Streaming, Royalties & Digital Rights : The Contracts That Keep Artists Poor

Music makes billions. Artists make peanuts.

Who really makes money from music—and who doesn’t?

Streaming, Royalties & Digital Rights: The Contracts That Keep Artists Poor

In Part 2 of this series on music copyright, Suchitra Krishnamoorthi is in conversation with Sanjay Tandon, a leading advocate for performers’ rights in the Indian music industry.

Sanjay Tandon played a key role in shaping the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) into a government-recognised copyright body and later went on to found ISAMRA—the Indian Singers and Musicians Rights Association. In this episode, he breaks down how copyright laws, royalty structures, and industry practices have historically failed singers and musicians, and what has changed—and still needs to change—in the digital era.

Together, they explore who really earns from music, why performers were left out of the system for decades, and what fair compensation should actually look like in today’s music economy.