You have the labels that control all the catalog, not because they invested directly in it, but because they bought their nascent rivals and their major rivals often at fire sale prices. Spotify launches, and in order to get access to that catalog, Spotify sells significant chunks of equity to the labels. The labels are investors in Spotify; they own a big piece of it. They negotiate a rate with Spotify that is very low per stream, and that means the revenue that Spotify generates doesn't come to the labels in their guise as license source who have licensed music to them. It comes to them as investors who have made an investment, because now Spotify has a better monetary but cash basis. They're paying less for the music they have, but they also have a "most favored nation status" deal. If you're an independent label going in, you have to sell at the same rate that the labels themselves have done.