There's a minimum payout, so unless you listen to your neighborhood band a lot then they still get nothing and all of your $10 goes to bands you never even list

There's a minimum payout, so unless you listen to your neighborhood band a lot then they still get nothing and all of your $10 goes to bands you never even listened to. The Spotify model even encourages people to not listen to music. Putting your music library on shuffle and turning off the speakers is the best way for a paying subscriber to get money to the bands they like. Streaming an excessive amount on mute also takes money from other bands that you don't like and redirects it to your favorites. Even better, sign up for an ad-supported account, play your favorites on mute, and the artists will get even more money per play. It's a terrible model that rewards people for abusing it. Splitting your $10 among your bands is a much better model, but they won't do it because ads don't pay enough so they mix together ads and paid accounts so they can get more listeners. Spotify model is good for Spotify, but not for anybody else.