Our average per play rate is $0.01
While royalties from streaming services are calculated on a stream share basis, a play still has a value. This value varies by subscription plan and country or region but averaged $0.01 for Apple Music individual paid plans in 2020. This includes label and publisher royalties.
https://artists.apple.com/support/1124-apple-music-insights-royalty-rate
If I was a new artist, I wouldn't be looking to be a profitable band just from streaming services, unfortunately. Though I'd see it as a platform for exposure that can bring bucks to other forms of income (concerts/touring, merch, M&Gs, streaming concerts, etc, etc..)
Not every artist "tours" and so you have to wonder how many great bands and artists disappear because they can't make a living doing actual music. I like writing and recording, but not performing so that leaves me selling songs to publishing houses or just staying unknown.
I neither attend many concerts anymore or perform them. I used to buy all the Pet Shop Boys albums before they turned into what they thought kids today want to hear about ten years ago (crap noise rather than actual songs with real composition), but when they finally did go on tour, it was essentially some kind of artsy thing I didn't enjoy. I just want to listen to "I want a Dog" in my comfy chair with a visualizer doing crazy patterns on the giant screen.
More Pink Floyd laser show and less Lady Gaga in an unattractive "meat" coat, although some of her outfits look great in the back (her best angle anyway). Live rarely sounds as good as a studio album and most shows are more about dance routines than playing live music these days so I stopped going.
Even my favorite solo artist Tori Amos was a bit disappointing live. With her husband being a sound technician you'd expect the best acoustics. Nope, total crap. Plus Tori gets bored and starts messing with her songs. A 20-minute long version of The Waitress with her boinking the piano bench while doing her Robert Plant impersonation wasn't exactly classy back in 1998 and I had the hots for her back then.
Sarah McLachlan had a great sound guy and her band was awesome live, but half the audience was dressed as fairies (It was Halloween, I suppose) was just weird given she's straight....
I like listening at home now.
But in terms of money, a writer typically gets 20-30 cents on a $1 track sale. Most artists get 1-2 cents unless they're famous and getting a new contract. The record label and store get the rest. It wasn't a great deal to begin with, but streaming makes it near impossible to make a living without becoming a merchandise huckster, puppet dancer or selling your body in music videos and posters if you're a hot woman.
This started long before streaming, though. It's why we get more Britney Spears types than Janis Joplins. If you're not a model, you either write for someone else ir get a job somewhere else. The days if radio play and music itself being important are long gone. Good looking people who can't sing are given pitch correction by the bucket load. That's how they sell "artists". Real artists don't stand a chance anymore.