Artist revenues on streaming have been dropping substantially over the years, not increasing as the companies get larger. There is no shortage of artists talking about what a joke the payments have become.

If Spotify can't make money after cutting royalties 50% over the last 3-4 years how can that possibly work?

Realistically Spotify is a whole bunch of people making a lot of money as middlemen, but they can't seem to figure out how to actually make money.