[apexauk]

yes, but how much would have been paid for the right to broadcast 100 times on a radio station with 10,000 listeners?

it's easy to see artists don't get the same returns from radio as CD sales. spotify and the like are a new medium again - but with more similarities to radio than CDs imho.

[Maascamp]

But the difference is that users have control over the music on Spotify. Even with the free version you can listen to a song when you want, as many times as you want. So as long as they're a Spotify member, a user essentially owns the content on there.

With radio it's more of a teaser. You might hear a song you like but you'll have to purchase it if you want to listen to it on repeat.