Who am I supporting?

Your dollars are in many cases going to the corporate owners of the copyrights for the music. Look at what Universal did Monday - bought Dylan's 600 song catalog! There's gold in dem dar hills!

trentmemphis

Big Jazz Hound here. If there are any living family members/trusts and/or owners of the copyrights per roberjerman.

Happy Listening!

The business of music is a business, just like any other. Where the money goes in the case of a deceased performing artist or songwriter depends in part upon the deals they struck and whether they’ve been renegotiated, contracts terminated, popularity of the content at the time of release, and a host of other factors, including the popularity of the particular songs or recorded performances today.
When the industry got whacked by file sharing, the consumer benefitted at the expense of both the industry and the artist community due to the "free" exchange of music over the Net. Now that streaming in its various forms has become established, it’s no longer the record label as gatekeeper but big Data.
Yes, Universal (who bought Dylan’s catalog) is big, but the money paid for those copyrights seemed to reflect an assessment that there were some enduring songs, many covered by others, but in some respects the numbers were low compared to the days of yore. Dylan is a prestige name to have in the roster of a back catalog. Universal’s holdings are vast. It would be great fun to plunder that catalog for reissues.
There are too many stories of musicians who never saw a dime. Who signed with bad business people, had their records released haphazardly and got lost in the vast trove of popular music that was being exploited from the youth explosion in the ’60s ’til now. Some of that music simply got lost- whether it was private label or small independent releases that were never legitimately reissued. And that assumes a demand for the music. Some of it is simply forgotten or neglected, occasionally to be brought back by some savvy music director--e.g., Badfinger’s Baby Blue during the finale of Breaking Bad.. There are a lot of stories in the naked city and few of them are happy ones.

Many contemporary artists self release albums or have websites where they sell their albums.  Purchasing from these sites is the only way to be sure the artist will profit from your purchase

Who are you supporting? Lawyers. Accountants. Coders. Maybe even an artist or two. At least, for now. Eventually the lawyers and accountants will figure out how to get the coders to create AI that can make music people want to buy, and cut the artists out altogether.