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The people who make the music get paid last.
For more than a century, the music business has changed its packaging — sheet music, records, radio, CDs, streams — while keeping one pattern: the creators are paid last, least, or not at all.
Paid Last is a short, sourced history of how that happened, and what to look for before you sign your next deal.
A very old story in new packaging
38¢
in Stephen Foster's pocket when he died in 1864, after “Oh! Susanna” made publishers a fortune.
$16.89
what one songwriter reported earning from over a million plays of a single song in one quarter.
1,000
plays a track needed on a major streaming service before it generated any recorded-music royalties.
Every figure is sourced in the book’s endnotes. Contested claims are labeled as contested.
What’s inside
- 1Sheet Music, Tin Pan Alley, and the First Professional Songwriters
- 2Race Records, Flat Fees, and the Early Recording Business
- 3Recoupment, Rock & Roll, Radio, and Who Owned the Songs
- 4The CD Era, Bad Math, and 360 Deals
- 5Napster, Downloads, and the Collapse of the Old Scarcity
- 6Streaming: Subscription Pools and the Floor at 1,000 Plays
- 7Why StarFarm Was Created — and How It Reverses the Model
A checklist you can use today
- Know your price and your math.
- Keep your rights.
- Register your songs.
- Use your data.
- Treat fans as patrons, not traffic.
The last chapter shows how StarFarm reverses the model: artists set their own per-play price, get paid immediately, and every play is verified.
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Make music? See how StarFarm pays artists per play.