You know how the RIAA whines about how downloading music of the Internet is really hurting the artists? How it’s not so much about the greedy, parasitic corporate suits as it is about the struggling, bona-fide musicians who are just trying to get by–except for all you lousy, stinking criminals who keep stealing their music and taking food out of starving artists’ mouths? And so forth and yadda yadda yadda.

Well, despite the fact that the musicians do all the work, spilling their hearts into the music, writing and arranging and performing, the RIAA pays them a pittance–and now wants to cut that even further. Despite the fact that digital downloads and digital streaming costs far less to distribute than traditional CDs, the RIAA thinks that current royalties paid for a music track (now at 9 cents) is much too high. They want to pay less than that. For a downloaded track, the songwriters are asking for 15 cents; the RIAA wants to cut the current rate by about half, down to 5 cents.

For streaming music–aka Internet radio–the artists want 12.5% of the money made. The RIAA: take 0.6% and be happy with our extreme generosity. Why? Because, they say, streaming music is like radio and artists don’t deserve any of that revenue. Which is full of it, because radio doesn’t pay, last I checked, while streaming music now does. The RIAA wants all the money made from streaming music, and wants to give the artists squat.