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happymellontoday at 2:38 PM0 repliesview on HN

No they aren't.

I pay $5 and listen exclusively to artist A.

10 other people pay their $5 but listen exclusively to artist B.

I would expect the artist cut of artist A to be the $5 (or their cut after Spotify), aka the artist I listen to.

However the 10 other platform users have more free time so each listen to twice as much music by artist B. So my 1 hour is dwarfed by their 20 hours, and my artist would only get $2.60 (or their cut after Spotify). Overall listener plays.