How many would have bought an mp3 but didn't because they could hear it on the station? How many went out and actually bought the mp3/cd because they discovered it on the streaming station? How many went to a concert of the artist after discovering them on this. We don't know these.
It's possible that the artist has actually made more than the statement amount if people went out and bought his material after discovering it on streaming. Or maybe not. But back when CDs were the only real option, I remember buying many, many CDs for only one or two songs and being extremely disappointed with the rest of the album. As a consumer, I believe I grossly overpaid for music when CDs were the norm. Just because an artist could make X amount before internet radio doesn't mean they should be making X amount now.
Those are good questions but they don't necessarily support the conclusion that streaming is a net financial benefit to the songwriter. I did the back-of-napkin math once, and came up with this:
If a single fan would listen to your mp3 around 1000 times or more, you hope the fan will stream your mp3 rather than buy it, as you'd make more money that way. Otherwise you hope they will buy it.
As for the "discovery" benefit of services like Spotify, you have to factor in that Spotify also robs paid downloads. Why would someone download if they can stream from Spotify? So, in order for it to make sense, you have to ask if the benefit in music discovery makes up for the cost of losing album/download sales. That's a much higher bar than to just hand-wave and say "Well I buy some stuff I discover on Spotify!"
It's possible that the artist has actually made more than the statement amount if people went out and bought his material after discovering it on streaming. Or maybe not. But back when CDs were the only real option, I remember buying many, many CDs for only one or two songs and being extremely disappointed with the rest of the album. As a consumer, I believe I grossly overpaid for music when CDs were the norm. Just because an artist could make X amount before internet radio doesn't mean they should be making X amount now.