You may have heard about royalty rates going up (and up, up, up) for internet radio broadcasters. As Glen points out, it’s worse than you thought:

So. SoundExchange – which is in the pocket of the RIAA – collects funds for people it does not represent, regardless of whether or not they want those funds collected, then holds onto those funds unless those people pay for them. In fact, if you remember last year’s massive list of artists who had not collected their royalties yet, SoundExchange has a very sweet deal. If you don’t collect the royalties by the end of the year, you don’t get those royalties ever – they pocket whatever they don’t disburse. Every year.

How can this sort of thing possibly be legal?