Why was it difficult for recording companies to send royalty payment early blues artists?

It was difficult for recording companies to send royalty payments to early blues artists because many of these artists were illiterate and did not have bank accounts. Additionally, the recording industry was not as well-established in the early 20th century as it is today, and there were no standard procedures for paying royalties to artists. As a result, many blues artists were never paid for their recordings, or they received only a small fraction of what they were owed.

In some cases, recording companies would simply give artists a flat fee for their work, and the artists would not receive any further payments. In other cases, recording companies would send royalty payments to the artists' managers or agents, who would then take a cut of the money before giving the rest to the artists. This practice often led to artists being cheated out of their fair share of the profits from their recordings.

The lack of royalty payments to early blues artists was a major contributing factor to the poverty that many of these artists faced. Despite the fact that their music was often very popular, many blues artists lived in poverty and died without ever seeing the financial rewards of their work.