BMI Beats Pandora: Courts Says Pandora Must Raise Payments To Songwriters 43%

The laws governing digital music are a mess and getting messier. Recently, the FCC approved Pandora's purchase of a radio station that would lower payments to rightsholders, and an ASCAP. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2015/05/bmi-beats-pandora-courts-says-pandora-must-raise-payme

The laws governing digital music are a mess and getting messier. Recently, the FCC approved Pandora's purchase of a radio station that would lower payments to rightsholders, and an ASCAP attempt to retroactively raise their rates was defeated in court. Yesterday, however, BMI scored a major victory vs. Pandora for songwriters.

Pandora lost an important legal battle with BMI yesterday. The ruling would raise Pandora's payments to to songwriters to 2.5% of revenue, up from the current 1.75%.

"Today’s decision is an enormous victory for the more than 650,000 songwriters, composers and publishers that BMI has the privilege to represent," BMI said in a statement. "This is an important step forward in valuing music in the digital age."

Pandora says it will appeal the decision. Last week Pandora won a decision in a similar case with ASCAP.