Pandora's Box

No one would argue that artists should work for free. And no one would argue that Pandora is a worthless music service for fans and artists. It can turn fans on to new music. It can help struggling artist's attract a larger fan base. However, one could argue that Pandora doesn't serve the music industry. It can't really make more money from their most profitable acts without those acts getting bigger royalty checks.

Getting paid for their work through online royalties, as the article points out, is primarily the concern of those artist's who actually support themselves completely doing their art. It's unlikely that indie band you've never heard of values the pennies they get from performing royalties v. the efficient promotional vehicle. Metallica on the other hand just might want those dollars.

Of course, the fans don't want to pay for their music. And the services, like Pandora, don't have a business model to make the industry money, pay the big artist's what they deserve and give exposure to the niche artists. It's possible there is no model that will ever address all of these desires. The industry, the artists, and the fans have very different needs and all of them deserve to be filled.

Washington Post