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Micropayments (charged in mills, not cents) is the solution. Downloading books remains essentially "free" for the individual but the Internet scale is such that authors would receive compensation for their work. The Spotify model is better than downright piracy. It is very difficult to compete with free.

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I would argue precisely that downright piracy is better than the Spotify model. It is based in micro-micropayments, so much so that even at internet scale very few artists outside of the uber-macro-Taylor-Swift size get proper compensation. Sending a single dollar through Bandcamp amounts to hundreds of listens on Spotify.

It really sucks, but I'd rather pirate and know I'm at fault with the artist – maybe I'll buy some tracks off Bandcamp to make up for it – rather than let Spotify cover the transaction with a legal blanket, while the artists get almost nothing in return.

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