Spotify Celebrates 100th Dollar Given To Artists

[darkshade]

Having done a small amount of research, it seems that contrary to popular belief, it's the record labels that are screwing the artists more so than it is Spotify and other streaming sites, no?
It's almost like, nothing has changed in the music business... 

[Kwyjibo]

The record labels have screwed the artists from the beginning, at least that's what some of them claim, so why should they suddenly stop doing this, just because there's a new player on the field?

[Volante99]

Spotify gives 70% of it’s total revenue back to the song rights holders. Despite the low payouts, the company can barely turn a profit and is in the hole to the tune of about half a billion dollars for 2021. About 2/3rds of its user base refuse to even pay for the service. It’s not Spotify’s fault people don’t want to pay for recorded music anymore.

[Setlist Scotty]

Spotify gives 70% of it’s total revenue back to the song rights holders. Despite the low payouts, the company can barely turn a profit and is in the hole to the tune of about half a billion dollars for 2021.

That's hard to believe. How much money is Daniel Ek earning? And if he's pulling in major numbers, I wonder how that's acceptable to share holders?
 
 

About 2/3rds of its user base refuse to even pay for the service. It’s not Spotify’s fault people don’t want to pay for recorded music anymore.

But it's not as if the "free" tier is completely free - there are commercials that people have to listen to, don't they? Companies who advertise would cover the costs of those listeners, similar to radio (or so I would imagine). And if it was such a problem, why wouldn't they just drop the free tier? AFAIK, Apple Music never even had a free tier aside from a few months' trial period. Do other streaming companies also offer a free tier?