Pandora and Spotify pay artists virtually nothing for their services, and still rely on intellectual property, as they are the only legitimate venues for listening to copyrighted music in this distorted economy. Soundcloud was once considered a godsend; here was a place where anyone can upload music for free and build up a fanbase. But then, the copyright algorithms took over - artists would upload a tune and because a shoddy algorithm tagged it for copyright infringement, would have to fight to have it uploaded. And then the ads took over...I still remember the first day I heard an ad on Soundcloud. They had just forced everyone to start using a new, awful interface that ignored usability for a pleasant aesthetic. Now, there is a paid premium Soundcloud service, so you can use it as it was originally intended - without ads.
There are pirates, and there are those who accept copyright. Intellectual property will always corrupt, and Spotify and Pandora embody this along with Soundcloud.
Hopefully the blockchain will solve this. But then there comes the issue of plagiarism...something Soundcloud knows much about