Royalty Scam?

Here’s a little something to go with your Saturday morning coffee. Billy Bragg wrote an article which appeared in the online edition of the New York Times today.

Essentially he argues that songwriters and musicians who upload their music to social networking sites, or anywhere on the Internet for that matter, add value to these websites and therefore the artists should be compensated with some sort of royalty. The music on these sites helps the companies who own them to attract advertisers and also increases the value of the websites making them more attractive to investors.

After all, when a site like Bebo sells for $850 million, you have to wonder, as Billy Bragg does, shouldn’t the artists whose music has contributed to the value of this sale receive some compensation?