Theft is theft?

As for current artists, there are legal methods for them to collect the fruit of their labors. What fruits? What labors?

What does the average musician make when their work is listened to on Spotify? Does anyone in this thread really know?

Apple has been selling music by the track for what- ten years? How much of that goes to the artist?

Are we talking fair trade? Or legal theft?

When Ricky Lee Jones played here, I paid for a USB bracelet which contained ALL her albums. The music belonged to me, was not DRM and did not waste space.

I can comprehend a system that pays a creator a modicum everytime their work is played at the request of a user.

I don't have a lot of respect for the middlemen who create nothing and charge for the use of other people's work, but have parlayed their ownership of other peoples' work into profits for themselves. Case in point, the folks who sued and charged for every use of the "Happy Birthday" song long after it was gone from its creators and their relatives.

So where is the money really going?