Hypothetical. Say you built a business. Say it was for streaming Video Game play. The gaming industry doesn't take a harsh stance to people making content around video games, so your business grows. And grows!

And then you start to expand. And you try Music. 1/x

Oh there's music in video games for sure. The Halo score is definitely copyright protected. And radios in GTA, Tony Hawk, etc play copyright music. But Music's Eye of Sauron doesn't really notice you. Maybe because you haven't tried to make any $ directly related to Music. 2/x

You dip your toe in the hot tub that is Music and broadcast a few festivals (~2015), and yeah the water is definitely warm. Big Music says you have to make some changes. So you take a CYA approach (Audible Magic), but for the business, not for your content creators. 3/x

Why? Well because the licensing money Big Music is asking is waaay more than you're ready to pay. And Big Music is multiple companies, the 5 Families if you will. You do the 5x math, and yeah that $ seems super yikes. Especially when you're already not profitable. 4/x

So you sorta put a pin in it. Then : Video Games are great and Music is great, so why not make a Music Video Game! There are some karaoke mobile apps killing it, and you're looking to make some $.

Guess who you have to go talk to again. 5/x

You've also been changing a lot of personnel. Mostly because you were acquired and you have to GROW and be a global brand. Unfortunately for you, Big Music doesn't sleep and really doesn't care about your growth problem. In fact, Music's Eye of Sauron is now 100% on you. 6/x

You've now created a hostage situation. Who are the hostages? Your content creators.

Big Music has had enough and one of the families who knows how to turn up the heat steps forward and points their copyright cannon at you and starts firing. And they are relentless. 7/x

Damage control time. What to do, what to do. You decide to tell your content creators it's basically their fault for ever playing music on stream and they better start reading EULAs and deleting all their archived content. 8/x

And your users are sad. They're getting suspended and losing money. They're quickly deleting up to 10 years of memories and hard work. You shed a quick tear and write "Sorry" in a blog and call it a day.

But you still don't have a licensing deal with Big Music. 9/x

And you wake up, and it's today.

Hypothetically speaking, of course.

(IANAL and I'm not a music insider. I just like a good fiction.)