6-24-13
The battle of how much should be paid for music to air over the Internet and on mobile devices continues to heat up. In a USA Today op-ed piece members of the band Pink Floyd say Pandora is trying to trick artists into supporting their own pay cut. And that Pandora is pushing the growth of their own business at the expense of artists. Pandora is asking Congress to Intervene and even out the rates for music played over the web.
The group writes, "We've heard Pandora complain it pays too much in royalties to make a profit. (Of course, we also watched Pandora raise $235 million in its IPO and double its listeners in the last two years.) But a business that exists to deliver music can't really complain that its biggest cost is music. You don't hear grocery stores complain they have to pay for the food they sell. Netflix pays more for movies than Pandora pays for music, but they aren't running to Congress for a bailout. Everyone deserves the right to be paid a fair market rate for their work, regardless of what their work entails."
The band writes, musicians are getting emails from Pandora ? even directly from the company's charismatic founder Tim Westergren ? asking them to "be part of a conversation" about the music business and sign a simple "letter of support" for Internet radio. "Of course, this letter doesn't say anything about an 85% artist pay cut. That would probably turn off most musicians who might consider signing on. All it says about royalties is "We are all fervent advocates for the fair treatment of artists." And the only hint of Pandora's real agenda is the innocent sounding line "We are also fervent supporters of internet radio and want more than anything for it to grow." The petition doesn't mention that Pandora is pushing the growth of its business directly at the expense of artists' paychecks."
Read the USA today piece HERE
(6/24/2013 6:28:47 PM)
Pink Floyd and other artists should demand money from broadcast radio stations or stop them from playing their songs. Do FM radio stations really sell a lot of albums for Pink Floyd these days? Pink Floyd does not need FM radio, but classic rock stations need Pink Floyd.
(6/24/2013 11:36:50 AM)
Fred, you are dead on! How ironic. Here's a big-name, big-money band complaining about "only" a 15% royalty from a service that didn't even exist in their heydey. What do they care about giving a leg up to bands with smaller followings that never meet the industry-set payout threshold? Never mind radio stations forced to contribute to the coffers of artists they don't even play. Can anyone say "status-quo maintainers"? Or maybe,"payola payback"?
(6/24/2013 11:15:52 AM)
The whole concept of stations paying to air music is wrong. Radio airtime is a gift to recording artists. Airtime cost money. The cost to produce and distribute a recording is small compared to the endless time that radio stations spend promoting groups and recordings without compensation. When I leased a station in Texas, I was billed for hundreds of dollars each month because I aired a Polka show while the bands said they got none of the money. Guess who really got their royalty!
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