Youtube pays 2/10th of a penny (on average) per stream to artists (and most platforms pay more)
https://virpp.com/hello/music-streaming-payouts-comparison-a...
https://virpp.com/hello/music-streaming-payouts-comparison-a...
My point is that if you're freeloading music then the artist gets precisely 0.00 which is less even than the worst platform.
I listened to 7000 tracks last year (I think that's well above average), so if that had been on YouTube it would have given $14 to the artists.
People used to spend more on music, even if they only bought a couple of CDs a year.
Spotify pays based on payments from Premium users, as well as ad revenue. I presume others have similar arrangements.