Streaming Shakes Up Music Industry’s Model for Royalties - NYTimes.com

A stark streaming snapshot

"In the new economics of streaming music, however, the river of nickels looks more like a torrent of micropennies.
Spotify, Pandora and others like them pay fractions of a cent to record companies and publishers each time a song is played, some portion of which goes to performers and songwriters as royalties. Unlike the royalties from a sale, these payments accrue every time a listener clicks on a song, year after year.
The question dogging the music industry is whether these micropayments can add up to anything substantial."

Streaming Shakes Up Music Industry’s Model for Royalties - NYTimes.com