Artists Speak Out Against Pandora, Net Radio Fairness Act

Issues With Pandora

Well over 100 groups, musicians and singers have publicly released an open letter to be published in this weekend's BILLBOARD MAGAZINE opposing PANDORA’s effort to get The Internet Radio Fairness Act into law, which would cut artists’ pay when music is played over Internet radio. Among the artists to sign the open letter were COMMON, DEAD KENNEDYS, MISSY ELLIOT, VINCE GILL, DON HENLEY, BILLY JOEL, MAROON 5, MARTHA REEVES, DAVID SANBORN, MICHAEL W. SMITH and ROGER.

While saying they were "big fans" of PANDORA and lauded the company’s commercial success, the artists asked why PANDORA was pushing Congress to lower its royalties.  "That’s not fair and that’s not how partners work together," they wrote.

"These artists have joined together to tell PANDORA it’s time to go back to the drawing board," MUSICFIRST Exec. Dir. TED KALO said. "We all want Internet radio to succeed, but it won’t if it tries to do so on the backs of hard working musicians and singers." . 

"This issue is critical to the tens-of-thousands of recording artists we represent -- all of whom rely on this digital performance revenue stream to make a living," SOUNDEXCHANGE Pres. MICHAEL HUPPE said. "It is important that we protect artists and the long-term value of their music, which is, after all, the foundation of Internet radio."

Read the open letter here.

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