Pandora Petitions Musicians for Less Royalties

SoundExchange

As you may have heard, Pandora and SoundExchange are currently duking it out for the hearts of musicians and their online music royalties.

Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren and his minions recently sent a series of mea culpa emails to Pandora artists, saying they really, truly only wants what's best for the Internet radio royalty industry -- audience exposure for artists -- and would you please sign Pandora's vaguely worded petition to Congress?

Precedent suggests, however, that Westergren will ask Congress again this year to decrease online royalty rates for the same artists he's asking to sign the petition.

In moments like this, full disclosure is nice.

To that end, we'd like to clarify a few things. First, when Pandora released its 2012 financial report this month, it showed that subscriber numbers are up, but the company has not yet turned a profit. Second, Billboard recently pointed out that in 2012, Pandora handed over more than half of its annual income -- $259 million out of $427 million -- to pay for music royalties, mainly to SoundExchange. Third, there are loads of new competitors breathing down Pandora's neck as they enter the music-streaming market this year, including iTunes and GooglePlay.

Naturally, SoundExchange and musicFIRST ran up the red flag soon as they got wind of the Pandora's slick petition drive: read the fine print.

Last year, legislation for lower online radio royalty rates failed thanks to strong opposition organized by folks like SoundExchange and The Recording Academy. Emails, petitions, etc.

Looks like Pandora's trying the same tactic... but with the same musicians they're looking to jip: 'Hey, give us your music for nearly free and we'll make ya famous!’

Yeah. Good luck with that, Westergren.Learn more @ Billboard...Learn more @ musicFIRST...