A lot of classical music is public domain, so the people who make money are the performers and publishers. For example, if you were to buy Edger Allan Poe collection, his family or domain would most likely not get any money. It would be the person who complied / edited it and the company who sells the physical book. If you were to buy a classical CD of Bach pieces, the performer would make money and the company that published the CD would make money. It’s one of the reasons why you can buy those massive compilations of classical music pieces, because if publishers have recordings of multiple pieces they might put them all together since there are no strings attached with publishing rights.
first of all, there is no absolute definition of “classical” music
secondly, for what is *generally* considered classical music, the vast majority of composers do not, because the vast majority are dead
there are a fleetingly small number of composers of “classical style” music nowadays, but also consider themselves “modern” composers, whatever in the fuck that means
and they make virtually no money because virtually no one wants to hear the by-in-large garbage that they write
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