Pandora Raises Rates
Last week Pandora won a court battle that will keep its royalty payments lower than what most in the music industry consider a fair market rate. On the heels of this victory, Pandora announced yesterday (March 18) it is raising prices for its paid subscribers, citing increased royalty rates. On its official blog, Pandora posted, “the royalty rates Pandora pays to performers via SoundExchange for subscription listening have increased 53% in the last five years and will increase another 9% in 2015.”
This refers to a federal judge’s ruling on March 14 that Pandora will continue to pay the current 1.85 percent rate for licensing of songs in the ASCAP repertoire, for each of the years 2011 to 2015.
New subscribers to ad-free Pandora One will pay $4.99 per month starting in May. This is up from the $3.99 rate paid by existing monthly subscribers, who will not experience a price hike at this time. The annual subscription option will no longer be available, and existing annual subscribers will be moved to the $3.99 per month plan.
Pandora has 3.3 million paid subscribers and more than 250 million registered users total. The company has also experienced recent changes among its top executives.
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