Once the late Leonard Cohen was told by an executive “You are one of the people at the top of the music industry but now there is no music industry.”
There used to be royalties paid when old songs were played on department store, restaurant and supermarket sound systems for instance. Then some groups of artists’ agents tried to track the money and found a tiny percent ever got to them.
The excuse “Well, even so, it’s good to get the exposure so fans will think about buying your CDs later.” Some agents sued but didn’t get very far.
Cohen’s manager of 16 years stole more than $5 million from his retirement fund he had set up, leaving him with only $150,000. Apparently there were other shenanigans she was involved in too.