Funny that Edison abandoned the record business to enter the radio business. Which is true, because Edison Electric became General Electric, and they were heavily into radio. At one time. Edison's mistake was he stuck to the cylinder, and didn't like flat records.
Back to the royalties, it was recently announced that Sony/ATV is considering withdrawing its rights from BMI and ASCAP. So even though we pay those two entities billions, we won't be able to play any Sony songs. That could be a big problem. The reason is that the digital royalty paid to SoundExchange is ten times the amount paid to BMI and ASCAP. It's way too much, and we've known that for years. Except that the songwriters are now upset that they get less than the record labels. This is what happens when you have a screwed up royalty system.