You think Soundcloud is evil? I feel like they might be incompetent more than anything. If they just had a good user interface and a decent mobile app, it would possibly be so great. Even right now, it sucks as a site and artists still use it haha.
although people keep saying it's about to die... who knows
edit - the one thing I like about soundcloud is you can upload directly to them instantly - whereas spotify, apple music etc, you have to pay an intermediary and it takes weeks to get anything up.
I have been using Sondcloud for 10+ years. They were the best. They "sold out". No longer looking for the interest of their users...
About the others, most shops (Beatport & co.) used to take a solid 50% of revenue. The other 50% would go to everybody down the chain, with the artist being the last and only getting scraps. Things may have changed by now, that I don't know. I know Spotify works differently, but I don't have any experience on that platform, as it doesn't work in my country.
EDIT: I'm fine with the intermediary distribution systems, but I definitely don't like the scam that is the internet music shops.
Damn, you've been on there way longer than me! I believe you then, that's too bad that they stopped giving artists a decent deal. Maybe blockchain will provide an answer...
Ever since they went from flash to html5 there has not been 1 single improvement for the good. Ether completely trivial or even for the worse. There was an announcement at the time, that the change was for the better (I had hopes then) and that they would improve the platform, blah blah. Bullshit. It's quite obvious that they "sold out" to the corporations. :(
EDIT: You forgot to mention Bandcamp. Probably the best platform right now.