In the never ending royalties and music streaming battle, over 100 artists have signed a letter making it clear that they are against Pandora’s stance on royalty treatment. Included on that list of artists is Nas, Rihanna, Pink Floyd, Missy Elliott, George Clinton and more. This comes at a time when Pandora founder Tim Westergren is desperately fighting to lower the royalty rates that his service is obligated to pay in order to become profitable compared to other services like actual radio. As Westergren fights to pass the The Internet Radio Fairness Act, the artists feel that it isn’t fair for them to have their royalties cut by nearly 80 percent.
This is a tricky situation, though, as each side of the fence struggles to mark territory in an industry with constantly shrinking margins. One way or another, streaming is the way of the future, and these two parties are going to have to agree on something at some point to further the business along.
You can read the article and full list of signees here. Let us know what you think in the comments section below. [via]
I’d rather get nothing. Having somebody throw you pennies for your work and then expect you to stand there and smile for it is an insult. I’d rather Pandora not touch my music and fans just listen to it on Youtube for free. It’s a pride issue
Pandora pays the lowest royalties of anyone with the exception of Grooveshark (none) as it is, because they get around paying mechanical royalties, AKA the only way artists have a chance to make money off of streaming, which every other service has to pay. This is the only money people who have songwriting credits but not recording credits get off of streaming so Pandora already doesn’t entirely pay the copyright owners. Pandora is just trying to avoid the monthly fee model I guess by saving micro-pennies.
I got Pandora on this one. Internet radio should pay less. Its more widely distributed so the artists get more play to more people than regional radio. I can see why bigger name artists that everyone knows would get upset but they have millions and millions so I don’t lose sleep over millionaires making less. They need to suck it up. This is one of that last legit ways to have their music heard and get paid. Otherwise people will download it for free. They can either get a little money or nothing