Pandora's music royalty payments are the same or lower than other online retailers, said the MusicFirstncoalition in a Tuesday release (http://bit.ly/11lPuVD), based on the results of a paper it helpednfund (http://bit.ly/11JnFSI). MusicFirst, which represents record labels and some artist groups, and whichnhas opposed Pandora's efforts to reduce its royalty rates, said major online retailers such as 1-800 Flowers,nNetflix and Overstock.com pay the same proportion of revenue for "the products they purchase from othersnand resell to consumers." At least two of Pandora's competitors in the Internet radio space, Spotifynand iTunes, pay higher proportions of their revenue in royalties, it said. Spotify's website said it's notnbound by the same licensing arrangement as Pandora (http://spoti.fi/1aq8Xb0), which avails itself of government-nset rates. Based on the March 2012 Billboard article the paper cites for the relevant iTunes figures,nthose percentages do not correspond to the percentages iTunes pays for its new Internet radio service,nbut rather for its music downloads (http://bit.ly/1aq7jpX). When asked about the comparison, anspokeswoman Kristen Hainen said "it's not apples to oranges to consumers. They view all of these as alternativesnand complements to each other." The paper was written by Jeffrey Eisenach, managing directornat the consulting firm Navigant Economics.
展开▼
