Tah-dah!!! Here it is, a whopping ONE CENT was paid to Siedah Garret by Google’s music division. Can you believe that?!! She posted an image of her one cent check to her Facebook page with the caption, “My music publishing company received a royalty check from Google for one cent. WTF? How are songwriters supposed to earn a living with streaming, piracy, and free downloads?!”

So as you can see, she was excited alright, but not in a good way.

The down side is that for an artist of Siedah’s caliber, who still works hard at her craft, this penny check is an insult to say the least. This is not an isolated occurrence though, these type of thinly cut checks are being sent to artists everyday as payment for their countless hours of dedication to their music.

The up side to this is that in this new digital era, it’s still very possible for artists to still make money selling music, because with the emergence of social media, they can now sell directly to the people and cut out the middle men- the biased record labels and radio stations. Sure, people will still illegally download their music, but there are many out there who won’t.

We’re gonna get off track for a minute, because although that nonexistent check is an ugly picture, there are several more up sides within this story that can’t go unnoticed:

1. First of all Siedah’s looking GOOD at 57!

2. Her new single Cupid Is A DJ” also features her good friend, Kathy Sledge (of Sister Sledge). Here is a recent pic of these beautiful ladies from their promo photoshoot. These sistas are getting finer with time and are representin’ the Old School very well!

3. Siedah is still getting money! She just celebrated 10 years as Toyota’s voice over artist for their brand.