Working in the music business can be tough, depending on who you are. According to Wikipedia, the Funk Brothers may have "played on more number-one hits than the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys combined." But many of you have probably never heard of this distinguished group of musicians before today. Of course, traditional wisdom held that the background players weren't as important as the faces upfront. And when it came time to be paid for music publishing, the faces upfront weren't nearly as important as the names on the copyright and publishing documents. This unfortunate hierarchy resulted in some gross injustices to artists whose creative contributions were overlooked, unappreciated and often not paid for - in spite of their irreplaceable contributions to the final recordings.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a partial remedy to this problem and acknowledges the great value that the musicians who perform on a song provide to the final recording. Although CDs remain fairly popular, digital music distribution through companies such as INgrooves and iTunes has overwhelmed and eclipsed traditional distribution in many markets. Many artists are generating the majority of their sales revenue through digital distribution. But it is a rapidly evolving market that, for example, has seen ringtones surge as a major revenue source due to economies of scale (the entire song is $.99 on iTunes, but a brief ringtone is $3.99!), then recede in developed markets as technology becomes available for enterprising individuals to create tones rather than pay for them. Still, artists and producers performing on tracks often forego revenue through contractual agreements with distributors.

Though not a perfect solution, the DMCA helps ensure that artists who perform on songs start receiving some of what is due to them in the new digital market. Now, radio stations that stream their content online and companies that deliver music directly over the internet must either: (i) obtain a license from the copyright owner (a hit or miss proposition for performers who didn't write, though); or (ii) comply with certain DMCA requirements and pay a compulsory royalty for such webcasts that can eventually find its way into artists' pockets. Compulsory licenses for these activities are now available under the DMCA.

To obtain a license, a webcaster must be engaged principally in playing lawfully recorded music; must register with the copyright office before beginning transmission; must not be an interactive service or cause any device receiving the webcast to switch channels; must transmit copyright information simultaneously with the music; and must comply with other restrictions regarding the number of songs from an album and tracks that may be played. Advance program schedules are generally prohibited. If the webcaster complies, the consent of the copyright owner is not required. But this is good news for artists. Half of the compulsory royalty is payable to the copyright owner and half is paid to the actual performers featured on the song! The current compulsory royalty rate varies depending on the webcaster's classification, and is set by the Federal Copyright Royalty Board. But remember, in order to be paid, artists must register their songs with SoundExchange (www.soundexchange.com), the nonprofit performance rights organization that collects royalties on the behalf of sound recording copyright owners and distributes them. It's a fairly simple process.

Are you on Pandora? You could be getting paid, if you aren't already.