(nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iTunes Store, where the Top 100 downloads are composed almost entirely of new releases. And during the past two days, "Don't Stop Believin'" saw a 153% spike in U.S.
radio play compared with Monday and Tuesday of last week, according to Nielsen BDS. "When you can get that kind of exposure, that's fantastic,'' says Justin Shukat, partner and general manager of Primary Wave Music Publishing of New York, which is one of the players trolling for opportunities in the music licensing arena. Based on what other TV shows have previously paid for music licensing, producers likely paid anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 for the right to use the song, netting a nice pay day for Sony BMG Music Entertainment, which owns the master recording of the song, and Journey's then-lead singer Steve Perry, guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who teamed up to write the song.
Also among the beneficiaries will be Perry's own Lacey Boulevard Music and Schon and Cain's Weed High Nightmare Music, administered by Wixen Music Publishing. Every time Time Warner-owned HBO airs a rerun of the series finale, it will also have to pay a performance royalty to the songwriters and their respective publishing companies, much like terrestrial radio stations have to pay publishing royalties whenever they play a song on the air. What's particularly gratifying about such licensing deals is that they provide the kind of publicity that marketers are often willing to pay for in the form of product placements.
Most importantly, for Journey and Sony BMG, the ' use of "Don't Stop Believin" provided great exposure for a song that probably hadn't been on the radar of many viewers for quite some time. It's just the latest high-profile example of the growing use of music licensing by TV networks, Hollywood studios and advertising agencies. Colorado rock band the Fray received a big boost from Disney's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iTunes Store, where the Top 100 downloads are composed almost entirely of new releases.
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