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Statement from A2IM CEO Richard James Burgess Re: Pandora Streaming Services

As you have undoubtedly heard, Pandora is about to launch its new subscription services. There will be three tiers of service available to consumers, and labels will only be able to participate in tiers 2 and 3 via direct deals. These will, for the most part, be done through your regular distributor, aggregator, or digital rights organization.

Tier 1 will be similar to Pandora’s current DMCA compliant streaming offering, but under the new direct deals Tier 1 will offer non-DMCA compliant features, such as more skip and replay functionality. The DMCA compliant aspects of Tier 1 will only be available to labels that do not do direct deals, and any such labels will not participate in Tiers’ 2 and 3.

Since the launch of the new service is imminent, requires action on your part, and will change the routing of your Pandora revenues, we recommend speaking with your distributor, aggregator, or digital rights organization so that you are best positioned to take advantage of the new service.

We are excited for Pandora’s new offering, and want to make sure our community can benefit fully. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Richard James Burgess

CEO, A2IM

About A2IM:
A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City that exists to support and strengthen the independent recorded music sector. Membership currently includes a broad coalition of more than 700 Independently-owned American music labels. A2IM represents these independently owned small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. In doing so, it supports a key segment of America’s creative class that represents America’s diverse musical cultural heritage. Billboard Magazine identified the Independent music label sector as 37.32 percent of the music industry’s U.S. recorded music sales market in 2016 based on copyright ownership, making Independent labels collectively the largest music industry sector.

Learn more about A2IM here.
For information about how to join our community, see here.