Looks like I'm not the only one to come up with the idea of compulsory licensing to pay musicians. Fred von Lohmann is a senior staff attorney at the EFF and has this article talking about the issue.
Of course it took about three minutes for an idiot from Slashdot to call it Communism, because we all know that tax is wrong. That's why America has such a great public health system and doesn't have any poor people or beggars or homeless people.