Why don't AM/FM radio stations pay recording artists?

A song on the radio involves two copyrights, and federal law pays only one of them for an AM or FM spin. Our page on collective rights management and music publishing maps every income stream behind a song. This page looks at the radio gap specifically: where it comes from in the statute, who collects when a station plays your track, and what changes once the same recording reaches internet radio, satellite radio or an on-demand service. For the rest of our music work, see entertainment law for music, film and TV.

How one radio spin is paid, step by step

1. The station plays your track over the air. That is a public performance of the song (17 U.S.C. 101), so the station needs a license for it.
2. The song is licensed. Stations generally cover the composition with blanket licenses from performing rights organizations, which pay their writer and publisher members.
3. The recording is not. An analog signal is not a digital transmission, and a free digital broadcast by an FCC-licensed station is exempt (17 U.S.C. 101; 114(d)(1)(A)). The artist and label receive nothing for the broadcast.
4. The station streams the same show online. That stream is a separate digital audio transmission. A station that relies on the statutory license must first file a Notice of Use with the Copyright Office (37 CFR 370.2(d)).
5. The stream is reported and paid. For 2026 through 2030, commercial broadcasters' payments, statements of account and Reports of Use go to SoundExchange by the 30th day after the end of each month (37 CFR 380.42), and the collective splits the receipts by statute (17 U.S.C. 114(g)(2)).

What are the two copyrights in a recorded song?

The U.S. Copyright Office treats a musical composition and a sound recording as two separate works (Circular 56A). The composition is the melody and any lyrics, written by songwriters and usually handled by publishers. The sound recording is a fixed series of sounds, such as one particular performance, and the Office lists performers, producers and sound engineers as its authors.

Owning one does not give you the other. If you record a song written by someone else, you or your label may own the master, while the writers and their publishers keep the composition. Our post The Music Copyrights Puzzle explains the split in plain terms, and it matters here because radio pays the two sides on completely different terms.

What performance right does a recording have?

A much narrower one than a song. For musical works, the Copyright Act gives the owner the exclusive right to perform the work publicly (17 U.S.C. 106(4)). For sound recordings, the right is to perform the work publicly "by means of a digital audio transmission" (17 U.S.C. 106(6)). Section 114(a) adds that a recording owner has no performance right under 106(4) at all (17 U.S.C. 114(a)).

A digital transmission is one made in whole or in part in a digital or other non-analog format (17 U.S.C. 101). A traditional analog AM or FM signal is therefore outside the recording owner's performance right from the start.

What about digital signals from licensed stations?

Congress closed that door too. A digital audio transmission of a recording that is part of a "nonsubscription broadcast transmission" does not infringe the 106(6) right, so long as it is not part of an interactive service (17 U.S.C. 114(d)(1)(A)). A broadcast transmission, for this purpose, is one made by a terrestrial broadcast station licensed as such by the Federal Communications Commission (114(j)(3)). A nonsubscription transmission is any transmission that is not a subscription transmission, and a subscription transmission is one limited to particular recipients who pay to receive it (114(j)(9), (14)).

Put together, free radio from an FCC-licensed station sits outside the recording's performance right twice: the analog signal is not covered, and the station's free digital broadcast signal is exempt.

Who does get paid when your song is on the radio?

The songwriters and publishers. A station that transmits a performance to the public is performing the work "publicly" under the statutory definition (17 U.S.C. 101), and the composition owner holds that right. Stations generally cover it with blanket licenses from performing rights organizations such as ASCAP and BMI, which the Department of Justice describes as licensing users including bar owners, television and radio stations, and internet music distributors (DOJ statement, August 4, 2016). The organization then pays its writer and publisher members. Our page on how performing rights organizations work covers that system and the antitrust decrees that govern ASCAP and BMI.

The featured artist, the session players and the label receive nothing from the broadcast itself. If the artist also wrote the song, the artist is paid, but as a songwriter, not as a performer.

What changes for webcasting, satellite radio and on-demand streaming?

Once the recording travels as a digital audio transmission that is not exempt, the 106(6) right applies and the recording side is paid. The route depends on the service.

Noninteractive services. Subscription digital transmissions that are not exempt, eligible nonsubscription transmissions such as many webcasts, and transmissions by preexisting satellite digital audio radio services can use a statutory license if they meet its conditions, including not being part of an interactive service (17 U.S.C. 114(d)(2)). The Copyright Royalty Judges set the rates and terms for 5-year periods (114(f)(1)), and voluntarily negotiated agreements take effect in place of those rates (114(f)(2)). For webcasting, the regulations name SoundExchange, Inc. as the collective that receives payments (37 CFR 380.2). Our page on digital performance royalties and SoundExchange explains how that money is split. Our guide to Copyright Royalty Board rates covers how the rates are set.

Station streams. When a station streams its signal online, that stream is not the antenna broadcast. The statute's definition of an eligible nonsubscription transmission expressly includes retransmissions of broadcast transmissions (114(j)(6)), and the separate exemption for retransmitting a radio broadcast comes with conditions, such as limits on distance and on how the signal is obtained (114(d)(1)(B)). Whether a particular stream is licensed or exempt depends on how it is made.

On-demand services. An interactive service, one that lets you request a particular recording or receive a program made for you, cannot use the statutory license (114(d)(2)(A)(i), (j)(7)). It needs licenses negotiated with the recording's owner, and for those directly licensed transmissions a featured artist is paid by the owner under the artist's contract (114(g)(1)). The service also needs a license to perform the musical work, from a performing rights organization or the copyright owner (114(d)(3)(C)), and an interactive stream counts as a digital phonorecord delivery for mechanical licensing (17 U.S.C. 115(e)(13)).

Is it the same when your recordings play abroad?

Not necessarily. The Rome Convention and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty both provide for a single equitable remuneration to performers, producers or both when commercially published recordings are broadcast or communicated to the public, although each lets member countries limit that rule (WIPO summaries of the Rome Convention and the WPPT). Whether you can collect depends on treaty status and on the law where the play happens. Our page on collecting performance royalties for your recordings abroad explains what U.S. treaty status means for that.

What changes the answer

• Analog or digital. Only digital audio transmissions trigger the recording's performance right (17 U.S.C. 101, 106(6)), so the same song can earn on a stream and not on an analog signal.
• Who is transmitting. The broadcast exemption protects transmissions by a terrestrial broadcast station licensed by the FCC (114(j)(3)). An internet-only service has no broadcast to exempt.
• Free or paid. A subscription transmission is one limited to particular recipients who pay for it (114(j)(14)). The exemption covers only nonsubscription broadcasts.
• Retransmissions. Retransmitting a free radio broadcast is exempt only under the conditions in 114(d)(1)(B); otherwise it can fall under the statutory license (114(j)(6)).
• Interactivity. Taking listener requests does not make a channel interactive unless its programming substantially consists of recordings played within 1 hour of the request or at a time the requester designates (114(j)(7)).
• How often a service plays you. Many statutory licensees must stay within the "sound recording performance complement": in any 3-hour period on a channel, no more than 3 selections from one album or 4 by the same featured artist (114(j)(13), 114(d)(2)(B), (C)).
• Audio or video. A digital audio transmission does not include the transmission of any audiovisual work (114(j)(5)). A televised performance or a music video is licensed separately; see who owns a music video.
• Older recordings. Recordings fixed before February 15, 1972 follow the same pattern: a transmission that would be exempt under 114(d)(1) for a newer recording is treated as authorized (17 U.S.C. 1401(b)). Our page on pre-1972 sound recordings protection explains the rest.

A worked example

Common mistakes

• Waiting for a "radio royalty" for the master from AM or FM play. U.S. law provides none.
• Writing your own songs but never affiliating with a performing rights organization, which is how the songwriter side of radio play is collected.
• Assuming a station's internet stream is exempt because its broadcast is. The stream is a separate digital transmission, and it is exempt only if it fits 114(d)(1).
• Mixing up performance and mechanical income on streaming, where an on-demand play pays the song under both. Our page on how the Mechanical Licensing Collective pays songwriters covers the mechanical side.

What to do this week

You cannot make U.S. radio pay for the recording, but you can make sure you collect everything the law does allow.

1. For each release, write down who owns the song shares and who owns the master.
2. If you write as well as perform, affiliate with a performing rights organization and register every song with the correct splits, because that is where your radio money arrives.
3. Register the copyrights in both works; see how to register a song's composition and recording.
4. Make sure the recording side is set up with the collective for noninteractive digital plays, with the same artist name, titles and ISRC codes everywhere, since Reports of Use identify recordings by those details (37 CFR 370.4(d)(2)).
5. Read your recording contract for how it pays on directly licensed streams, since the statute leaves that to the contract (114(g)(1)).
6. If you promised a producer part of your digital income, sign the letter of direction; see how producers get paid from digital performance royalties.

Frequently asked questions

Does satellite radio pay recording artists?

Yes. Transmissions by a preexisting satellite digital audio radio service that are not exempt fall under the statutory license when they meet its conditions (17 U.S.C. 114(d)(2)). The recording's owner, the featured artists and the session funds are paid from those receipts.

Does a short clip on a talk show stream count as a performance?

Often not. The current terms for commercial broadcasters' streams exclude incidental uses, such as brief transitions in and out of commercials or brief background music during announcements, as long as no entire recording plays and none is featured for more than 30 seconds (37 CFR 380.40).

Who sets the rates for radio stations' online streams?

The Copyright Royalty Judges, for 5-year periods, unless the parties reach their own agreements (17 U.S.C. 114(f)). For 2026 through 2030, the terms for commercial broadcasters were published on March 10, 2026 and appear in 37 CFR part 380, subpart E.

Do on-demand streams pay the song twice?

They pay the song through two licenses: public performance and mechanical (17 U.S.C. 114(d)(3)(C), 115(e)(13)). Our page on the mechanical royalty rate in 2026 covers the mechanical side.

Where can an Atlanta artist get help?

Our page on intellectual property and entertainment law in Atlanta sets out the publishing, royalty and registration work the firm handles for local musicians.

Zala IP Law advises songwriters, artists, producers, labels and publishers on publishing, royalties and the agreements that decide who collects which stream. If your statements show radio play but no recording income, or you are unsure which side of a song you own, request a consultation or call 404-313-1701.