Bosses at music streaming service Pandora have fired back at accusations they are trying to cheat musicians out of cash after the members of Pink Floyd urged their peers to beware the online company's new bid to reduce royalty payments in a newspaper article.
Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason took aim at Pandora executives in a USA Today op-ed piece earlier this week, accusing them of attempting to trick artists into supporting their campaign to scale down costs.
The trio criticised music company bosses for lobbying lawmakers in the US Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act, which would potentially reduce royalty payments to songwriters and performers by as much as 85 percent.
A previous attempt to push for the bill failed last year after 125 artists, including Billy Joel and Rihanna, joined forces to sign an open letter urging Pandora chiefs to drop the drastic plan.
However, the Pink Floyd stars claim the firm's heads have employed more sneaky tactics this time around, allegedly getting big names to support a petition which makes no mention of the pay cut and instead states: "We are all fervent advocates for the fair treatment of artists."
Criticising the wording of the new campaign, the rockers wrote, "Fine print is one thing. But a musician could read this 'letter of support' a dozen times and hold it up to a funhouse mirror for good measure without realising she was signing a call to cut her own royalties to pad Pandora's bottom line."
But the company's chiefs have now responded to the Pink Floyd attack, insisting the the rockers have been given "badly misleading information".
WENN.com
source: newshub archive
