[redshawk]

So how does he make money off of his old songs from the 60’s and 70’s? Like maybe 20 cents each time a song is played on the radio? Just curious as to how this works.

[SamAdams76]

It's typically much less than a penny (about .004) when one of your song streams (plays on the radio or is streamed by a user). It does add up though:

1,000 plays = $4.00
10,000 plays = $40.00
100,000 plays = $400.00
1,000,000 plays = $4,000.00

And so on. A billion streams is worth around $4,000,000 to the artist. This might seem impossible to attain but actually most big name artists (including The Rolling Stones) have racked up billions of streams. Remember, it's not just radio play but every time somebody streams a song from an online streaming service like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Google Play, etc.

Still, you can see why bands still tour and sell merchandise. That's where the real money is.

[StAnDeliver]

"So how does he make money off of his old songs from the 60’s and 70’s? Like maybe 20 cents each time a song is played on the radio? Just curious as to how this works."

Well, the Stones don't own anything before 1972, unfortunately. The after-72 catalog, they own. What does an artist get paid per play? Just as an example, Spotify pays $0.0033 per stream.