Music distribution, as well as other worldly matters, cost money.
It was also a strongly gate-kept industry, while this isn't the case anymore.
The main reason for gate-keeping is supposedly to "keep the financial equation fair for everybody".
The problem is nobody knows most of the parameter in the equation, not even the gate-keepers themselves.
Why? Because the basis for how payments should be done, the mythical "play", is gamed by bot networks.
The bot networks are used by small and big artists.
Officially, the gate-keepers (Spotify) do not releases official numbers of real data, officially to not give better tools to the bad guys (bot networks).
Of course, we know how well security by obscurity works, and it makes everyone dependent on trusting the gate-keeper, now Spotify rather than the music labels.
Another point is while the revolution in the distribution model happened, another one happened which is that the gate-keeping essentially disappeared.
In any case, the industry has embraced that through for example DistroKid being targeted at making a small revenue from any aspiring musician without any musical barrier. Note that Spotify has shares in Distrokid, even though they have pinky-sweared this special relationship does not give either to Spotify nor Distrokid any advantage regarding access to data from other involved third parties (other marketplaces, labels, etc).
To round it up, even if the parameters of the financial equations are partly released, the creative industry is known for its "creative accounting" (also known as Hollywood accounting).
The creative accounting lets the industry take advantage of the tax breaks that are offered to the music industry in basically all countries on some conditions, and stretch these conditions to situations that the spirit of the law normally excludes.
There is another incentive to lie about the numbers. It gives the possibility to undercut any viable competition to consolidate a monopoly (the Amazon method).
I believe that the only thing that can really improve the situation is way more transparency than we have.
The complaints from musicians are often unrealistic, but it is not their fault as they cannot have a realistic view of what things really cost.
So all they have is to try to strengthen their side in the tug of war.
Ideally we would move away from that process towards a cooperative model, but this is possible only through trust, which cannot be obtained by obscurity.
Another point is while the revolution in the distribution model happened, another one happened which is that the gate-keeping essentially disappeared. In any case, the industry has embraced that through for example DistroKid being targeted at making a small revenue from any aspiring musician without any musical barrier. Note that Spotify has shares in Distrokid, even though they have pinky-sweared this special relationship does not give either to Spotify nor Distrokid any advantage regarding access to data from other involved third parties (other marketplaces, labels, etc).
To round it up, even if the parameters of the financial equations are partly released, the creative industry is known for its "creative accounting" (also known as Hollywood accounting). The creative accounting lets the industry take advantage of the tax breaks that are offered to the music industry in basically all countries on some conditions, and stretch these conditions to situations that the spirit of the law normally excludes.
There is another incentive to lie about the numbers. It gives the possibility to undercut any viable competition to consolidate a monopoly (the Amazon method).
I believe that the only thing that can really improve the situation is way more transparency than we have. The complaints from musicians are often unrealistic, but it is not their fault as they cannot have a realistic view of what things really cost. So all they have is to try to strengthen their side in the tug of war. Ideally we would move away from that process towards a cooperative model, but this is possible only through trust, which cannot be obtained by obscurity.