Royalties and Spins

How do I receive Royalties?
From whom will I receive Royalty Payments?
Does SoundExchange pay the same Royalties for all Pandora services?
How can I receive mechanical royalties?

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How do I receive Royalties?

Pandora, as of September 2016, has entered into direct licenses with record labels, digital music distributors and music publishers for the rights to play music with semi-interactive features on our ad-supported and Pandora Plus services in the US, and for on-demand rights in Pandora Premium. Pandora pays sound recording royalties in accordance with the terms of its agreements with sound recording owners, collection societies and rights administrators. Artist royalties for the ad-supported service continue to be paid through SoundExchange. Royalties for subscription services are paid through to record labels.

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From whom will I receive Royalty Payments?

For the ad-supported service, artists will continue to be paid by SoundExchange. For the subscription services, you will be paid by your record label or distributor. Mechanical Royalties (Publishing) are paid to you by your publisher while Public Performance Royalties (Publishing) are paid to you by your publisher and by the Performance Rights Organization (PRO): ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR

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Does SoundExchange pay the same Royalties for all Pandora services?

SoundExchange will continue to pay ARTIST royalties to artists for the ad-supported service. In accordance with Pandora's Direct Deals for the new interactive subscription services, all other sound recording royalties are paid to your record label or distributor.

If you are unfamiliar with SoundExchange, please register at Soundexchange's website to collect your portion of royalties paid by Pandora as well as other companies that stream music or comedy. Both record labels/owners and performing artists can collect money from SoundExchange, regardless of whether you reside or do business in the United States.

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How can I receive mechanical royalties?

The U.S. music industry has gone through an exciting evolution for how it licenses digital music and ensures that copyright owners (including songwriters, composers, lyricists and publishers) receive the share of royalties they are owed. Since January 2021, a new entity – The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) began administering blanket mechanical licenses for digital music, collecting, and paying out royalties for songwriters and publishers. With this change comes new responsibilities for everyone in the music community, including the songwriters and publishers who stand to benefit from this new approach. We must all play our part, which is why we strongly encourage all creators and publishers to visit www.themlc.com to learn more about The MLC and see what it can do for you.