I have been meaning to write about the NY Times piece on royalties in the age of streaming music. People have talked about how real dollars have turned into digital nickels when music went online and sales went from records to individual songs. With streaming, the argument goes, “the river of nickels looks more like a torrent of micropennies.” The first big gaping whole in the article was that it made no attempt at unpacking what part of the economics goes to labels versus individual artists....

I have been meaning to write about the NY Times piece on royalties in the age of streaming music. People have talked about how real dollars have turned into digital nickels when music went online and sales went from records to individual songs. With streaming, the argument goes, “the river of nickels looks more like a torrent of micropennies.” The first big gaping whole in the article was that it made no attempt at unpacking what part of the economics goes to labels versus individual artists....