Who Pays For Minnesota Twins Players Walk-Up Music?

In writing this I’m opening the door to the public to see that my mind works a little differently. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in radio for 36 years and know the heaviness of what music licensing fees cost, or maybe it’s that I’m a little skewed (neither of those answers is wrong) but I went down a rabbit trail yesterday after a fleeting thought. 

I came across a story about comedian Marc Maron paying $50,000 for the right to play one minute of a Taylor Swift song during his comedy routine that is coming out Friday. Fifty Thousand bucks for a piece of a song seems hefty to me, but apparently Mr. Maron thought the segment would be incomplete without it. 

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The Cost Of Having An Individual Song

But that flicker of a story got me thinking about baseball games, and if the players have to pay royalties fees for the use of that artist's song. Because trust me, somebody is paying money for music that is used on that level of a stage.  

The answer is either the team, or the major league baseball pays the rights fees. Those have to be paid according to copyright laws. Radio stations have to pay to play the music we pay, and it is one of the single biggest expenses that stations have each year.

According to Google, the players are given a list of songs that fall under the umbrella of songs that have been paid for, and the song choice you hear comes from that list. Some players will have a second and third option as well.  

What About Smaller Baseball Organizations, Who Pay For Their Batters?

For the St. Cloud Rox for instance, they pay a company through the Northwoods League that provides music for them to be able to play for their walk-up tunes for their players.  

And the artists really aren’t the ones who set the pricing or guidelines for these types of songs. Generally, the artist is one of the last, if not the last one to get paid for their music being played. That’s why you see so many artists writing and producing their own music so they can get a bigger paycheck.  

So, the next time you’re at a Twins game, you can wonder does the player really like that song, or was that just one that he liked from the approved list that is being paid for?