> If even people reaching a truly stupidly huge number of people don't get even close to making a living (I get more than that off a few hundred people on Patre

> If even people reaching a truly stupidly huge number of people don't get even close to making a living (I get more than that off a few hundred people on Patreon for the work that I do), in a situation where those operating the streaming services are renting out entire floors of office buildings in Manhattan, your question is disingenuous. Seems like a weird detail to fixate on. Plenty more money has been spent on office space (whole buildings, even) by music industry and music industry adjacent companies that acted as gatekeepers and ensured only a hand-selected few ever made a living off their songs. > I have NO problem with a world that completely unlinks money from performance, because I'm not a free-market capitalist type demanding that financial reward behave like a 'meritocracy'. I also have no problem with this, but I think creative people won't be sharing our opinion anytime soon.