People just do not know how this industry works and they look at Spotify as this great evil, which works great for Ticketmaster and the RIAA. Whilst you get pissed at Spotify's grifting, they can rob the artists blind. It's like a con man distracting you with a shell game whilst someone pickpockets your friends.

I feel independent artists who refuse to play the RIAA and Ticketmaster's games (justifiably so) also overestimate how much people are willing or even able to pay for music these days, or how small their audience will be without promotion (which costs money). Yes Spotify are terrible and ripping off artists. That's true. However, it isn't like things were better *before* Spotify even if you distributed music yourself (honestly, *especially* if you did).