If you really listen 5 hours a day, Spotify pays nearly 4x for your music as you pay to them. (calculated with 300hrs/mo, 3.5min/song, and $.0075/song)

Good thing they have so much VC money to keep the lights on for a while.

Maybe they could offer a tiered subscription model wherein heavy users pay more?

How is 5 hours a day 300 hours a month?

5 * 30 = 150

> However I really wish artists actually earnt money from it.

How so? Why do you get to decide how much the distribution model gets for delivering a good service to you? Without them, the product/service never arrives. I'm not saying I disagree with you, but I think just because the assumption that "mp3 reproduction is cheap" doesn't mean there are other forces (marketing for example) at work here. Lest we forget these services cannot be cheaply made in a factory overseas.

Your point is a little vague. I'm not suggesting at all that I should decide the distribution model. I'm just suggesting that its a shame that support for the people who make the content has to come from outside such a useful service

Sorry, but you are. In any business you have two functions (among others) - production and distribution. What you've suggested is that you want to pay more for production and less for distribution. Further, what I've suggested is that there is a widespread assumption that distribution is in fact "cheap" - when it's not.

Is the market currently efficient? That's another debate.

The comment didn't say "I wish I could dictate the profit model for this market", it said "I wish artists earned more money when I consumed their product."

Just a few ideas: Let artists sell mp3's (or other formats), and give them a large percentage / Let artists sell merchandising / Let fans pay to became VIP members of an artist to get special stuff / Let artists promote concerts to followers (and maybe sell tickets) / Allow donations directly to artists.

Why don't you donate/crowdfund and sew that tear?

Yeah, I try and do what I can to help artists I like. Unfortunately (and bizarrely) I think most people couldn't care less about the artist once they have the music.

Why not let them? Most people don't care much about music and don't get much from it either. That's the point of freemium/cheapium/dontcarium.