All the talk of the lost 300 (not the Spartans) made me curious enough about music publishing, that I spent a little bit of time trying to piece together who holds publishing rights and how to acquire those rights etc and in this process came across this article from the Atlantic. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/old-music-killing-new-music/621339/

The article makes for some interesting reading as to what is happening with the industry. The most startling claim is that old music makes up most of the market and has lead to bidding wars from investment firms for various artist catalogs. All of these artist being either old or dead!

I have no idea what transpired between GT and the publisher of the lost 300, but after reading the article my mind goes to cost. Anyone investing in these catalogs will expect (demand) a return. At least I would. And those that can't afford the bump, would be "bumped". Because after-all, the data is clear, people are listening to the old stuff and in this day and age it is pretty easy to collect royalties, so the revenue will be coming in from somewhere.

Anyway, it's a long read but quite interesting.