Looking at the website of one of the main US performing rights
organizations, ASCAP, the American Society of Composers and Publishers,
they don't make it easy to get an idea of the cost of licensing of a
single song.
Neither BMI, ASCAP nor SESAC license single songs. The model, established
by ASCAP almost 100 years ago, was to license entire song catalogs for its
members in one blanket license for public performance.
The problem they were solving was precisely that of the astonishing
headaches that would be involved if copyright holders had to license
individual songs to individual venues such as broadcast entities, night
clubs, restaurants and bars.
The only instance I can recall where one of the performance rights
organizations got involved in a single song was for use on the moon, which
was not covered in the blanket license. NASA supposedly paid a nice
five-figure fee to play Steve Goodman's song City of New Orleans to the
astronauts to wake them up whilst on the moon. "Good mornin' America, how
are you..."
This may be an urban legend, but I was starting in the music business back
when much cooler guys were going to the moon, and that story was a very big
buzz.
The reason you'd license a single song goes beyond public
performance. You'd license it to use it in a movie or a commercial. The
performance license that a TV station pays, for instance, ASCAP for the
year covers only performance, not the right to synch copyrighted music into
a TV show or commercial. THAT'S where licensing comes in.
When you want to license a single song you contact the copyright holder,
normally the song's publisher. They either negotiate the license
themselves or have a licensing company do the job for them. Licensing
experts know the market value of a copyright in any particular situation.
Licensing can be one of the most lucrative ways for a songwriter to get
money off songs. A guy I know who produces R&B compilations told me that
he put a few hours into finding the long-vanished composer of a song he was
putting in a compilation. The songwriter was delighted to actually get
some money for work he had done 50 years ago. That royalty payment she
eventually got was low four-figures, but it was found money.
But then some advertising company heard the song on the compilation and
licensed it for use in a national TV commercial and the composer got
another $125 G's for her golden years. She didn't negotiate that deal, of
course. The original publisher, who had never paid her a red cent, had
been sold years ago to a company that understood its responsibilities, and
they negotiated the deal.
Every few years bars and restaurants scream with outrage about paying the
ASCAP and other performance licenses. Sometimes they even try to get an
exemption. But when the first lawsuit went to the Supreme Court, one of
the justices made the point that bars and restaurants wouldn't play music
in their establishments if it didn't help increase their revenues. The guy
who wrote the song that is part of the reason paying customers frequent a
bar or restaurant deserves payment. That's why ASCAP and the other
organizations were founded in the first place.
It's an old story. "You won't get paid to make this record, but it'll help
you get live gigs." And then "I can't pay you for the gig you played
tonight, but it'll help you sell records." The songwriters put the breaks
on that hustle and used their rights as leverage to Get Paid.