You pay for the catalogue and the recommendation feed.

...and the artists get peanuts.

I listen to a lot of music. like, a lot. and yet from my calculations the artist I've listened to the most during that year still didn't get even a dollar from my listens. and with how absolutely garbage the Spotify app has become, I've resorted to just archiving my entire collection online in lossless format and buying albums I particularly like on Bandcamp every now and then. it costs me less than an ongoing subscription because one purchase is just one or two month's worth of Spotify Premium, I get to keep the music even if the service goes down, I don't have podcasts that I don't want shoved in my face, and the artists I like actually get something from me.