What Musicians Actually Get Paid By iTunes, Pandora And Spotify Is Truly Pathetic

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Zoe Keating

Zoe Keating

Zoe Keating: Not getting rich from Pandora.

Everyone has harbored dreams of being a professional musician at one time. But when you see the personal finances of cellist Zoe Keating - and the money she earns from online song and album sales via iTunes and Amazon - you'll think twice about giving up your day job.

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Worse, the income she gets from streaming music services like Pandora and Spotify is so pathetic it's not enough to live on - even though her songs were streamed 2.8 million times last year.

All told, Keating sold 33,000 singles, 8,600 albums, and 2.8 million streams for total 2013 sales of about $82,000. That's not a bad income. But it's not exactly drive-a-Rolls-Royce-into-a-hotel-swimming-pool money. (Keating released her finances with this arch tweet, "2013 music sales & streaming numbers for a middle-aged mom in a non-album cycle.")

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Statista put together this chart of Keating's finances for us.

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