Van Dyke Parks on How Songwriters Are Getting Screwed

The crux of the problem is streaming payment has so far been figured on equivalence to radio royalties, which traditionally were payed only to publishers and not artists. OK, artists are starting to get something from streaming, but the assumption of streaming is still 'radio.'

But what's happening as life goes on in this century, streaming will soon be ALL THERE IS. (The exception, which I see as the future of ownership, will be equivalent to HD tracks today.) In that case, per instance pays for streaming will have to reflect the value of the artist and composer's creation and the labor involved in that creation. 

At the same time, there's got to be a modern equivalence of 'radio' (youtube?) to allow people to be attracted to a particular song enough to 'value' it.

How much would you pay as subscription or per/play for "radio" when radio is all there is, and you can hear any music by any artist any time and anywhere you like? Think about that, because there has to be some kind of re-writing of music royalty rate to reflect the current and future reality.

BTW, I just finished reading an astonishingly detailed and well-written book about the NYC record business from post WWII 'till the mid '60's focusing on the career and works of Bert Burns, who wrote and produced a gigantic body of work for Atlantic Records and others, called "Here Comes The Night, the Dark Soul of Bert Burns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues" by Joel Selvin. Burns was right up there with Leiber and Stoller in the creation of pop and r&b music in NY, yet I'd never heard of him prior to this book.

As a kid from Long Island who started absorbing pop music from the late '50's onward, this book is the backstory of the soundtrack of my life, almost up to the time where I was doing it myself, when I got into the NYC music business scene in the end of the '60's. I had casual acquaintance with quite a few of the characters in this history, when our band was coming up, and the heyday of that era was winding down.

Anyone who thinks there EVER was a time where there was a level playing field for artists to get into the business, or that songwriters or especially artists EVER got a fair deal from the business that was popular music, this book will be a revelation. 

I suppose the median age of people here are younger than me, but anyone with affection for the music created during that time would enjoy this book. It's a triumph of research and skillfully and engagingly written.

Very good article, but I fear Van Dyke is only preaching to the choir. I think the real crux of the problem is that the 'industry' never had any consideration for the creators, the very people that made them big. Not now and not 50 years ago. Artists have always been fvcked by record labels and publishers. The labels have been replaced by the the Spotifys of this world, who are even worse in fvcking artists. With this attitude, the industry destroys itself. Unfortunately, it also destroys us, the artists, and has already robbed millions of consumers of meaningful entertainment. What's left is a generation of losers with ring tones and generic wallpaper music. The sad thing is that they don't mind. Maybe our children's children will rediscover the value of music and art, the current i-generation won't.