>look up what Ed makes on Spotify per play, vs what the average person would

How does Ed Sheeran make per play, and how does that compare to the $0.003 that (I assume) the average person makes?

Spotify spent a long time in negations to get that price, and I'm not aware of any credible claims they pay higher rates to popular artists (outside perhaps limited time launch promotions)

I think the more interesting question is how much Sheeran gets vs his record company, but that isn't a Spotify thing.

https://artists.spotify.com/en/help/article/royalties

From there, the rightsholder’s share of net revenue is determined by streamshare.

We calculate streamshare by tallying the total number of streams in a given month and determining what proportion of those streams were people listening to music owned or controlled by a particular rightsholder.

https://indepentia.com/blog/how-much-does-spotify-pay-per-st...

For example: if Billie Eilish receives 2% of all Spotify streams in a month, she will receive 2% of that month’s available streaming royalties.

So the more streams you do, the higher your streamshare, the higher your average pay per steam.

Yes it annoys the hell out of me that I support so many underground bands and realise that 60% of my subscription fee is probably going to pop artists.

But I don't really know what the point of that is - sure maybe now he could go on his own and take it all, and coast for a while with existing fan base, no marketing or major concerts, etc. - but he presumably (at least at the time he last locked in to x years) thinks that's value for money.

^not actually on Spotify, sorry to disappoint!

Artist frequently complain that Spotify isn't paying them enough, but forgetting that the record companies take a very large chuck of the profits, just to act as an increasingly irrelevant middleman.