While users give little thought to how their favorite artists are getting paid when they listen to streaming radio services, the music industry certainly does -- and over the last 12 years, that revenue has added up to a fraction of what it makes elsewhere.

The New York Times is reporting that the pennies and nickels from internet radio services are finally starting to add up. Nonprofit group SoundExchange announced on Tuesday that $1 billion has been paid out to artists and record companies since the company was founded in 2000, with quarterly payments exceeding $100 million for the first time this year.

While $1 billion may sound like a drop in the bucket for the deep pockets of the music industry, it's music to the ears of SoundExchange, a company who collects royalties for internet radio services like Pandora, as well as satellite provider Sirius XM.

“The way the industry is going, it is about multiple revenue streams, not just one,” explains SoundExchange president Michael Huppe.

Not included in SoundExchange revenue figures are streaming providers such as Spotify and Rhapsody, who traditionally pay revenue directly to the companies who provide the music in the first place.

The report notes that SoundExchange comes from humble beginnings, racking up a mere $15.6 million by March, 2004 -- a stark contrast from last year, when the company paid out $292 million.

Compared to traditional royalties paid to songwriters and publishers from ASCAP and BMI, however, that's a drop in the bucket: In 2010 alone, those companies doled out a collective $1.64 billion.

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