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Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

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Re: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

#31
1 million plays on Pandora is like one play on FM radio with an audience of 1 million, or 10 plays with an audience of 100,000. Either way, their royalties are more expensive than ones of radio stations.

Pandora just bought an FM radio station in an effort to reduce its royalty rates. http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/11/pandora-buys-fm-radio-sta...

Re: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

#32
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguing that high royalties make it hard for Pandora to do business is just bullying and threatening. Obviously if sharing songs via violating copyright weren't an option, listeners would happily pay a little more for Pandora premium or endure a few more commercials. Instead, the public starts from the stance that music should basically be free, and artists are lucky to be paid anything at all. The purpose of statuto…

Did any musicians ever make a living off radio?

Often the money went the other direction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola

Re: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to what, FM radio? Which pays NOTHING? Artists, get over yourself. The market is huge now, and your product value is approaching zero. But keep on flailing in the noose. EDIT: Half credit. Per dllthomas, "Per the article, FM radio pays royalties to the songwriter but not the performers."

FM radio pays royalties.

Per the article, FM radio pays royalties to the songwriter but not the performers.

Re: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

#34
post #16

"A good flatterer doesn't lie, but tells his victim selective truths (what a nice color your eyes are). Good PR firms use the same strategy: they give reporters stories that are true, but whose truth favors their clients." I have no idea if David Lowery's original post about making only $16.89 for 1 million plays was distributed by a PR firm, but it sure feels like it. PG's thoughts on PR are spot on, and I love refe…

A PR firm would have been much more selective with the truths.

Re: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

#35
post #5

Its easy to complain about the low pandora royalties, but these artists are essentially trying to kill the golden goose. Pandora currently spends > 50% of revenue on royalties. Any increases would almost certainly lead to the end of the company. $0 is a lot less than $1,300 for 1 million plays.

Judging by what I have read, Pandora is not making much (if anything) so there's a limit on how much they can pay. Maybe the is not a feasible business model, or maybe someone else--other than the artist--is getting the lion share of the royalties.

It's clearly a feasible business model. They've survived a long time, and haven't bled out. With some strict cost cutting, they can probably break even, and that's more the problem.

To be a prospering model, rather than a struggling one, they might have to raise prices on customers while trying to hold royalty payments to a steady %.

The biggest potential threat to Pandora, other than the labels killing them with royalties, is Apple and Google.

Re: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

#36
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguing that high royalties make it hard for Pandora to do business is just bullying and threatening. Obviously if sharing songs via violating copyright weren't an option, listeners would happily pay a little more for Pandora premium or endure a few more commercials. Instead, the public starts from the stance that music should basically be free, and artists are lucky to be paid anything at all. The purpose of statuto…

Did any musicians ever make a living off radio?

You'd have to be getting an insane amount of airplay indefinitely to make any sort of living.

Re: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

#37
post #16

"A good flatterer doesn't lie, but tells his victim selective truths (what a nice color your eyes are). Good PR firms use the same strategy: they give reporters stories that are true, but whose truth favors their clients." I have no idea if David Lowery's original post about making only $16.89 for 1 million plays was distributed by a PR firm, but it sure feels like it. PG's thoughts on PR are spot on, and I love refe…

I always think of the Excorcist quote about how the Devil doesn't lie but rather mixes lies with the truth. That's what makes it truly perplexing.

Re: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

#38
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguing that high royalties make it hard for Pandora to do business is just bullying and threatening. Obviously if sharing songs via violating copyright weren't an option, listeners would happily pay a little more for Pandora premium or endure a few more commercials. Instead, the public starts from the stance that music should basically be free, and artists are lucky to be paid anything at all. The purpose of statuto…

It's easier said than done to think that charging more and putting more commercial will still allow Pandora to retain the customers. If rdio, Spotify, Rhapsody all are offering similar service at lower rate, what's to stop the customers from going to other services?

Pandora as it operates today is a money-losing enterprise. So assuming those competitors pay the same licensing rates, and barring one of them inventing some genius new revenue stream, the answer to "why won't users just switch to those other services" is that those other services will just go out of business.

Re: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays

#39
post #29
post #5

Its easy to complain about the low pandora royalties, but these artists are essentially trying to kill the golden goose. Pandora currently spends > 50% of revenue on royalties. Any increases would almost certainly lead to the end of the company. $0 is a lot less than $1,300 for 1 million plays.

Relevant opinion: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/06/23/pink-floyd-... > "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." Sounds reasonable enough to me. Do they have…

From the most recent 10Q. Revenue was $125M ($105 Ads / $20 Subscriber). Expenses: $82M Content, $10M hosting, $7M Prod Dev., $40M Marketing/Sales, $14M All Other. Net Result: $28M loss.
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