
As a musician with a small catalog on the streaming sites, everyone other than Spotify seems to pay at least something. I am still on Apple Music despite my issues with the UI because they actually pay a good amount for streams. I got more from a handful of streams in TikTok than from thousands of streams on Spotify. The truth is that unless your big, your basically putting music on Spotify for free.
I don’t think we were ever literally the best country, those tend to be the nordics. I believe (and I guess I should do some research) that “the greatest country on earth” was a marketing slogan. Like the local coffee shop that says they have the best coffee in the country or something. It was a very successful marketing campaign considering it’s still being believed and discussed.