From Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone via Yahoo News:
Pink Floyd's three surviving members have reunited to pen an op-ed for USA Today accusing Pandora of trying to rip off artists over royalties from online radio.
Yeah? So what else is new? Doesn't The Floyd know that music is suppose to be free? Look at it this way; it's not that Pandora is trying to get artists royalties lowered by 85 cents (?!!!), it's just that now it takes just twenty-four hours for a song to enter the public domain. You don't see Stephen Foster getting paid when Beautiful Dreamer is used in a car commercial do you?
One of the band members, I don't know which one is Pink, remarked that "a business that exists to deliver music can't really complain that its biggest cost is music." Of course it can! Insurance companies exist solely to pay you money if you need it because of an accident but they'll fight tooth and claw to not have to do that. Any company's real excuse for existing is to make money and that means saving money as a penny saved is a penny earned. It's not enough that a company get its customers to pay as much as humanly possible for its product or service, it must supply that product or service at the absolute lowest cost to itself. The old buy low, sell high first commandment of Capitalism.
Music is an intangible, ethereal product. Most people can't even understand how it is created. It seems to have been pulled from the ether. In fact, a lot of musicians say they "tuned in" to receive it and can't really take credit for its creation so why do we have to pay them for it? Never mind that once it's conceived it has to be learned by people who take years to master a musical instrument, then it as to be recorded using extremely expensive equipment, then distributed, advertised and promoted by people who aren't into distribution, advertising or promotion because they love those occupations so much they'd do it for free.
If Pandora doesn't want to pay artist royalties for the music that Pandora is selling to the public for a very hefty profit then maybe Pandora should write, record and sell it's own original music. There's an interesting idea. Radio stations of the future that only play music that they themselves have created. Television networks already broadcast shows that they've produced, why not radio? Or conversely, change the laws so that record companies can own their own network of radio stations which only play their artists. of course, in any scenario the artist will still be the last to get paid. They don't call them starving artists for nothing.
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