Seeing how this thread is full of hate for Spotify by seeming large number of people who are fans of streaming music/podcast services, I'll pos this question here:
What are the better alternatives for someone seeking to get their favored audios, in terms of library selection, able to form custom playlists and how much if any support to the artist/content creator actually gets to them and what is pocketed by the app?
Go to their concerts, buy the official merchandise and get CD’s or pay the whole albums like on qobuz (they also have streaming, but they sell hi-res flac)
That is a complex question but my line of thought is this: artists have accepted legal agreements on how to sell/stream their work and how much they get for it. You as a consumer don't need to worry about this. If there is a way to buy/stream the product legally then the artist has approved of getting money that way.
Basically i don't think this should be a point to discourage buying audio and owning it. The alternative is never owning music and tough luck if a song gets pulled because of legal disputes or whatever.
tough luck if a song gets pulled because of legal disputes or whatever.
This is the thing I hated about Google Play Music. I had some playlists where half of the songs were missing due to various issues between Google and the music labels.
All of the services steal from artists, so I'd recommend ripping MP3 tracks from Youtube. There are several tools online for this purpose. Yes, the artist gets nothing, but the more important thing is the services stealing from the artists don't get anything either.
Do this and then compensate the artist in other ways. Buy music directly from them if you can, or buy their merch, or something of that ilk.