I think the biggest problem they are facing is all of the ancient systems they put into place to make sure people got paid. Once upon a time when the world functioned as separate little places it made sense, now the market is the whole globe not small pieces. You have all of these small groups trying to collect the cash at each turn driving costs up.
With all of the cash they have coming in they still need to have artists contact them to get paid, and jump through hoops… and sometimes they just change the names slightly so the cash sits in the bank.
I would hesitate to buy into Westergren’s self-justification. Is RIAA an honest player? No. But neither is Pandora - Westergren is trying to gain leverage over streaming services that, for my widow’s mite, provide a better product with better artist access. Nobody’s got the whole thing figured out, everybody’s playing catch-up, but for Pandora to cry poor is disingenuous at best (and since when has “at best” applied to anyone on the business side of the music business?).
