Sharing a concrete example:
4 friends of mine are in a moderately successful band in LA. They have 1M monthly listeners on Spotify, and their top track has 17M plays. Spotify sends them ~$2k/month, which isn’t enough for 4 to live on (they live together, and record with their own equipment in a rented house). To make ends meet, they play live shows and tour (which isn’t an option anymore). Support your favorite bands by buying merch.
This implies that every listener would have bought the CD. In reality, many of these listeners were just letting the playlist roll without thinking about it, and would not have spent a penny out of their pockets for that particular song.
