> I am confused by the story: isn't the person who made the big bucks here a person who "mainly does songwriting"? The law says the songwriter is entitled to s

> I am confused by the story: isn't the person who made the big bucks here a person who "mainly does songwriting"? The law says the songwriter is entitled to songwriting royalties. In practice, famous artists' managers negotiate with poor unknown songwriters to take a percentage of the songwriters royalty by pretending that the artist co-wrote or wholly wrote the song. This is made possible by supply and demand, and asymmetrical market access. Famous artists can sell millions of recordings, even if the songs aren't so great. They have long queues of songwriters trying to offer them material for that reason. Great unknown songwriters can't sell great songs unless they are recorded by someone famous or connected, because nobody will hear them. To resolve these dynamics and make deals, mangers since ancient times have made talented unknown songwriters offers they can't refuse: Give away a percentage of the songwriting royalty (by crediting an artist for co-writing or writing the melody or the lyric) in exchange for jumping ahead of other talented unknown songwriters in the queue to get to market.