The streaming market’s dawning maturity and the escalation of the streaming wars naturally go hand in hand, as you’ve read elsewhere in this issue. For publishers and writers the subject is a source of much sturm und drang, as compensation on the non-master side is a paltry fraction of the streaming-money pie.

Apple recently tweaked Spotify by floating a simple 9.1 cents per 100 streams in a proposal to the Copyright Royalty Board. This apparent bid for transparency would, of course, jam up the Swedish giant due to the vast number of steams on its lower-compensating free tier (as some industry insiders have been saying).But there are also difficulties for pubcos and tunesmiths in this formulation, partly related to scale. Even the rosiest scenario is a difficult one, made all the more galling since songs are the wellspring for all this burgeoning business.

Publishers are a resilient lot, and even in the midst of such a conundrum most of the folks I’ve spoken to sound remarkably optimistic. New revenue opportunities—including new ways to profit from streaming—will certainly emerge. But sooner would be better than later