Pandora Reveals How Much It Pays Artists, From Mashable.com

Adele - Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Soyhan

So you think you should be getting paid for every time your music is played online? Well, your damn right you should. Spotify and Pandora are paying out royalties for all the songs being played on their platforms and for a few artists, these are a solid chunk of coin. Here is one tasty bit of advice we can dish up for free. Write great music, publish your tracks and get fans behind the songs even if you have to give your music away for free. Streaming music, is the future and through proper business acumen, will insure that you are indeed seeing revenue from your songs, once they start to get repeated play on a large scale. 

Link to original article from Mashable.com

"Responding to critics’ claims that musicians make little or no money from music-streaming services, Pandora founder Tim Westergren has detailed the amounts certain artists rake in — some nearing $3 million annually. 

Westergren, the company’s current chief strategy officer, said Tuesday the “revenue stream is meaningful” and further explained Pandora’s philosophy on paying musicians.

“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,” he said in a statement. “We’re talking here about the very real possibility of creating, for the first time ever, an actual musicians middle class.” 

Pandora also pays popular artists such as Adele, Coldplay, Jason Aldean and Wiz Khalifa more than $1 million each annually, he claimed, while Drake and Lil Wayne take in almost $3 million. 

Last month, Pandora rallied people around the Internet Radio Fairness Act, a bill introduced to the U.S. Congress that would curb the royalties music-streaming services pay compared to terrestrial and satellite radio. 

“Since Pandora accounts for just 6.53% of all radio listening in the U.S., it seems fundamentally unfair that other forms of radio that represent much larger shares of U.S. radio listening pay substantially less to artists,” Westergren said, addressing the bill. “Congress must stop the discrimination against internet radio and allow it to operate on a level playing field, under the same rules as other forms of digital radio.”
 
Update: Pandora PR has reached out to Mashable and has since edited on its blog the first part of the above quote to read as such: “It’s hard to look at these numbers and not see that internet radio presents an incredible opportunity to build a better future for artists. Not only is it bringing tens of millions of listeners back to music, across hundreds of genres, but it is also enabling musicians to earn a living. It’s also hard to look at these numbers, knowing Pandora accounts for just 6.5% of radio listening in the U.S., and not come away thinking something is wrong.”

Westergren also described implications the bill — which if enacted would increase the value of Pandora — might have on radio and musicians:

"Making performance fees fair for internet radio will drive massive investment in the space, accelerating the growth of the overall sector, and just as importantly accelerating the development of new technology that leverages the incredible power of the internet to build and activate new audiences. That’s where the great opportunity lies in the long run. The short-term reduction in revenue would be rapidly swamped by the overall growth of the sector. Imagine the impact on artists if this industry grew to become 25% or even 50% of radio listening."

Are you surprised with how much Pandora says it pays artists? And are these monetary revelations from Westergren enough to persuade Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act?"

Hellbound Glory Tops Farce The Music's Top Albums Of 2011

"The boys went and growed up on us. While Hellbound Glory is still infatuated with the darker subjects - addiction, dysfunctional families and death, in particular - their songwriting has improved a great deal since their last album. Not that it was ever bad. It's just that this time around the songs are better developed. The hooks are hookier and the subject matter comes across more naturally - it no longer feels like they're trying to shoehorn in every deviant behavior and curse word they can, just because they can. This is a band on the rise and with material this good, they may eventually break down the wall between alt and country. Best tracks: Better Hope You Die Young, Knocked Off the Horse." - Farce The Music

Link over to Farce The Music

Hellbound Glory featured in Farce The Music's 2011 Top Ten List

The Full List of Farce The Music's Best of 2011

1. The Damn Quails - Down the Hatch My tastes were more oriented towards roots-music this year than any in recent memory and The Damn Quails put out a stunning debut that satisfied my yearnings like no other. The unique voices of Bryon and Gabriel combine for divine harmonies and their writing is the class of contemporary bands that fall into the "red dirt" scene, or nearly any scene for that matter. There isn't a weak song on the offering and what's more, nearly every tune spent time lodged in my brain on replay at one point or another. Brilliant work, epic even. Best songs: All of them, but if you must have 1 or 2 …"Fool's Gold" and "Mary" always slay me.

2. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Here We Rest Wrapped around the undeniable song of the year, "Codeine," is an album that more than pulls its own weight. Isbell fans may have hoped for something louder, but what they got was an artist-defining gem of a southern rock and soul record. Strong lyrics, excellent musicianship and plenty of easy-to-love melodies make this an album most anyone can appreciate, and true music lovers will adore. Best tracks: Codeine, Alabama Pines.

3. Hellbound Glory - Damaged Goods The boys went and growed up on us. While Hellbound Glory is still infatuated with the darker subjects - addiction, dysfunctional families and death, in particular - their songwriting has improved a great deal since their last album. Not that it was ever bad. It's just that this time around the songs are better developed. The hooks are hookier and the subject matter comes across more naturally - it no longer feels like they're trying to shoehorn in every deviant behavior and curse word they can, just because they can. This is a band on the rise and with material this good, they may eventually break down the wall between alt and country. Best tracks: Better Hope You Die Young, Knocked Off the Horse.

4. Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO What else is there to say about Hayes? Rapier wit. Songwriting that recalls the greats of country and folk music. Memorable, affable voice. Actually has something to say. Just enough weirdness to keep him a little mysterious. Check, to all of those. This guy's the real deal; one of the few artists I'll buy an album from without hearing a single note. He never disappoints, never rests on his accolades. Thanks for another winner, Hayes! Best tracks: Another Like You, Chances Are.

5. Jimbo Mathus - Confederate Buddha Jimbo calls this "catfish music," and I see no better way to describe it. Confederate Buddha is a melting pot for southern music - R&B, rock, folk, country and swamp soul, all mixed, matched and sifted out at different times on the record. Mathus' writing is in turns poetic, straight-forward or abstract, all expertly crafted and emotionally performed. Best tracks: Cling to the Roots, Aces and Eights.

6. Cary Anne Hearst - Lions and Lambs Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin and Neko Case in a blender vocals. Transgendered Hayes Carll songwriting chops. That was weird. …this album is great. Best tracks: Are You Ready to Die, Hell's Bells

7. Butch Walker and the Black Widows - The Spade The in-demand producer of #6/former hair band member/former 90's alt-rock band, the jack - nay master - of all trades turns in this hook-driven smorgasbord of power pop, hard rock and jangly country-flavored rave-up goodness. This album alongside #8 would make a killer party soundtrack. Best tracks: Synthesizers, Suckerpunch

8. The Black Keys - El Camino If this is a sellout, I wish every artist who's been accused of such had such a well-done betrayal of ideals. The Black Keys expand their blues rock sound to (bluesy) glam rock and power pop without missing a step or making it sound contrived. Sometimes you just need to turn off your inner-critic and enjoy. Fun, fun, fun! Best tracks: Gold on the Ceiling, Nova Baby

9. Adele - 21 Adele somehow straddles the huge divide between modern pop and "old people" soul music with great success. Even the songs that lack lyrically are made great by Adele's huge (but never diva-esque) voice. There hasn't been an artist in some time that brought together so many people in mutual admiration. This is a chick album that dudes can be unashamed to love. It's an old-school album that kids can groove to. Excellence. Best tracks - Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You.

10. Ponderosa - Moonlight Revival Sounding like the Black Crowes by way of Muscle Shoals, Ponderosa is a super-talented band of southern rockers who mostly steer clear of the clichés of the genre. Kalen Bush's lead vocals are stirring and the harmonies take their sound over the top. Ponderosa isn't reinventing the wheel here, but what they do, they do very well. Best tracks: Old Gin Road, Devil on My Shoulder.

11. Austin Lucas - A New Home, In the Old World

12. Kasey Anderson and the Honkies - Heart of a Dog

13. Stoney Larue - Velvet

14. Drew Kennedy - Fresh Water in the Salton Sea

15. Ryan Adams - Ashes and Fire

16. Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels

17. Wilco - The Whole Love

18. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears - Scandalous

19. Mastodon - The Hunter

20. Will Hoge - Number Seven

21. Scott H. Biram - Bad Ingredients

22. Miranda Lambert - Four the Record

23. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

24. Justin Haigh - People Like Me

25. Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra

26. Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones

27. Larry Hooper - Between Here and the Stars

28. Bon Iver - s/t

29. Sunny Sweeney - Concrete

30. Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin'

31. Bad Meets Evil - Hell (The Sequel)

32. Left Lane Cruiser - Junkyard Speed Ball

33. Centro-matic - Candidate Waltz

34. Big KRIT - Return of 4Eva

35. The Decemberists - The King is Dead

36. F*cked Up - David Comes to Life

37. Merle Haggard - Working in Tennessee

38. Eli Young Band - Life at Best

39. Adam Hood - The Shape of Things

40. JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound - Want More

41. Glossary - Long Live All of Us

42. Mike Ethan Messick - The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday

43. Blitzen Trapper - American Goldwing

44. Dawes - Nothing is Wrong

45. Cody Canada and The Departed - This is Indian Land

46. The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow

47. George Strait - Here for a Good Time

48. Robyn Ludwick - Out of These Blues

49. John Moreland & The Dust Bowl Souls - Everything the Hard Way

50. Jason Boland and the Stragglers - Rancho Alto