How much does an artist get paid for 1 Million plays on Pandora?

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The answer for David Lowery of the band Cracker is very Low. David owns 40% of the rights to their 1993 hit Low and a million spins on Pandora netted him a whopping $16.98. Here’s some of what he had to say:

As a songwriter Pandora paid me $16.89* for 1,159,000 play of “Low” last quarter. Less than I make from a single T-shirt sale. Okay that’s a slight exaggeration. That’s only the premium multi-color long sleeve shirts and that’s only at venues that don’t take commission. But still.

Soon you will be hearing from Pandora how they need Congress to change the way royalties are calculated so that they can pay much much less to songwriters and performers. For you civilians webcasting rates are “compulsory” rates. They are set by the government (crazy, right?). Further since they are compulsory royalties, artists can not “opt out” of a service like Pandora even if they think Pandora doesn’t pay them enough.

For a frame of reference he was paid $181 by Sirius last quarter and $1,522 by radio. Read his full post here.

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