Pandora has signed a licensing agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
“The direct publishing deal creates business benefits for Pandora, while modernizing compensation for Sony/ATV and its songwriters in the U.S.,” the companies stated. Terms were not publicized.
The announcement was made by Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews and Sony/ATV Chairman/CEO Martin Bandier.
“We believe that this agreement with Pandora is a major step in the right direction to ensure that our songwriters are fairly compensated for the use of their music on streaming services,” said Bandier in the announcement. He called Pandora “one of the most important platforms for music consumption and discovery.”
McAndrews hailed the multi-year deal as “a significant milestone in our long-standing effort to strengthen ties with the music maker community.”
The companies said little more in their announcement but teased that they had “worked together to build an innovative win-win approach to publisher economics. Sony/ATV achieved its goal of delivering improved performance royalties for its songwriters while Pandora will benefit from greater rate certainty and the ability to add new flexibility to the company’s product offering over time. The public performance royalties Pandora also pays to rights holders of master recordings are not affected by this agreement.”
