To paraphrase Talking Heads, how did we get here? How do we work this?8 It starts with a basic problem for artists—that they signed contracts drafted for the vinyl age, when huge analog production and distribution costs stood between recording artists and their potential consumers. Heap told us, “When I first found a record label, I think I managed to get something like fifteen percent. My last record deal a few years ago, I got maybe nineteen percent. If people are lucky, they might get more now.”9 Artists may have assigned their rights to a label for the full term of copyright. In the
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