There's the "music industry" and then there is the music industry. Most independent musicians (which is like, 90% of us, and perhaps 90% of genre representation

There's the "music industry" and then there is the music industry. Most independent musicians (which is like, 90% of us, and perhaps 90% of genre representation) are not represented by any agents of these large parasitic popular-music-peddling corporations, neither in unit sales (cds, downloads) nor streaming nor bookings. While, in this case, we are discussing the large music distributors: Apple, Amazon, etc, I feel it a good time to bring-up the curious fact that, while copyright law exists in a large portion of the world, there are private entities: associations of lawyers, who purport to represent ALL copyright holders for a given nation. ASCAP, BMI, SPA, SUICA, etc...each nation has this private entity sitting on top of copyright law enforcement claiming to be THE money funnel by which people should pay for licensing of all media. Venues where music is played are supposed to keep a list of songs played and pay accordingly, or more usually, there is a flat fee paid as a kind of tax, which ostensibly should go to the artists whose music was played. Copyright societies can visit venues or events with fiscal policing agents and control them. Copyright societies have a global accounting network by which they settle at various intervals. The only kink in the works is that they also collect money for those they DON'T represent (aka, that's what happens when a private entity gets a government sanctioned collections role) and while it's supposed to be accessible for non members to obtain, the reality is that without the proofs of plays that the societies themselves have access too, one will have very little luck... The money sits in the various copyright societies coffers...