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.