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SATURDAY, APRIL 05, 2014
Bette Midler Criticizes Pandora and Spotify Business Models
by Paul Cashmere
Bette Midler is the latest artist to accuse streaming services Spotify and Pandora of ripping off artists.
In a tweet the Divine Miss M confirmed that she was paid $114.11 for over 4 million plays on Pandora.
“.@Spotify and @Pandora have made it impossible for songwriters to earn a living: three months streaming on Pandora, 4,175,149 plays=$114.11..” Bette posted.
On those figures Bette Midler fans would have to play her songs 365 times on Pandora for her to earn one cent.
Pandora is a publicly listed company in the USA. Bette Midler fans would have to play her music 13,442,950 times to earn her enough money to buy ONE Pandora share. The stock is currently trading at $368.30.
In its fourth quarter earnings for 2013 Pandora earned $200,400,000 to which Miss Midler was written a cheque for $114.11.
In the 2013 calendar year Pandora made $637,900,000. The reports lists is paid out $314,866,000 in 2013 as ”˜Content Acquisition Costs’. (It is assumed that means mostly performance royalties).
In its end of year report for 2103 Pandora reported it had $245,755,000 in cash and cash equivalents in the bank.
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I support Miss M. Spotify and Pandora people are smart asses. Many of the Sillicon Valley business people are.
Me too. I have a songwriter friend and it’s just ridiculous.