I'm not an expert but I believe the industry gets paid a chunk for "radio play" in general (and things like radio play) on a per station/location basis, and the

I'm not an expert but I believe the industry gets paid a chunk for "radio play" in general (and things like radio play) on a per station/location basis, and then that chunk gets divided up not on the basis of what was actually played, but on the basis of how popular it is. Not saying it works, but that type of scheme sort of works for the hits, and much less well for obscure music, but obscure music probably does not get played too much. but anyway, something like that is how they'd get paid for music they don't own. These arrangements were worked out back when "radio" was "disrupting" the live music and recorded music industries, and people were trying to "monetize" the "eardrums"