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Wait what? $1,500 for 20,000 plays? If the average song is 4 minutes long[1] that's 55 days of continuous music. So, a radio station that played non-stop music, 24/7 for a year is going to pay just under $10,000 total in royalties.. for a year.

That's pretty amazing, but I guess it's a matter of supply and demand: there's an awful lot of music (and a lot of it is awful).

1. http://a-candle-in-the-dark.blogspot.co.nz/2010/02/song-leng...

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That's not the case. Let's assume we're talking about an average radio station, in terms of sales.

Music rights are negotiated as a % of sales, not on a per play basis. So large stations with large sales pay a fortune in music royalties. It's not a set rate.

With an average station, those 20,000 plays cost a radio station $10,000 +/- a few grand depending on the sales category they fall into with the music rights companies.

24/7 music for a year would cost around $60,000 (for said average radio station).

Note that OP is only talking about 60% of just the writer royalties. He provides no data about other payments, like performer royalties.

It was not played by one terrestrial station, but played by all the terrestrial stations that signed the royalty contracts with the company which represents the artists and collects the royalties. Of course, the company gets a big chunk of the royalties.

Seems about right. I don't imagine your average radio station is generating a fortune.

The margins vary wildly in radio. It's a sales driven business, once you meet core costs it's 85% gravy after that (the only things that scale with your sales are the music rights fees and commissions paid to sales persons). I've seen mom & pop stations that can't get by, and I've seen modest small market stations with 40% margins because they run a slim ship.

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