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This would have been a complete non issue if streaming services paid, not by streams as a percentage of the entire cake, but as a percentage per _streamer_ streaming each song.

The argument in court (according to older reports in danish media) was that other streamers were receiving less payout. But if he only received money from the bots he set up to listen, then at most this could amount to a laundering operation.

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But this would disproportionally help small artists with dedicated fan bases. We can’t have that! Instead they should get 1.0e-17% of the entire pie

Are you sure about this? I would think that people listening to lesser known artists would listen to more music overall, making each of their plays worth less - discovery itself takes time, music is likely a larger part of their life, and basic novelty from a wider variety means less getting bored with the whole medium. I'd say the guy in the original article is seemingly an analogous situation as a small artist with a dedicated fan base, so that he was able to direct $315k at his "artist" would seem to indicate that the current method is actually more beneficial for small artists.

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