It's probably not really possible to even estimate how much of actual cashflow is attributable to user income vs. artist payout from GAAP-based financial statem

It's probably not really possible to even estimate how much of actual cashflow is attributable to user income vs. artist payout from GAAP-based financial statements. And their cashflow statements are not particularly useful either. I'm sure a lot of nice things are "said to be," but if spotify were particularly proud of how much money they let through to artists I think they'd be touting it in more concrete ways. Anyways, this is a bit like looking at Walmart's COGS and declaring that they've never screwed over a supplier by forcing them to cut prices to the bone.