One popular alternative to the ‘pro-rata’ streaming royalty model is the so-called ‘user-centric’ (UC) model. Here, the ≈70% royalty-bearing portion of an individual user’s subscription fee is paid out only to artists that specific individual has listened to; there is no central ‘pool’ of royalties. Universal Music Group, however, is on the record as having concerns about the UC model.
Source: Universal is investigating new royalty payout models for streaming. Which one will it choose?