That makes it a near monopoly for whom? Having a big chunk of the industry doesn't mean you have a monopoly, by the way. Anyone can freely choose from a number

That makes it a near monopoly for whom? Having a big chunk of the industry doesn't mean you have a monopoly, by the way. Anyone can freely choose from a number of music subscription services. There's no monopoly here. The monopoly probably lies in how licenses are handled, and that process comes before Spotify/Google Music/Apple Music/etc. It's an archaic system and what should be the blame here, not the streaming services we currently have. It's always comical to me how people will attack Spotify and co. for things that the record labels are directly responsible for, and after having screwed artists for decades. > But YouTube is not very good for providing income for musicians who don't want to be predominantly 'tubers. Okay, this is not a great excuse. I think I understand what you mean by this. But if a musician doesn't want to follow the distribution channels that consumers prefer, then that's on the artist. If you want to take care of distribution for yourself and avoid any big labels, then you take responsibility for the success and failure of your music's distribution.