“Now is the time to move past the over-regulation of songwriter rights and towards a market-based approach to streaming music,” SONGS founder and CEO Matt Pincus said. “This agreement is a big step forward in a long conversation about fair and equitable compensation for all songwriters and publishers.”
As the subject of royalty payments becomes increasingly heated in the streaming music space, Pandora has been a leader in pursuing direct deals with publishers and labels. It first inked an arrangement with Merlin, representing a collection independent labels. Since then, Pandora has also successfully negotiated deals with Sony/ATV and with classical specialist Naxos.