One play. Many hands. The money that reaches the artist is what survives the journey.

You now have the pieces, rights, the two copyrights, label, publisher, the cast, the advance. This building block puts them in motion: what actually happens, at a high level, between a single play and a payout.

Start with the rule that governs everything: a play passes through several hands in sequence, and each takes a slice before the next. The headline number (the gross) is never what lands. What the artist receives is whatever survives the chain.

And because of the two copyrights, the money does not travel one road. It forks: one path for the recording, a separate path for the song. Trace both and you can read any statement.