That's not been my experience, and that of many people around me. I'm pretty 'vanilla' when it comes to my listening habits. Most of the artists I listen to we

That's not been my experience, and that of many people around me. I'm pretty 'vanilla' when it comes to my listening habits. Most of the artists I listen to were famous enough already to show up on my radar, and then there are a number of artists I discovered through word of mouth or attending music festivals. Aside from a few people in my network who often provide me with new artists to follow, my approach seems pretty common in my network. But since I started using Spotify, the range of artists that I come across, follow, or become a fan of, has increased. The total count of artists I listen to in a given week is much higher than it used to be, and I'm much more likely to attend a performance when they're in town. Of course that doesn't mean artists get paid more, but as far as listening and attending performances, my impression is that it's much better now for 'unknowns' than it used to be. (obviously this doesn't mean the chances of a random artist/band becoming successful have increased, it just indicates that the chances of this becoming so is less dependent on obvious gate-keepers. I'm sure those in the know can point out many obstacles to becoming successful that are not directly related to the quality of the music)