Radio Royalties 2026: Why AM/FM Doesn't Pay Artists

Last Updated: August 2026

Here's the short answer: if your song plays on AM/FM radio in the United States, the songwriter gets paid — but the recording artist gets nothing. U.S. terrestrial radio pays performance royalties only on the musical composition (through ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or GMR), not on the sound recording. The United States is one of only a handful of countries in the world — alongside Iran, North Korea, China, and Cuba — with no terrestrial performance right for sound recordings. The American Music Fairness Act (AMFA, H.R. 4130) would change that: it passed the House Judiciary Committee in June 2025, the most significant congressional action on performance rights in twelve years, and got a high-profile Senate hearing in December 2025. Until it becomes law, artists lose an estimated $200 million per year in foreign radio royalties alone, according to Senate sponsors — money foreign collection societies withhold because the U.S. doesn't reciprocate. If you're an independent artist, this guide explains exactly who gets paid when radio plays your song, how much, what AMFA would change, and how to make sure you're collecting every radio-adjacent royalty you're actually owed today.

Do artists get paid when their song plays on the radio?

In the U.S., no — not for the sound recording on AM/FM broadcast radio. When a terrestrial station spins your track, two copyrights are in play: the composition (the song itself — melody, lyrics) and the master (the specific recording). U.S. law requires radio to license only the composition. That's a quirk dating to the 1920s, when broadcasting law was written before recorded music dominated airtime, and it survived because the radio and label industries settled into a "free promotion" truce by the 1950s.

So the money flows like this: the station pays a blanket license fee to the PROs (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR), and those fees are distributed to songwriters and publishers based on airplay tracking. If you wrote the song, you get radio royalties. If you only performed on the recording — the featured artist, the session players, the producer — you get $0 from U.S. AM/FM play.

Digital radio is a different story. SiriusXM, Pandora's non-interactive tier, and webcasters pay a statutory sound recording performance royalty collected by SoundExchange — 45% to the featured artist, 50% to the rights owner, and 5% to non-featured performers via the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Fund. Same song, same spin behavior, completely different paycheck depending on whether it came through an antenna or an app.

Who gets paid for radio play in 2026? (Comparison table)

Note the third-to-last row: when a U.S. station simulcasts its broadcast online, that internet stream does trigger SoundExchange royalties on the recording — one reason every artist with radio play should be registered with SoundExchange even though the over-the-air spin pays nothing. RoyaltyCoPilot.ai regularly finds artists with real terrestrial airplay who never registered with SoundExchange and are leaving simulcast and webcast royalties sitting unclaimed.

How much does radio actually pay songwriters?

Radio pays the PROs a percentage of station revenue, not a fixed per-spin rate. In August 2025, the commercial radio industry struck new deals with both major PROs: under the new BMI license, stations pay a blanket fee of 2.14% of gross revenue (retroactive to 2022), rising to 2.2% in 2026 — a roughly 20% increase over the prior agreement (Broadcast Law Blog, August 2025). ASCAP's parallel deal also raises rates year-over-year, though its terms are confidential. ASCAP and BMI have each distributed over $1 billion annually to writers and publishers since 2017.

What lands in your account per spin varies wildly by station size, daypart, and market. A spin on a major-market commercial station can pay a songwriter several dollars; a spin on a small station may pay pennies. Three practical implications for indie songwriters:

1. You must be affiliated with a PRO (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC/GMR by invitation) and have your works registered, or radio money accrues to nobody — or worse, gets distributed by market share to the majors.
2. Both your writer share and publisher share need a home. If you have no publishing entity or administrator, you may be collecting only half your radio performance royalties.
3. Airplay tracking isn't perfect. PROs use census data for large stations and sampling/monitoring (BDS, Mediabase-style detection) elsewhere. College and community radio spins often go undetected unless you report them.

What is the American Music Fairness Act, and will it pass?

AMFA would create a terrestrial performance right for sound recordings — meaning AM/FM stations would finally pay artists and labels, the way satellite and internet radio already do. Key facts as of mid-2026:

• H.R. 4130 passed the House Judiciary Committee in June 2025 — the first committee passage of a radio performance right in over a decade (Recording Academy). A floor vote has not yet been scheduled.
• The Senate held a hearing in December 2025, where Gene Simmons testified that the current system is "an injustice" to music creators (GRAMMY.com, December 2025).
• Small broadcasters are protected. Stations under revenue thresholds would pay as little as $10 per year, and nonprofit/community stations get similar flat-fee treatment — a provision designed to defuse the "this will kill local radio" argument.
• The reciprocity prize is large. Because the U.S. pays no terrestrial performance royalty, foreign societies (which do pay their own artists for radio play) withhold the equivalent royalties from American performers. Senate sponsors estimate U.S. artists lose roughly $200 million per year; the U.S. Copyright Office has separately estimated up to $100 million annually in lost foreign royalties (ITIF, December 2025).

The National Association of Broadcasters continues to back the competing Local Radio Freedom Act, a non-binding resolution opposing any new "performance tax." Handicapping passage is guesswork, but AMFA is closer than any version of this bill has been since the Performance Rights Act died in 2010. If it passes, SoundExchange would almost certainly administer the new royalty stream — one more reason to have your SoundExchange registration airtight now.

How do I collect the radio royalties I'm owed today?

Even without AMFA, most independent artists with airplay are under-collecting. Work this checklist:

1. Join a PRO and register every work — with correct splits, IPI numbers, and co-writer info. Radio composition royalties are real money today.
2. Register with SoundExchange as both featured artist and, if you own your masters, rights owner. Online simulcasts of AM/FM stations, SiriusXM, and webcast play all pay on the recording right now. SoundExchange has historically held hundreds of millions in unclaimed royalties for unregistered performers.
3. Report your own airplay where possible. ASCAP OnStage and BMI Live cover live performance; for college/community radio, keep station logs and playlists — some PROs accept them as claims support.
4. Set up neighboring rights collection abroad. If your recordings get radio play in the UK, Germany, France, Canada, or Australia, societies like PPL and GVL owe the performer share. U.S. artists face reciprocity limits, but qualification paths exist (recording location, first-release country, co-performer nationality), and many indie artists qualify without realizing it.
5. Audit the whole picture annually. Radio is one stream of at least seven most indie artists should be collecting. A catalog audit with RoyaltyCoPilot.ai cross-checks your registrations across the MLC, SoundExchange, and your PRO, flagging gaps — like a charting radio single with no SoundExchange registration behind its simulcast plays.

Why does radio still matter for indie artists in 2026?

It's fashionable to declare radio dead, but AM/FM still reaches more Americans weekly than any single streaming platform, and radio airplay remains a top driver of the discovery loop that feeds streaming, sync interest, and live bookings. More concretely for royalties: a genuine radio hit generates composition royalties immediately, simulcast/webcast recording royalties through SoundExchange, foreign radio royalties in every country with a performance right, and — if AMFA passes — a brand-new domestic recording royalty stream that would apply from the law's effective date forward. Artists whose metadata, registrations, and splits are clean on day one will collect fastest. That's the quiet argument for doing the boring registration work now: every new royalty stream that gets created pays the organized first and the disorganized years later, if ever. Run a free catalog audit with RoyaltyCoPilot.ai and you'll know exactly where your radio-adjacent money is leaking before Congress moves.

FAQ: Radio royalties for independent artists

Do artists get paid when their song is played on the radio in the US? No — not for the sound recording on AM/FM broadcast. Only songwriters and publishers get paid, through ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or GMR. Artists do get paid for satellite radio, webcasts, and online simulcasts via SoundExchange.

Why doesn't AM/FM radio pay recording artists? U.S. copyright law never extended a public performance right in sound recordings to terrestrial broadcast. The exemption dates to the 1920s and has survived on the argument that airplay is free promotion. The U.S. is one of only a few countries in the world — with Iran, North Korea, China, and Cuba — that still works this way.

What is the American Music Fairness Act? AMFA (H.R. 4130) is a bill that would require AM/FM stations to pay performance royalties on sound recordings, with small stations paying as little as $10/year. It passed the House Judiciary Committee in June 2025 and had a Senate hearing in December 2025, but has not yet become law.

How much does one radio spin pay a songwriter? There's no fixed per-spin rate. Stations pay PROs a percentage of revenue (BMI's rate rises to 2.2% of gross revenue in 2026), which is distributed based on airplay data. A major-market spin can pay a writer several dollars; small-station spins can pay cents.

Does radio play generate SoundExchange royalties? The over-the-air broadcast doesn't, but the station's online simulcast of that same broadcast does. If you have terrestrial airplay, you almost certainly have simulcast plays generating recording royalties — but only if you're registered with SoundExchange.

Can U.S. artists collect radio royalties from other countries? Sometimes. Countries with performance rights (UK, Germany, Canada, etc.) pay performers for radio play, but many withhold from U.S. performers due to lack of reciprocity. Qualification can hinge on where the recording was made or first released, so many indie artists qualify for more than they assume.

How do I find out if I'm missing radio-related royalties? Check three registrations: your PRO (works registered with correct splits), SoundExchange (featured artist + rights owner), and any neighboring rights representation abroad. A catalog audit tool like RoyaltyCoPilot.ai automates that cross-check and flags unclaimed money.

If AMFA passes, will I get paid retroactively for past radio play? No — the performance right would apply prospectively from the law's effective date. That's why having registrations and metadata clean before passage matters: the new stream would start paying immediately to artists whose houses are in order.