Craig,

The Internet platforms have taken the place of the Record labels, managers, agents, lawyers, etc. that have always gotten the lions share of the money involved with music or any creative endeavor. It's a catch 22. In order to get your music OUT THERE, you have to go to the ISP's, like GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, SPOITIFY, PANDORA, ETC. who make great claims about how much they pay out, but not songwriters or creators at all ever really see much of that money and never will. If you are quite frankly the window everyone has to use for access to the general public, you have no choice. And one of the things that have been the "great equalizer" or "Great destroyer" of the industry, (and extends to books, articles, blogs, art, photography, etc.) is the INTERNET.WE all have to use them, and from the days of flie sharing, illegal downloading, even into today, you can't monetize FREE. And most people get all their music for free or vastly reduced rates for streaming. And the goal posts continue to get moved as to how many streams (and for how long people have to listen to a song to qualify as a stream) are needed to qualify for payment.

Tik Tok is just the latest platform, and there will be more. It;s the equivalent of the HOLLYWOOD studio system of the 30's and 40's. Hollywood studios owned all the equipment to make movies, the back lots and real estate to make them. the contracts on every actor, every director, every camera man, script writer, make up person, grip, Union worker, craft services, truck drivers, etc. that made the movies, the publicity departments to promote the movies, and the theaters to show the movies. In the 50's television starts and the studios branched into those, then when they broke the studios up in the 60's theu still had tentacles into every facet of those industries Same is said for the modern Internet platforms. These people are not stupid, and if successful people break through, they usually sell out to those entities at one time or another.
We're currently seeing the major icon writer/artists like Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, Paul Simon, etc, selling all their song cataloges because they are getting the end of the money that will be in music. And there will be new entities that come along that will facilitate music, and creative work, and those will be owned by these same people.

"Meet the new boss...Same as the OLD BOSS." Pretty appropriate.

MAB