The reasons are historical, not artistic. Songwriters joined together to form ASCAP & helped create a legal system that rewards composers. But musicians, sound engineers, producers, etc. never did this. So they now need to share in songwriter credits to get performance royalties.
It's mystifying that a musician playing on a track gets no money from radio airplay, but those are the rules—so I can't blame stakeholders from demanding that their names get included on songwriter credits. That's how they get paid. With different rules, this wouldn't happen.
You can follow @tedgioia.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: