> As long as there are users who listen to mainstream music but not indie music, indie artists will always be better of under the proposed scheme.

I don't think that's right?

Let's say there are 99 users who listen to 10 mainstream tracks per month, and 1 user who listens to only to ABC band. As I understand it, ABC band gets 1% of the total share of the total pot under the user-centric model.

Under the current model, though, if the ABC band listener listens to 100 ABC band tracks per month, while the mainstream listeners listen to 50 mainstream tracks per month, ABC band makes up 100 of the 5050 total plays, almost 2% of total track plays. So under the current system, ABC band makes nearly twice as much under the current system than the user-centric system.