How do artists get paid on streaming music apps?
 

I have watched enough Youtube to know that the more subscribes someone gets, the better. And likes are also good (but I think not as good).

What about streaming services like Pandora (what I use), Spotify, etc...? I assume there are similarities.

For instance, If I create a "station" based on a particular artist, song, or album, does that help them?

While listening to Pandora, I can thumb-up and thumb-down songs or I can keep listening but not do either. Is there a difference for the artist if I enjoy listening but don't thumb-up versus if I do thumb-up specific songs?

I'm assuming that artists have to sign up/contract/possibly-pay to get their songs registered into the services, and then I assume they get royalties per play or is something else going on?

Not in industry but have read tons of copyright info on geek sites etc

From what I understand, most artists/bands dont own the copyright to the actual tracks on the cd/whatever - their record label does.

The way commercial radio, streaming services like Pandora, theters that play music as part of a show, etc all license the rights to play the music commercially, stream, whatever. For example, our theater dept has a license to use everything in the BMG catalog...

Of course all based on the artists contract with the label, etc.