As I understand, artists haven't made much from record sales or radio deals historically. Most of that money goes to publishers. Instead, artists used those m

As I understand, artists haven't made much from record sales or radio deals historically. Most of that money goes to publishers. Instead, artists used those mediums to boost their popularity and made most of their income from merchandise and live performances. If I had to guess at what's going on here, I'd bet this is driven more by publishers than artists. Music publishers are becoming increasingly irrelevant as platforms like Spotify enable artists to distribute their work more directly at similar margins. Artists are probably just the poster child used to garner sympathy for the cause from the public.