Sony/ATV Says New Pandora Deal Will Significantly Increase Royalties [FULL TEXT OF LETTER TO SONGWRITERS]
In a letter to Sony/ATV clients, the music publishing giant said that a landmark direct deal signed with internet radio giant Pandora will lead to ""a significant increase in royalties" for the publisher's songwriters.
"Although I am not in a position to publicly go into the specifics of the deal, rest assured that you will receive 100% of its benefits," wrote Sony/ATV chief Martin Bandier.
Full text of Sony/ATV's letter to songwriters:
Dear Songwriter,
Many of you may have read about our recent deal with Pandora and I wanted to write to you personally and explain what it will mean to you.
As I’ve previously described to you, we at Sony/ATV have been working to bring the outdated licensing system in the U.S. in line with the current digital age to achieve improved performance royalties for you, our songwriter. I am happy to report as a result of our ongoing efforts Pandora reached out to us over the last several months and we have now entered into a deal, effective January 1st, which will result in a significant increase in the royalties that you will receive.
Although I am not in a position to publicly go into the specifics of the deal, rest assured that you will receive 100% of its benefits. You will also receive your songwriter royalties relating to Pandora directly from the PROs and to be clear, none of those amounts will be used to recoup any advances that you may have received.Further, I should point out this is a direct deal between Sony/ATV and Pandora whereby we have only licensed the fractional share of the songs in our catalog that we control. In other words, we did not grant Pandora a 100% license. That is consistent with our past practice and what we believe has been the long-standing practice in our industry.
We are very excited about this deal and believe what we have achieved is a major step in the right direction to ensure you are fairly compensated for the use of your music on streaming services. At the same time our efforts to reform the current antiquated performance licensing system in the U.S. will continue. As I said in the deal announcement last week, our strategy is to ensure that all digital music services recognize the indispensable value that the words and music of a song bring to their businesses.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this deal please feel free to reach out to me.
Regards,
Martin Bandier
Chairman & CEO
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
