Is it free to upload these files? Maybe a 1¢ fee would be enough to kill a majority of the spam.

Effectively yes. There are plenty of music distributors that have “no fee” distribution where they simply take a percentage of any royalties.

I suspect we are going to see that model quickly go out of favour though.

really? there are ways of putting music on Spotify that don't involve paying a fee upfront at any time?

	▲	mjr00 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes, last I checked at least LANDR, Amuse and Tunecore all had plans where you release for free and they take a % of royalties.
	▲	saaaaaam 7 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yes, lots.