Put this in context. Profitable musicians make most of their money from ticket sales to live shows. Recordings serve that business model mainly as promotional m

Put this in context. Profitable musicians make most of their money from ticket sales to live shows. Recordings serve that business model mainly as promotional material. Profitable recording acts like the later Beatles have been extremely rare exceptions. This Spotify news is a far greater tragedy for record companies, whose entire business model relies on royalty collection, than it is for the artists themselves. But rentier business models don't deserve a whole lot of sympathy.