Even though I live in the US I am not really sure how the royalties system works here. In Spain there is a society, called SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores Espanyoles) that collects the money from the artist that they represent. This society is really related with the current political party in power (PSOE) and since the judicial power has been consistently saying what the current links says (linking to copyright infringing material is no infringement) they are pursuing a law to evade the judges and close websites without any requirement from the judge.
If a hair salon (for example) in the US plays music of an artist, do they have to pay a canon/fee for playing this music? I am asking because I am still shocked than in Spain they have to pay the SGAE...