In re: “They play your music on the radio. If you are popular you sell lots of records and people want you for concerts. That’s how it always worked. If your music is old and/or unpopular in later life, you should have saved the money you made when you were popular.”
O.K., let’s say that’s all it is, and you are right.
Then why have the song writers always been paid royalties by the AM and FM stations??
And where in the hell would song writers be if no one performed what they wrote? And who in hell even remembers the song writer? Their songs may become famous but in most cases they never do.
The business-smart vocalists are those who are singer-song writers. They get the royalties even when others perform their songs.
As there hasn’t been any good new songs on the radio since the 1970s and I have all the ones I want digitally on my phone, computer and thumb drives the point is moot to me.