Payments from sweet song about old king (9)

I believe the answer is:

honoraria

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'payments' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'sweet song about old king' is the wordplay.
'sweet' becomes 'hon' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'song' becomes 'aria' (aria is a kind of song).
'about' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'king' becomes 'R' (abbreviation for rex, king in Latin).
'o'+'r'='or'
'aria' put after 'or' is 'oraria'.
'hon'+'oraria'='HONORARIA'

'from' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for honoraria that I've seen before include "Fees for nominally free services" , "fees paid" , "Voluntary fees" , "Money" , "they don't have to be given out" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.

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