Piracy, and the Radio.

Is the radio the same thing as pirating music? I mean, I know that the people who run the radio station get paid, but do the actual musicians get paid? You can listen to the radio for the whole day and the only thing that you will have to pay is your electricity bill, and the same thing with Pirated music. The radio usually plays top 400 songs, or the best songs, making them well-known. Those are the same songs that people pirate.

Are these artists getting ripped off? Is the radio similar to pirating in any way?

You know, that's a really interesting question. I'm not entirely sure.

This is what I though (and I'm most likely wrong about this). The radio station pays for the rights to the songs they might want to play. The artists, record labels, whatever, get this money. Therefore, the artists have been paid in advance.

But when I think about it, that would be rather expensive wouldn't it? Having to pay out for all these songs. Can the stations make a profit doing that anyway?

Or it might be that artists are ok with them playing their music for free, as it works as advertising. Although listeners get to hear their favourite tracks, if they want to listen to them when they like, they'll still have to buy the track. Does that make sense?

In answer, I don't know, but I would suspect it's one of the two options I've given.

The second option makes sense, but I know people who will pirate one song and can't/won't by a burnable CD so buy the album, isn't that the same thing?