[troupo]

Spotify doesn't pay the artists directly. Apple Music doesn't pay the artists directly. Youtube Musice doesn't.... You get my gist.

All those pay to the rights holders. Why does no one ever question the rights holders: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group why the artists are paid pennies?

[threeseed]

It isn't just the big labels. Apple Music has a list of distributors they work with:

https://artists.apple.com/partners

CDBaby is popular where 91% of revenue from Apple, Spotify etc goes to the artist.

So then it seems that the price per stream does make a difference.

[troupo]

Spotify has the same distributors. But the absolute vast majority of money goes to the big labels.