Pandora Blog

UPDATE: Pandora's response: "We love Bette’s music and certainly respect her advocacy for fair compensation for artists," a Pandora spokesperson said in response to this story. "But we must clarify an important fact: Pandora paid more than $6,400 for those 4+ million plays, based on our 2014 rates which are published publicly. In terms of compensation to the creative community Pandora remains by far the highest paying form of radio. Pandora pays songwriters a greater percentage of revenue than terrestrial radio. And Pandora paid 48% of our revenue in performance royalties to rights-holders in 2013 – more than $300 million – while terrestrial radio was required to pay nothing." http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/6039697/… Older rebuttals during the original Thom Yorke / RIAA campaign: Forbes estimates Spotify royalties per listener are almost double those of terrestrial radio: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/07/17/spotify-royalties-a… The artist doesn't see most of the royalties, the payouts from Pandora / Spotify can be orders of magnitude larger than the check the artist sees: http://theunderstatement.com/post/53867665082/pandora-pays-far-more-th… (This is a problem worth examining too, but it's a different problem.) Tim Westergren makes some additional points, like Pandora's value for promotion is higher than…

Pandora's press release says so http://blog.pandora.com/us/siriusxm-to-acquire-pandora-creating-worlds… "we announced that we’ve entered into an agreement to be acquired by SiriusXM, in an all-stock transaction, valued at approximately $3.5 billion" They're presumably paying a premium on the current stock price.

Direct link: http://blog.pandora.com/us/coming-soon-pandora-premium/

I just received my pandora one subscription renewal notice and it is due on Sunday. I've thought about it and the only reason I would stay with Pandora is that I have trained it to play music I like. When I turn on my station, I know I'll hear music I want to work to. With that said ... Today was the first time I've listened to pandora in close to a month. I've been listening to playlists through Prime Music .. the free version. I listen through our echos, my phone and my desktop. I haven't missed the tailored station I've built through Pandora over 10+ years. I think you are correct with "good enough." Oh, and the Pandora Premium doesn't sound like much of a game changer unless I missed a killer feature: http://blog.pandora.com/us/coming-soon-pandora-premium/

According to Pandora about 800 musicians received over 50k a year from them and 2000 received 10k a year. So some people are making a living off Pandora. As Pandora currently has 7% the listeners of radio, it's entirely possible upwards of 10k musicians could make a 'living' off Pandora. http://blog.pandora.com/2012/10/09/pandora-and-artist-payments/

I'm submitting this because it appears to be in direct opposition to this that was on the front page of HN a while ago: http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/archives/2012/10/pandora-and-art.html http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4633842

Here's a link to the press release: http://blog.pandora.com/archives/press/2011/09/pandora_unveils.html

This isn't really a secret. Pandora outlines their information sharing policy in their FAQ: http://blog.pandora.com/faq/contents/60.html http://blog.pandora.com/faq/contents/392.html They also outlines their location sharing policy: You may also get a request for location permissions. This data is used to provide better geolocation for certain ad campaigns. Again, this function would always be under your control. Each time an ad wants to use your location to provide more personalized results, you will be asked for permission to use your location, and you can decline this at any time.

Pandora has been close to shutting down a number of times: * http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/archives/2007/03/riaas-new-royal.html * http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008… they are at the mercy of the labels.

That's the problem. Some indie artits may do this, but not nearly enough, due to Apple's approval process. Most actually are refused as you mentioned, and this is why itunes is not a viable option for unsigned musicians, as many sites are not. The industry is catered to major label musicians, and FCC regulation stricken. It does not meet the needs of the unsigned musician. Checkout Pandora's plight. http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/the-tech-observer/2008/08/18/firs… http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/archives/2009/07/important_updat_1.htm… http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/07/14/pandora-teams-up-with-record-labe…