Spotify has reported a record payout of $10 billion (A$15.4 billion) in royalties to the music industry for 2024, marking the largest annual payment from a single retailer in history.

And it's not pennies, you pay ~$15 a month, of which 70% goes to labels, 30% goes to Spotify, that's $10 a month that goes to all labels and artists.

Artists I like I’ll buy their merch, go to their shows, etc

Oh now you mention merch and shows, good one.

If you want to leach music for free by pirating music and spitting in the face of artists do it, just don't think you have any moral high ground.

[–] JadedBlueEyes@programming.dev 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The clue there is 70% goes to labels, not artists - large rightsholders who already have wealth taken a massively disproportionate amount of that, so the artists you listen to get fractions of a penny. They make far more when you buy a CD or go to a concert.

[–] rozodru@piefed.social -1 points 2 days ago

you're such an obvious shill.