Spotify is making major changes to its royalty model

This sounds similar to YouTube where you have to have 1,000 subscribers before you can monetize. It wouldn't be so bad if Spotify didn't already have such a bad reputation when it comes to paying artists.

In this scenario, a track would have to earn 5 cents per month in order to be paid or, as MBW estimated, about 200 streams per year. Many indie tracks don’t hit this threshold, and so the pennies those artists would otherwise earn will be diverted to Spotify’s “streamshare” pool. That may not sound like a lot of money, but one source told MBW that, when multiplied over the many, many low-play tracks on the streamer, it accounts for tens of millions of dollars. That would instead get distributed to larger artists, who’d get a bigger share of the pooled money.

Why? Like why even bother doing this at all if the payout is going to happen anyways and it’s money out of Spotifys pocket? You might as well pay the little guys and incentivize more music to be added to the platform.

You pretty much have to have a huge following to make money on Spotify (not surprising). I think most creators will still try to put their music on their for discoverability purposes and less for it being an actual money maker. Most of my indie producer and musician fiends make their money touring and selling merchandise, I imagine that will continue.