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Spotify pays 70% of revenue to music rights holders.

They aren't profitable.

Small bands can't have fans revenue from recordings in the same way as before, since they share pot with Tailor Swift and bot farms.

It doesn't matter if its 70 or 99.99%.

Spotify is a way to get famous. It's not meant to make big money.

Once you are famous you can go on festivals. That's how streaming works in my country. When enough people know your songs you can get 5k people to show up at your live gig.

It sucks for the autistic artists who want to make music in his basement I guess.

They are: https://www.statista.com/chart/26773/profitability-developme...

Maybe, for the first time ever.

Though historically when Spotify has come close to making a profit, record labels see it as an opportunity to demand more or pull out.

Many companies, for example, Amazon during its rise to power, will choose to not profit and instead reinvest in business growth and avoid tax. When there is profit, there is more tax; As i understand it, if all the revenue is allocated to expenses, it will benefit from large tax exemptions. It's sort of like running a for-profit entity as if it were a non-profit entity, though by choice and not mandate.

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