Wasn't it always the case, that bands even fairly big ones made little money from record sales, even back in the day when record companies were charging £13 for a CD. Pretty sure it was, apart from maybe a few exceptions (U2 springs to mind) Pretty sure there was even a UK government enquiry into it. Wasn't it the reason why George Michael and Prince both rebelled against their record companies because they made hardly any money from record sales because of the original contracts they signed as youngsters? I remember Don Henley saying he made a few thousand dollars from one of his biggest multi million selling solo hits because David Geffen personally screwed him over on some contract technicality. I think sometimes people are looking back with rose tinted glasses and think that everyone back in the day before streaming made a mint by being in fairly well known band. What I'm saying is that it's mostly been the case that musicians have been ripped off by the music industry. Spotify isn't new in that respect.
I haven't read this thread in its entirely so maybe there is something I'm missing, but just thinking out loud really.