The fundamental structure of streaming payouts is broken. Platforms pool all subscription revenue and pay artists based on their share of total streams. That sounds fair on paper, but it creates a massive distortion. A fan paying $10 a month might listen to a niche indie artist 500 times and Taylor Swift twice. Yet the indie artist sees pennies while Swift takes most of that fan's money. That isn't paying based on value or listening behavior. It's a system where popular artists get paid for streams they didn't generate. The logic fails because it treats all streams as equal, ignoring the actual relationship between listener and artist. The payout model doesn't match the transaction.

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