In an opinion piece for Music Business Worldwide, Daniel J. Carucci, a physician-turned-entrepreneur and founder of fan-patronage platform Tipify, argues the music industry is built on a "false hypothesis": that fans must receive something tangible in return for financially supporting an artist. He contends this assumption is a leftover of the pre-digital era, when buying a physical record was the only way to access music, and that it has persisted unquestioned even though streaming removed the mechanical need for a transaction, effectively turning artists into "fulfilment companies" chasing ever more elaborate rewards schemes rather than direct support.

Carucci, who previously led global health initiatives for the US Navy and the Gates Foundation, draws an analogy with medical research, comparing the industry's fixation on tangible rewards to the discredited belief that stress alone caused stomach ulcers, a "confounder" that obscured the true bacterial cause until Nobel laureates Barry Marshall and Robin Warren proved otherwise. He argues platforms such as Patreon, Bandcamp and subscription tiers all reinforce the same flawed premise, and that data instead shows devoted fans simply want a direct way to back artists they believe in, rather than more content or merchandise in exchange.