The Streaming Royalty Fight Forces Platforms to Restore Hundreds of Thousands of Tracks

A long dispute over digital streaming royalties ended with hundreds of thousands of songs returning to services months after removal.

The new deal includes open payment formulas letting independent artists win bigger distribution shares.

Organized tours used the absence window to push live concerts instead of digital demand.

The lesson from this messy round: old contracts no longer fit the streaming economy, and renegotiation is now periodic.