I'm not saying they had it butter smooth (great projects rarely start in completely free-for-all environments). Main stopper was distribution of licenses. Ther

I'm not saying they had it butter smooth (great projects rarely start in completely free-for-all environments). Main stopper was distribution of licenses. There were 100s of LLCs splitted into multi-level trees by ~30 big music groups keeping all the licenses and supervised by artists association. Every LLC kept 2-5 music distribution licenses without any discrimination, local musicians, foreign musicians. Licenses were in constant flux (it wasn't uncommon to 2 companies exchange licenses on weekly basis). A simple reason was income distribution for tax reasons and law sanctioned such procedures. Changes came no earlier than in 2012 when many digital services were already available. And I know that simple answer would be "just ignore the law", but that was also a time when BSA with Microsoft were doing raids with hardware seizure (many of which overturned in courts years after initial seizure). There's no equality of opportunities. That's it and nothing more.