

Pandora Is Out of Tune with Songwriters - tjr
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/12/pandora-hits-a-sour-note/

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robotcookies
Author is conveniently neglecting to mention how much Pandora typically pays
out for 1 million plays. Just because the songwriter gets only $90 does not
mean that is all Pandora pays out.

If I recall with the last musician who made a similar complaint about a
million plays, Pandora actually paid out in total royalties of around $1,400
for a million plays. That means most of the money is going to recording
companies (if the songwriter only gets $90 out of $1400).

Now if I were a songwriter, two possible approaches to increase my payout
would be either... 1.fight for Pandora to double what they pay out and get
$180 or 2. I could fight to get say 50% of what Pandora already pays out and
get $700. Pandora would also go out of business in the first scenario as they
already pay over half of their revenue to royalties. Second scenario sounds a
lot better to me. It's also more sustainable as a bankrupt company doesn't pay
out anything.

So why don't these songwriters do what would net them far more money?

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NathanCH
I'm actually a bit surprised Pandora is still doing well considering the rise
of streaming services like rdio which implemented pandora-like features years
ago. And they've implemented them better, I'd argue.

