On a regular basis, we get articles on HN on how Spotify et al. should pay artists more.<p>Put me right if I'm wrong...
but it's been my understanding that similarly to album sales, streaming doesn't contribute much to artists' earnings -- because the labels take most of that money.<p>Prior to streaming, majority of their income would come from gigs, merch (though often not because, again, labels) and marketing deals.<p>I'm more inclined to buy this when it comes to small artists -- they can't sell wildly popular merch, be a face of a brand, and gigs at a local bar don't pay well if at all. But then again, it's symmetric to their situation prior to streaming, and I don't see how streaming made it worse in any way.
On the contrary, I did discover plenty niche artists thanks to streaming.<p>What am I missing?