[Fmpro] Napster d_load proceeds?

[Jim Chase]

Just when you thought it was safe to receive Fmpro messages again...
Where does the Money Go?

As a Napster subscriber, I often pay to download "Feel Good" music.  I 
get a warm fuzzy feeling while giving something back to the music
community, of which I am a small part.  A percentage of the $ that I pay
to Napster should go the artist, or their heirs for the next
seventy-plus years.  Right?  Okay, 95 years in the UK pending.

Does the money just disappear into the deep dark pockets of Napster?
Some big cigar-smoking suit at Napster buys a third vacation house, in
Bimini, while creative artists and their heirs get a whole lot of zero,
zip, zilch, nada, nyet nothing out the window down the toilet maybe next
month, can I put you on hold, waiter check please?  Oh yeah, as per our
agreement, enclosed is a check for $18.54 for your 7,904 downloaded songs.

Being a film music composer, and a retired working musician, I have
always thought that it's a good thing to spread the wealth among my
fellow composers and song writers* by purchasing music.  Napster
subscribers pay an insignificant monthly fee, as well as a 99 cent
download fee per song, but where does that Napster download money go?
Suddenly, those Napster downloads don't feel so good.  Warm fuzzy
feeling, slipping away...

Does anyone have a clue as to what happens to the $0.99 per d_loaded
title?  Napster is not telling.  They just tell you what a great service
they provide, and the FAQS (?)  are useless in regard to distribution
of royalties and mechs.  Internet searches such as "Napster Payment to
Artists" will yield articles that are more than five years old.  No
doubt this topic cleared the Fmpro list long before I joined in.  Thanks
in advance if you can re-hash the subject for all of us on the late show.

Jim Chase
*oops, I mentioned "song writers" on the Fmpro list.  Please excuse my
previous indiscretions.  I was young, and foolish.