AfterDawn: Tech news

Pandora pays Lil Wayne, Drake $3 million per year in royalties

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 09 Oct 2012 9:49 User comments (4)

Pandora pays Lil Wayne, Drake $3 million per year in royalties

It appears that streaming music may actually be great for artists, despite what the record labels may believe.
Pandora CEO Tim Westergren noted today that it pays some of the top artists in the world over $1 million per year in royalties, with Lil Wayne and Drake topping the list at $3 million per year.

Says the exec: "For over two thousand artists Pandora will pay over $10,000 dollars each over the next 12 months (including one of my favorites, the late jazz pianist Oscar Peterson), and for more than 800 we'll pay over $50,000, more than the income of the average American household. For top earners like Coldplay, Adele, Wiz Khalifa, Jason Aldean and others Pandora is already paying over $1 million each."

Some smaller, upcoming acts, like Drake friend French Montana will make $138,567 this year, despite being the 17,000th best-selling artist on established platforms like Amazon, says Westergren.

"These are all working artists who live well outside the mainstream--no steady rotation on broadcast radio, no high profile opening slots on major tours, no front page placement in online retail," the CEO concludes.

More here: Pandora Blog

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4 user comments

110.10.2012 02:01

Wow I never new that Pandora makes that kind of money.

210.10.2012 10:53
JoeSanchez
Unverified new user

Originally posted by ballju:
Wow I never new that Pandora makes that kind of money.
Ya through advertisements.

311.10.2012 08:39

Hopefully that money goes to the artist not the record company. Maybe it does or a good percentage does instead of going into to the record companies. That would explain why they wouldn't like it. If you can make that kind of money and aren't getting anywhere with the record companies help who needs them anyway? Another nail in their coffin?

412.10.2012 12:04

Originally posted by dEwMe:
Hopefully that money goes to the artist not the record company. Maybe it does or a good percentage does instead of going into to the record companies.
There used to be a lyric used in the older rock hits, "I sold my soul to rock & roll".

A lot of the bible bellters thought it was a cry for kids to race out & join the leagues of Satan worshipers in bestiality sodomizing Saturdays & sucking down drugs/liquor till death did they part.

While only half of that was true, the honest part of those lyrics was what the record company 'legally' stole all of the rights of the recording artist's tangible creative freedom to everything involved with the medium they were producing.

You can basically hear the same story being sung today if you listen real good. It's usually artists on their way out who've been so jaded by their label that they're trapped & can't get out of their contract, nor get any more money because of the way it got worded. Basically calling for the band/artist to pay for EVERYTHING involved with their career.

Meaning, the assholes at the labels wanted NO risk at all, but ALL the benefits & they've been doing it for eons. There's so much more to the story, but I would just prove myself to be an even bigger wordy bitch than I already am.

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