Behind the music: This column might be ending, but the fight continues.(Column)

(From Guardian Unlimited)

After four and a half years and more than 200 columns Behind the Music is coming to an end. It's been an interesting journey and many of the issues I grappled with still remain unsolved.

The first ever Behind the Music asked why songwriters couldn't get their act together and strike for better terms for online usage of music. Four and a half years later, they're no closer to doing so -- despite streaming rates being so low that one songwriter told me she recently got a royalty check for GBP26 for 2m plays on Pandora and GBP2.75 for 330,000 plays on YouTube.

Yet there have been leaps forward for musicians and their fans. For one, …