According to a report in Billboard, Pandora will no longer lobby for passage of the Internet Radio Fairness Act (IRFA). Instead, according to Billboard’s source, the Internet radio company will concentrate on the upcoming statutory royalty period, the rates for which are set by the Copyright Royalty Board. This shift of focus would re-allocate Pandora’s resources from one part of government to another, abandoning congressional solutions for arbitration and possibly market negotiation.
At stake is the cost of content for Pandora (and all digital music services), and the business conditions in which Internet radio will thrive or not. Royalty rates — the payments to music owners for the right to broadcast or stream music recordings — represent the wholesale cost of music. Unlike suppliers in most other industries, labels/artists (owners of recorded masters) and composers/publishers (owners of intellectual property), do not always use market negotiation to determine their prices. In the U.S., laws and arbitration processes form the basis of statutes which determine prices. Private negotiation can occur alongside that basis.
The Internet Radio Fairness Act was introduced to address unevenness is statutory rates. Kurt Hanson, CEO of AccuRadio and Founding Editor of this site, wrote when the IRFA was introduced, “The current confusing mix of royalty-rate setting standards for digital radio is the result of piecemeal legislation enacted as each new technology was invented. The result is a system significantly out-of-sync with the realities of the 21st century marketplace.”
In the current system, cost of content differs in percentage terms across different distribution mediums. The biggest rate disparity is between broadcast radio and Internet streaming: Broadcast is not required by law to pay labels and recording artists for the use of recordings, but Internet radio is required to. This irregularity has been addressed to a limited extent by private deals between label groups, radio groups, and Internet music services.
By swiveling its spotlight from congress to the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), Pandora is placing a new bet. Current statutory royalty rates run through 2015. Next year begins a rate-setting process for the following five-year period. For each cycle, the CRB is mandated to determine cost-of-content prices that reflect open-market realities. The difference in the upcoming cycle is that there is a more substantial open market than in previous cycles, and therefore more reference points with which to frame arguments. For example, Apple hammered out the content costs of its iTunes Radio streaming business via negotiated deal-making with music owners. Likewise, Clear Channel’s proprietary agreements with Warner Music and many smaller label groups provide open-market examples. Same with the alliance of the Cumulus radio group with Internet pureplay Rdio.
Pandora might also explore the direct-negotiation path, though it has not made private deals in the past. The company is fairly cash-rich, with about a half-billion dollars in the bank, thanks in part to a secondary stock offering completed this year. When asked about direct music licensing in last week’s earnings call, CEO Brian McAndrews replied, “[The public offering] puts us in a better position to have the right conversations.”
Whatever Pandora’s future cost-management strategy, David Oxenford, author of the Broadcast Law Blog, observes that Pandora’s prioritizing is sensible: “It does make sense for all webcasters to start to focus on the CRB proceeding, as the notices of intent to participate in the next webcasting case will probably be due in January.” Oxenford also notes that we are still two years away from a decision regarding new rates, which will be announced in December, 2015, for the 2016-2020 royalty period.