According to Dan Kimpel’s article in Music Connection Magazine, “Songwriting, Where Did All The Money Go?”, the following amounts are the average payments songwriters are receiving for song use:
$45,500 : One song on a million-selling CD. This is based on the 9.1 cents per album sold mechanical license rate with a publisher taking 50%. If the songwriter self-published their music, then they would get the full $91,000 per million albums sold. This rate can further be reduced if the label or artist has negotiated a reduced mechanical rate. Standard reduced rate is 3/4 or 6.8 cents per album sold.