Originally posted by BlueTimberwolf

Sony is not the artist's employer, they do not pay wages.

You seem to think that artist get paid for streams right off the bat. No. Artists first have to recoup production costs before they get an agreed upon percentage. TIDAL> Spotify, because it takes much longer to recoup costs when you are paid pennies per stream vs. a traditional CD. That's why everyone has a 360 nowadays. The more Spotify pays the label, the faster an artist gets paid at all.

Originally posted by Tropez

The money from Spotify is trickled down, the artist is payed last due to contracts. Label first, then publishing then whoever and finally artist. It has always been this way, which is why contracts need to be updated to the new streaming model.

And it doesn't matter how much the artist makes if they can't pay off the advance the artist won't see a penny since that's like a loan.