That's just deflecting the responsibility we undoubtedly bear as consumers. It's not that easy. For some artists there are alternatives at least like buying their music on Bandcamp, buying merch or donating to them (or as you already mentioned attending concerts).

Since spotify is paying artists per song listened to and not in bulk like when you buy ans album I think that is more fair. If the artist can't negotiate better prices it's not really my problem.

 

The last couple of albums I bought because I liked the former music of those artists were a huge let down for me because I didn't like them and only listened to them a couple of times. And of course a huge part of the profit goes to the record company and not the musician so this is not even close to being a good system either.

They pay way too little, basically nothing, so no, Spotify isn't much better than digital piracy for example from the perspective of the artist.

I hope, you do understand how unfair that statement is? How do you expect independent artists to negotiate anything with a multi-billion dollar company? They don't have leverage.

They still earn much more through record sales than through streaming services.

I'm not really responsible for the artist making a living out of spotify. Spotify gets them exposure. That's why artists go on there. If the artists wants to make some real motherfucking money he has to make good merch and do concerts. I don't see any problem in that.