RIAA Math: Sell 1 Million Albums, Still Owe $500k

An anonymous reader writes: For all the complaints from the RIAA about "pirates," who are the real pirates in this scenario, when through a variety of contractual tricks, it's nearly impossible for artists signed to major labels to get paid. The article and video detail how an artist who thinks he's getting a 10% royalty, in reality is probably getting closer to 2.5% through various tricks placed in the contract. The labels, then, end up with 97.5% of the gross revenue, and anything they "spend" on the artist continues to come out of the royalties, not the labels' cut.