I also got the email and received about $2 haha.

I do think that in this case they may have launched the payments for member listening time a bit prematurely (to take into account that so few listens took place as the feature was added last month).

Usually you want to get writers hyped and a few bucks (after the Medium Partner Program Bonuses and Medium Referred Membership Bonuses) did feel like a small let down). For those wondering/new to Medium: https://bloggingguide.com/medium-bonus-tiers/

https://bloggingguide.com/medium-referred-memberships/

But hopefully this is more of an issue with the amount of eligible listeners (I'm a fan of the feature as a reader/listener).

And btw, I certainly read/remember you're writing, and while I don't have a huge presence on Medium, I haven't heard much from Medium or the "current big writers" recently so my guess is you are not the only one feeling left out. As always, keep it up and best wishes!