Well, radio stations don't earn a lot either, but still have to pay licence fees for the music they play. Perhaps some sort of flat fee paid based on some statistics how much content has been shared from which source would make sense. It will not be a huge money, but it's still better than no money at all. Aggregators/ search engines need the content produced at the volume, otherwise they'll be out of business too at some point, so it can be mutually benefitial.
80% of radio stations in the U.S. are owned by one company (iHeartMedia, formerly ClearChannel), and despite this monopoly negotiating power, the company is still operating out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a $20B debt load.
> 80% of radio stations in the U.S. are owned by one company(iHeartMedia, formerly ClearChannel)
They own the most, but it's not 80% (perhaps they cover 80% of listening markets). They own about 850 stations[1] out of roughly 10,000 commercial stations[2]. However, your point does stand as the second largest owner, Cumulus Media at 455 stations also filed for bankruptcy[3].
I think they must've divested some either in the bankruptcy or a previous restructuring, because the figure I saw was about 1250 stations. I'd bet that the 10,000 total stations also includes a bunch of mom & pop or college radio operations as well; maybe the statistic was for 80% of audience share rather than number of stations.
If I remember correctly, they built most of that debt load buying up all those stations.
Rado stations aren't money losers. Loading up leverage to 12x cash flow on junk debt to buy stations, on the other hand...
