Here is what streaming looks like in cold economics:

• Spotify does not use a fixed per-stream rate, but effective estimates often land around $0.003-0.005; Apple Music estimates are often higher, around $0.007-0.01
• It takes about 250 streams to match a single $0.99 download
• The top 0.8% of Spotify artists earn 90% of all royalties
• The large majority of tracks get very few plays — by one 2023 estimate, about 86% had fewer than 1,000
• The platform keeps about 30% of revenue; the other 70% goes to rights holders

Independent artists keep a larger share, so their per-stream rate is a little better. But the real problem is discovery, not pay.