as of September 23, 2024.”

The Valueverse, also referred to as the Value for Value (V4V) space, Costello mentioned refers to the suite of platforms, including the aforementioned Wavlake and Fountain, that allow users to tip musicians, podcasters and other content creators for their work in sats. More and more musicians globally are beginning to experience the financial benefits that come with sharing their songs in the V4V space.

UK-based singer-songwriter Joe Martin has earned $1280 worth of sats on Wavlake and Fountain alone since releasing his first tracks on the platforms in late-2022, while he’s only earned $240 from DSPs, through which he’s streamed his music since 2017.

Tanzanian Hip Hop artist Man Like Kweks has earned a total of $25.68 from United Masters, the distribution company he uses for traditional DSPs (for which he pays a $60 annual fee), while he’s earned 2.3 million sats — worth over $1,500 at the time of publishing — from Wavlake alone.

Kweks provided some context for the value of sats in his home country.

“I am based in Tanzania where 1,000 sats is worth 1,731 TSh,” he shared with me via email.

“You can go to a local restaurant and get a soda for 1,000 TSh, a meal for 3000 TSh, a bus ride for 600 TSh, and a bottle of water for 500 TSh,” he added.

“So, when someone zaps me 10,000 sats for my song, which is currently worth 17,310 TSh, it goes a long way.”

A “zap” (also called a “boost” on platforms like Fountain) is slang for a tip in sats over the Lightning Network, a layer built on top of Bitcoin Bitcoin that enables quick, cheap payments. The term was popularized by users of the decentralized social identity network Nostr, where users can send one another tips for their content.

Creators like Kweks, Ainsley and Martin also utilize Nostr to share their music.

While Martin is currently earning significantly more sats through a platform like Wavlake than he is through Nostr, he’s optimistic that Nostr will play a bigger role in the careers of artists in the future.

“As of now, the zaps I receive on Nostr do not make up a meaningful part of my daily income, but I can foresee a future where I could release a ‘sneak peek’ of a newly written song, or behind the scenes at an important gig and a few hundred of my followers could zap me a dollar or $0.50 worth of sats,” Martin shared with me via email.

A post from Joe Martin on Nostr for which he earned 310 sats.

Kweks, who’s more active on Nostr than he is on traditional social media platforms like X, also commented on how important the protocol has been for his work as an artist.

“Nostr has been pivotal for me to engage with the community,” said Kweks. “That’s where I post my songs, interact and even collaborate with other artists.”

Costello believes that Nostr makes it easier for fans to show love to their favorite artists.

“Zaps and boosts provide for an instant and intimate fan relationship that we don't get from likes and loves,” said Costello.

“When someone zaps you, they are actually providing you with value in the form of a micropayment, not a series of ones and zeroes in the shape of a heart on Instagram,” she added.

“The amount doesn't matter but the intent — be it a few cents or a few dollars — speaks volumes.”

Wavlake, which was built by a music industry veteran who wanted to make it easier for artists to share and get paid for their music, is perhaps the easiest platform to get started with.

Users create an account and can begin uploading their songs directly through the platform immediately. The platform also enables artist splits, which means you can arrange for sats to be sent directly to certain members of a musical outfit or a producer in the process of uploading a song or album.

Wavlake doesn’t charge artists to upload songs, but it takes a 10% cut of the sats streamed through the site.

To stream songs through Fountain, users have two options. For the first option, they can upload songs to Wavlake and then connect their Wavlake account to Fountain.

For the second option, they first need to set up an RSS feed. RSS Blue enables artists to establish their RSS feed and upload up to 10 tracks per month. The fee for the service is $5 per month for its service and Fountain charges an additional 2% fee on each payment creators receive. Once the RSS feed is live, users can create an account on Fountain and claim their feed.

To use Nostr, users first have to select a client, which is an app that serves as an interface to the protocol. Primal and Damus are popular social media clients for Nostr. The Wavlake app, available for iOS and Android devices, is also a Nostr client.

Martin encourages musicians to start sharing their work on these platforms right away, as these tools put power back in the hands of musicians, who’ve notoriously been exploited by the music industry.

“Every indie artist today is totally disillusioned with the state of the industry and is desperate for an alternative,” said Martin.

“The revolution has to come from the bottom up, from the artists demanding change and actually taking matters into their own hands by uploading to Wavlake and getting on Nostr.”

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