[…]So, getting heard is easier. But getting paid is harder. Musicians, in particular, have been complaining about streaming’s business model, which pays less than a penny per stream. It’s eating away sales of albums and mp3’s.
“In prior eras, a small artist, or an independent label … could probably get by with selling 10,000, 50,000 copies of a thing,” says Casey Rae, CEO of the Future of Music Coalition. “Whereas if you translate that to fractions of pennies from streams, it’s much, much harder to pay your rent.”