All About That Bass Co-Writer: I Earned $5,600 On 178 Million Spotify Streams

Kevin Kadine, the co-writer of Meghan Trainor‘s smash hit “All About That Bass,” says he made only $5,679 on 178 million Spotify streams.

Kadine said the average streaming-service payout for a songwriter is roughly $90 per million streams. The rate, according to American copyright law, is chosen by the US Government and is non-negotiable.

Speaking to a roundtable of five members of the House of Representatives, Kadine says he split the song’s proceeds with Trainor which came out to roughly $90 per million streams. “That’s as big a song as a songwriter can have in their career, and number one in 78 countries,” Kadine said. “But you’re making $5,600. How do you feed your family?” h/t arstechnica

Kadine and other songwriters showed up to complain that American songwriters are paid per play through what’s known as a “mechanical license”—a term derived from all the way back in 1911, when songwriters’ works were distributed in the United States via piano rolls.