Spotify pays the labels who pay the artists. So shouldn't the artists work on negotiating better agreements with labels? That might compel labels to negotiate a better agreement with Spotify assuming that is possible. If any party overplays its card, it could all come tumbling down:

- if artists demand too much payment from labels, labels won't sign them

- if labels demand too much from spotify, spotify won't sign them

- if spotify doesn't sign enough labels or pays too much to them, it will die either due to not enough music or not enough revenue to find growth.