Music Licensing

Getting Paid and Paying Our Way

Radio Return projects feature a mix of original material and re-imagined songs made famous by other bands. When we use material written by other songwriters we make certain to obtain the proper licenses so royalties can be paid to the proper people. Every song re-imagined and recorded by Radio Return is properly licensed to make sure songwriters and copyright owners are paid.

We empathize with venue owners — particularly small western-Pennsylvania venues — who have to pay annual performance rights fees in order to be able to host live music. At more than $3,000 per year these fees are tough for many venues to cover.

At the same time we empathize with our fellow songwriters who have mortgages, kids that need braces and someday need to pay for college. These are the people whom royalties are a Godsend.

Every song re-imagined and recorded by Radio Return is properly licensed to make sure songwriters and copyright owners are paid.

In recent years tribute bands have grown in popularity — some of them charging top dollar for appearances. While we’re happy to see any band get a good paying gig we wonder if these acts may be cannibalizing performance opportunities by the bands they pay tribute too — while paying no royalties to anyone.

Our offering in this complex legal landscape is to license the cover songs we play — giving them new life for new audiences — while paying our fair share for the privilege of make them our own.

Royalty Rates

While usually only cents on the dollar royalties can ad up if any Radio Return single get a lot of downloads or plays.

Current royalties rates for physical songs sold and digital downloads is about 9 cents per song.

Current rates for songs streamed is about 1/2 cent per steam.

Rumor has is both of these rates will substantially increase (by 30% or so) in the next year new music legislation is passed.

1.1 2022-05-30