True. In fact, you can take the bug labels part out of it. It costs way more than people think to run a business, period. Even businesses that purposefully keep staffing small to maintain agility will tell you it takes a lot of people to be able to truly get anything done, and none of those people are working for free. So, yeah. A good portion of that $10 mil gross made off of those million copies sold was spoken for up front.
But if we're being honest, even if Spotify were to offer full disclosure on whatever metrics Joe wanted, what their revenue was off of his streams, and their overhead, he still wouldn't have been happy. He'd probably say them having such high cost of operation is their problem, and doesn't see how it affects his situation.
Again, I want Joe to get what he's looking for, and enjoy the podcast most of the time, but there are times where this guy argues shyt that anyone who's ever had to hold down a job for more than a couple of months has come to understand.