It’s hard to say if it’s unhealthy or not. It’s basically the same model as Spotify. Is streaming music bad for the music industry? It’s not obvious to me what the answer is.
I subscribe to Apple News and the $120 / year is far, far more than I was spending on magazine subscriptions in the past.
You can't compare entertainment (music) with journalism. The economics are completely different. You'll listen to the same song dozens of times, you're not going to read the same news article dozens of times, for example.
I guess it does say a lot about the state of the press if people conflate the two so easily, though.
You’re missing the forest for the trees. Do the details of pay per play vs pay per read really matter?
The point is that because of service X, business Y gets more money from me than they would otherwise. How typical am I of service X subscribers? As a group, are rights holders getting more money from us or less?
I subscribe to Apple News and the $120 / year is far, far more than I was spending on magazine subscriptions in the past.