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# Music Publishers: “Pandora has gone to war against creators of music.”
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/music-publishers-pandora-has-gone-to-war-against-creators-of-music/
- Published: 2013-06-28T08:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2013-06-28T08:00:00.000Z
- Description: Today National Music Publishers Association President and CEO David Israelite aggressivley joined the debate over Pandora's effort to lower payments to songwriters and music publishers.
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Uncategorized, American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers, National Music Publishers’ Association, Pandora, Recording Industry Association of America, Royalties, songwriter, SoundExchange, Tim Westergren, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 10:43

[![image from www.nmpa.org](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201901df07799970b-150wi "image from www.nmpa.org")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201901df07799970b-popup?ref=hypebot.com)

Today National Music Publishers Association President and CEO David Israelite aggressivley joined the debate over Pandora's effort to lower payments to songwriters and music publishers.

> "Yesterday, Pandora CEO  
> Tim Westergren posted a blog on the Pandora website defending himself from the  
> avalanche of artist and songwriter complaints regarding Pandora’s efforts to  
> slash payments to the very creators that make Pandora possible. Mr. Westergren’s  
> post could not be more wrong or misleading.  
>  
> Put simply, Pandora has  
> gone to war against creators of music. For years, they’ve funded a  
> well orchestrated campaign to lower the amount paid to songwriters and  
> artists. The facts speak for themselves.  
>  
> – In 2009, Pandora  
> entered into a settlement agreement with SoundExchange for royalties paid to  
> artists, only to run to Congress a few years later arguing the rates it agreed  
> to were too high. Pandora asked Congress to undo the agreement and lower its royalty  
> rates.   
>  
> – In November 2012,  
> Pandora sued ASCAP to further lower the already paltry rate (only 4% of  
> revenue) it pays to music publishers and songwriters.   
>  
> – Pandora continues to  
> complain that music publishers and songwriters should not be able to negotiate  
> “free-market” rates and instead remain subject to consent decrees that keep  
> rates below market levels.   
>  
> Meanwhile, Pandora uses  
> the artists’ and songwriters’ creative content to grow its business and pay its  
> executives millions of dollars. That NMPA, RIAA, ASCAP, BMI along with hundreds  
> of artists and songwriters have finally started to speak out is attributable  
> only to Pandora’s continued actions against our industry.  
>  
> With respect to  
> songwriters, the low royalty rates Pandora pays are real. Per stream  
> numbers recently in the press were determined by reviewing royalty statements,  
> Pandora filings and other documents. None of this is referenced in  
> Westergren’s blog post.   
>  
> Last year, NMPA held a  
> songwriter event at which we demonstrated how five hit-making, successful  
> songwriters were paid minimally for millions of plays on Pandora. In  
> the first three months of 2012, five of their hits – arguably the most popular  
> song written by each of them — streamed 33 million times on Pandora. Yet  
> these songwriters received a combined total of $587.39 for those streams. Even  
> using data provided by Westergren’s “independent blogger”, songwriter and music  
> publisher interests received only $97 for one million streams of a  
> song. By any standard, this is unacceptable.   
>  
> Westergren says that  
> through Pandora he sees, “a future that allows tens of thousands of working  
> musicians to finally reach the audiences they deserve.” But, due to low  
> royalties paid by online music giants like Pandora, songwriters and artists  
> can’t make a living despite reaching their audience.   
>  
> While Pandora wages war  
> on creators, other digital music services are entering into voluntary  
> agreements with the music industry. I think we can all agree that digital music  
> services are an increasingly important and significant part of the music  
> industry. However, without the payment of fair royalty rates to  
> songwriters and artists, music services like Pandora will make it impossible  
> for them to make a sustainable living from their creative work. "

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