Look, I’ve explained this to you as best I can, and you just refuse to accept reality.
The simple truth is the idea that 3 minutes of entertainment is worth lots of money is insane, in todays world its not worth much, it just isn’t if you think it is you are living in a dream world.
End of the day the artist created a piece of content, does it have value? Sure, but what is its value? Per listen? Not a whole lot. That piece of content sells for $1.29 for unlimited listening for infinity to anyone who actually wishes to buy it. Break that down by times its listened to and you aren’t making much money either. The only difference is the artist doesn’t see the breakdown of how many times the song is listened to by the owner.
I bought a copy of Glass Houses in 1980something, I paid maybe $10 or $15 for it. I guarantee I have listened to songs from it over the past 30 years tens of thousands of times... Now, do the math, $10 divided by 10,000 is .001 per song. That’s the reality.
If you need further proof of the value of entertainment in todays world, Go read this, and comprehend.
A typical movie is 90 minutes long, and they are getting on average 10 cents per time its viewed, that boils down to .001 per minute, and reality is most movies aren’t even making that.
So that’s the value of entertainment, to think Apple is screwing the artists is nonsense. Its the reality of the world. The difference between an content maker (artist) and a delivery system like apple is, the content maker is 1 of thousands of people making content today... As such is has less value. Go out and look at any other art form... Yes, there may be a few very famous painters who can charge $10,000 or $100,000 per painting, but the vast majority make diddly.
Apple is doing a hell of a lot more work than that 5 or 10 member band, they are creating, maintaining and upkeeping all the infrastructure that gets the content to the user. Do you bitch that the Network makes more money than the actor? They do the same thing. Or that the cruise ship operator will make more money off the boat than the boat builder made in profit to build it? Its the same model, and the same reality.
The idea that artist are getting screwed by apple or other streamers is nonsense. For your argument to make sense would mean that Sony, Universal, et al, are some of the dumbest companies on the planet and are settling for lower profits than they could get.. because the deals are generally with them... Do you think BMI et al are saying hey, lets voluntarily give up profits? Do you really think they do that?
Reality is 3 minutes of entertainment isn’t worth dirt in the world today, people are so saturated with entertainment options that there is little value for 3 minutes of entertainment.... in large enough scale money can be made from it, but that’s about it.
And see there is where your whole argument falls apart, because you have little understanding of the Indie Music scene. Indies don't have deals with Sony etc. THEY (The Indies) MAKE THE MONEY so they don't need the big labels/publishers anymore. Broadcast Radio is dying Internet Radio is soaring and the problem for Big Media is they can't dominate the internet radio Market because anyone with enough start-up cash can create an Internet radio station So streaming is the attempt by Big Media to wrest control back and bring the indies under their thumb.
It used to be Big Media controlled the creation process because studios were so expensive to build and operate. Now a 1200 dollar lap top a few mics and a digital interface and free legal software and anyone can have a recording system the Beatles could only dream about when they recorded all that great music.
Then Big Media relied on distribution and manufacturing to control the market and along comes the internet and the digital revolution and anyone can create a professionally made CD and or Digital file that is as good and many times better than what the Big Media companies produce and sell it to anyone anywhere in the world with a website or an Amazon seller account..
Their final hold on the music industry was Broadcast radio but two things destroyed that, the personal mp3 player and youtube/internet radio.
Now their only hope to stop the flow of musicians shunning them and making the bucks themselves is to get choke hold on who hears the music. The payola scam is already starting with streamers wanting cash to place your music on the load screens and recommendations etc.
And they get control of that delivery system for pennies on the dollar over the cost of the old Broadcast radio delivery system.
See the screwing is coming at Indies from all directions because Big Media knows their business model is crumbling fast and they are clawing for control because they stand to lose Billions of dollars.