Billy Joel, Rihanna Fight Pandora Over Internet Radio Fairness Act
Billy Joel, Rihanna and other musicians are fighting Pandora Media, Inc. over the company's support of the Internet Radio Fairness Act.
The bipartisan bill, which is sponsored by U.S. representatives Jason Chaffetz and Jared Polis and Senator Ron Wyden, will change how music royalties are distributed. Pandora and other music services support the bill, arguing that the current system discriminates against Internet radio.
"The inequity in how different digital radio formats are treated under the law when it comes to setting royalties is a clear case of legislation falling behind advances in technology," Pandora's website states. "The current law penalizes new media and is astonishingly unfair to internet radio."
But Billy Joel, Rihanna and the other artists feel that the Act will cut into their profits.
Why is the company asking Congress once again to step in and gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon?" the letter reads, according to Reuters. "That's not fair and that's not how partners work together."
The letter, which has been signed by 125 musicians, will reportedly be published in this weekend's Billboard Magazine.
Pandora is an Internet-streaming music service that mostly relies on advertisements for its profits. According to Reuters, the company made up around seven percent of radio listening in the US this past October, compared to four percent at the same time last year.