My understanding is that rights holders are paid by the percentage of all plays, not per play.

Deezer is trying to fix this, but it requires the major labels to agree to the change. Deezer's user-centric payment system would apportion royalties based on an individual customer's play percentage instead of the total customer base's percentage. So if you only listen to 5 artists, all of your subscription's royalties would go to those 5 artists.

More info on UCPS at https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/deezer-launches-initia... and https://www.deezer.com/ucps