Rihanna's Furious With Pandora; Why Does The Singer Hate The Music Site?

Rihanna, Billy Joel and Missy Elliott have signed an open letter to Pandora Media criticizing the music site's move to pass legislation that could cut singers' royalties on the Internet up to 85 percent.

Pandora has been busy lobbying the U.S. Congress to pass the "Internet Radio Fairness Act," which would change the way artists are paid for music that's played online. "Why is the company asking Congress once again to step in and gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon? That's not fair and that's not how partners work together," said the letter, which will be published this weekend in Billboard magazine.

An early copy of the letter was released this week by musicFirst, a group of musicians and business people, and SoundExchange, a nonprofit organization that collects royalties set by Congress on behalf of musicians. "Internet radio and the artists whose music is played and listened to on the Internet are indeed all in this together," Tim Westergren, Pandora's founder and chief strategy officer, responded said in a statement. "A sustainable Internet radio industry will benefit all artists, big and small." 

Rihanna - and 124 other artists - don't exactly see it that way. Founded more than a decade ago, Pandora was one of the first online music sites to grow exponentially. Now Spotify and Grooveshark have offered fierce competition. Nevertheless, Pandora has continued to flourish.

Mostly supported by advertising, Pandora recently said its share of total U.S. radio listening was almost 7 percent, up from about 4 percent during the same period last year. Yet the more the company grows the more it has to pay royalties. "The current law penalizes new media and is astonishingly unfair to Internet radio," Pandora said on its website. "We are asking for our listeners' support to help end the discrimination against internet radio. It's time for Congress to stop picking winners, level the playing field and establish a technology-neutral standard." 

The Internet Radio Fairness Act is a bipartisan bill sponsored by U.S. representatives Jason Chaffetz and Jared Polis, and Sen. Ron Wyden.