Are some songs cheaper?? Do you just buy a huge license and some company distributes all that money?
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There are 3 big companies that have agreements with thousands of copyright holders to license all of their copyrights collectively. These companies act and an intermediary between the radio stations and the copyright holders to facilitate the licensing without having to do thousands of contracts with thousands of copyright holders every time. They just have to do thousands of contracts with those thousands of copyright holders one time, and then they just use those contracts to back any contracts they form with the radio stations to license the music. The radio stations pay the intermediary, and thenvrhe intermediary pays the copyright holders accordingly. ASCAP is the one you’ve probably heard of before, even if you didn’t know what it was. And it is a bit more complicated than that. There’s some more legalese involved with the exact privileges and obligations of the intermediaries. Rules about access and pricing, differences between the not for profit and the for profit intermediaries. But essentially they are centralized organizations representing thousands (or probably millions) of copyrights altogether just because it’s pragmatic.
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