Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cartels often mint money.
Of course, for their owners. It OBVIOUSLY reasonable to have three private corporations owning the majority of modern musical output... and they even have a little club where they discuss pricing! How quaint... The outrageous thing is why the fuck we as a society defend these corporations, when they have a literal monopoly on what they’re selling, and the monopoly is guaranteed by the government of every western coun…
Durable cartels are effective and useful --- generally to at least their members and some class of politicians. Copyright / media cartels have long been closely affiliated with politics and politicians, of all stripes, and in the US of both parties.
Media offers money, exposure, glamour and/or star power, spectacle, distraction, attention, and manipulation, all of interest to politicians.
Much of recent copyright law, and the DMCA specifically, was largely driven by Democrats.