Most musicians are not making their money from copyright but from performances. Only a tiny % of musicians ever get a record deal. Of those with record deals, t

Most musicians are not making their money from copyright but from performances. Only a tiny % of musicians ever get a record deal. Of those with record deals, the vast majority of the earnings goes to the record label and not the artist. Earnings from copyrighted musical works probably follows a pareto distribution--something like 90% of earnings are accrued by <10% of copyright holders. So the copyright regime rewards, in order, 1. music distributors, 2. big name artists, and finally 3. most other artists who receive only token earnings. Music was an idyllic vocation before records and long before copyright. There are many ways to support the arts other than copyright. Grants for public theatres, music education, and street venues would be more egalitarian and benefit more musicians than a copyright regime.