The royalty system is so convoluted there are likely billions of dollars that go unchecked annually. There are so many people earning massive amounts of money on the free labor of others that goes unregulated and unchecked... It's simply deep deception and crime. People struggle for their art, and in the process they are making money for everyone else but themselves in most cases on sites/apps like YouTube. sure it's great to have access to free content, but the underlying truth is that it makes tons of profit, but little to none of that is shared with the people creating that content... The money is only shared with the major interests that control content on YouTube and other Social Media sites.

One of the main reasons why I think Social Media has ritually suppressed views on indie music is because they are made as money funnels into major music interests... If they don't allow Independent music to be seen on the platforms, then they never have to pay independent musicians stream royalties... On top of that, they charge independent musicians to promote ads on their platforms that don't result in going viral, so organic streams dry up quickly after paid ads run.

After all of these years of technological innovation, data can be managed and tallied in real time... Why do music royalty payments take 6 months to a year to pay out? Why are there so many steps in registering music works to an artist name? Why haven't VERY PROFITABLE operations like YouTube not set up direct portals for music and film sales without involving distributors? Why are the MAJORITY of artists creating content and music displayed on sites like YouTube working unpaid (or VERY UNDERPAID) for years until they simply burn out? Why are platforms so greedy that they don't even tag or promote independent content properly any more (leaving uploaders to tag and pay for ads to promote their own uploaded content)? On top of all the profit platforms make from free labor of content creators, they now charge creators for promoting internally within each platform... It's a very lazy profit model that social media sites leverage like a pyramid scheme regularly.

NFTs and Crypto have also been wide spread scams that milked tons of money out of already unprofitable social media creator efforts of many. The entire concept of business on the Internet has been shifted towards a total scam economy that only serves large companies that are already flush with profit. It's insane to think about it, as everyone is struggling to get a foothold on success. I hate to sound pessimistic, but the top few online creators that many look up to are often either backed by large media companies (but working hard to "look" organic and independent) or they are really not making profit anywhere near to what large media companies are making through "under the table" platform partnerships.

As creators, we really have to stop coddling this system and taking the success approaches that platforms peddle, they are a fruitless waste of time.

We also have to stop supporting the scripted schemes from platforms that are pushed upon us, or we'll disappear into the void of nothingness after we burn out broke. There is a pandemic of failing independent creator rewards on the Internet, in addition to all of the other threats we are facing right now. Greed is strangling creativity.