Why would I memorize financial information from a company I left years ago just to share it with random strangers on the internet?

Didn’t know that, wild!

It depended on many factors like the size of the venue, length and instrumentation of the piece, also the genre. I can’t give you an amount in € off the top of my head how much I earned lol.

Actually GEMA takes a percentage from the big pop musicians to help fund the contemporary/avantgarde composers who would otherwise earn a lot less. There are plenty of things to complain about with GEMA but I think for the most part they do a lot to support smaller, more obscure genres. (I ran a publishing company for contemporary music in Germany for ten years, so I had a lot to do with GEMA)

It works the same way in Germany. If you’re playing music in essentially any venue, even just on the radio, you pay a royalties fee. For places that do it everyday there is usually a flat yearly fee. At least here, a good chunk of that money does indeed fund other cultural endeavors.

Some stretches do have limits. But even where there are no speed limits there are suggested maximum limits. If you’re over that limit and have an accident (that normally might not be deemed your fault) you’re more likely to be held liable.