Piracy is without a doubt, truly evil. It doesn’t help the artists, it robs them of their rightful revenue and is such a poor basis for a business model, it’s unworthy of consideration. Of course, new streaming sites are miles better, offering a legal way to listen to free music. Hmm – Lady Gaga got a million plays on Spotify and earned $167. (click for the full article on torrentfreak.com)

My own two cents:

Before mp3com was bought by some of the big companies they actually started a program, where they - without being asked/forced to do so - paid $1.000.000/month from their advertising income to the artists on the page, based on the hits each artist/band created individually.

Their position was "we earn enough to share it with you, so here you go".

Did it work?

Well, let me say it like this: I'm what I consider a "hobby musician" with my own homestudio and I had some moderate success there. Compared to a big hit on the radio that runs several times each day, my tunes were played like once a week, but they were played.

For a while that was enough to earn *more* than Lady Gaga's $160 in a smegging month.