NEW YORK & OAKLAND, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Pandora (NYSE:P), the world’s most powerful music discovery platform, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the world’s leading music publisher, today announced a multi-year licensing agreement for Sony/ATV’s catalog of musical works. The direct publishing deal creates business benefits for Pandora, while modernizing compensation for Sony/ATV and its songwriters in the U.S.
“We believe that this agreement with Pandora is a major step in the right direction to ensure that our songwriters are fairly compensated for the use of their music on streaming services,” said Martin Bandier, Sony/ATV Chairman and CEO. “We are pleased that our songwriters will begin to enjoy the benefit of better rates on one of the most important platforms for music consumption and discovery. It is part of our ongoing strategy to ensure that all digital music services recognize the indispensable value that the words and music of a song bring to their businesses.”
“This is a significant milestone in our long-standing effort to strengthen ties with the music maker community,” said Brian McAndrews, chief executive officer of Pandora. “Over 10 years, Pandora has built music’s most powerful marketing engine, which we put into action every day for Sony/ATV’s storied catalog. By partnering directly with Sony/ATV, we are proud to lock in our opportunity to connect an incredibly talented community of songwriters with streaming music’s largest and most passionate audience.”
While specific terms of the multi-year agreement are confidential, the companies worked together to build an innovative win-win approach to publisher economics. Sony/ATV achieved its goal of delivering improved performance royalties for its songwriters while Pandora will benefit from greater rate certainty and the ability to add new flexibility to the company’s product offering over time.
The public performance royalties Pandora also pays to rights holders of master recordings are not affected by this agreement.
ABOUT PANDORA
Pandora is the world’s most powerful music discovery platform – a place where artists find their fans and listeners find music they love. We are driven by a single purpose: unleashing the infinite power of music by connecting artists and fans, whether through earbuds, car speakers, live on stage or anywhere fans want to experience it. Our team of highly trained musicologists analyze hundreds of attributes for each recording which powers our proprietary Music Genome Project®, delivering billions of hours of personalized music tailored to the tastes of each music listener, full of discovery, making artist/fan connections at unprecedented scale. Founded by musicians, Pandora empowers artists with valuable data and tools to help grow their careers and connect with their fans.
ABOUT SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING
Sony/ATV Music Publishing, established in 1995 as a joint venture between Sony and Michael Jackson, is the world’s leading music publisher. Together with EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV owns or administers around 3 million copyrights including those from such iconic music catalogs like Leiber & Stoller, Mijac Music, Motown and Famous Music. Sony/ATV also controls many of the best known songs ever written like “New York, New York”, “Hallelujah”, “All You Need Is Love”, “You’ve Got a Friend”, “Moon River”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “The Mission Impossible Theme”, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Over the Rainbow”, “Stand By Me”, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and “Singin’ in the Rain”. In addition, Sony/ATV represents the copyrights of such legendary artists as The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Carole King, Kraftwerk, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Queen, The Rolling Stones, Richie Sambora, Sting, The Supremes, Wyclef Jean, Hank Williams and Stevie Wonder, among others. Its ever-growing list of chart-topping artists, writers and producers includes Akon, Avicii, Calvin Harris, Jessie J, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, P!nk, RedOne, Shakira, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Stargate, Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams.
SOURCE: Businesswire
