Pink Floyd Finds Pandora’s Dark Side: Radio Company is Asking Musicians to Support 85% Pay Cut
Members of Pink Floyd—Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason—are calling out Internet radio company Pandora to cease sending out a misleading email that's asking musicians to support a campaign they say is really intended to cut musicians’ Internet royalties by 85%.
Here's an excerpt of Pink Floyd: Pandora's Internet Radio Royalty Ripoff, an open letter to Pandora published in USA Today:
Great music can inspire deep emotions, and businesses have long sought to harness this power in order to make money. Nothing wrong with that—everyone deserves to make a living—but too often it leads to less than scrupulous behavior. The latest example is how Pandora is pushing for a special law in Congress to slash musicians' royalties—and the tactics they are using to trick artists into supporting this unfair cut in pay.
They say:
Musicians around the country 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.
Sounds good. Who wouldn't want to be "part of a conversation"? Who doesn't support Internet radio? What scrooge would refuse to sign such a positive, pro-music statement?
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.
Fine print is one thing. But a musician could read this "letter of support" a dozen times and hold it up to a fun house mirror for good measure without realizing she was signing a call to cut her own royalties to pad Pandora's bottom line.
