Here’s How Much Pandora Pays Music Artists

Here’s How Much Pandora Pays Music Artists


Pandora, which quietly reinstated its internet radio service in Australia back in July, wants you to know that Pandora is good for music because it pays artists millions and millions of dollars for their songs. Take Drake and Lil Wayne — they get nearly $US3 million each a year. And Pandora wants to pay them more.

According to Pandora CEO Tim Westergren, Pandora will pay over 2000 artists $US10,000 each over the next 12 months. Yeah, it’s not a milli a milli for every artist, but that’s still a solid chunk of change! The top dogs in music obviously get a lot of money:

  • Drake – $US3 million
  • Lil Wayne – $US3 million
  • Coldplay – $US1 million
  • Adele – $US1 million
  • Wiz Khalifa – $US1 million
  • Jason Aldean – $US1 million
  • Rascal Flatts – $US670,351
  • Ellie Goulding – $US609,046
  • Zac Brown Band – $US547,064
  • Mumford & Sons – $US523,902
  • Iron & Wine – $US173,152
  • Bon Iver – $US135,223
  • George Winston – $US85,239
  • The Four Tops – $US65,173

But lesser-known artists are getting paid too. Artists I’ve never heard of, such as Donnie McClurkin, French Montana or Grupo Bryndis (who rank 4752, 17,000 and 183,187 respectively on Amazon) are each collecting $US100,000-$US138,000 a year from Pandora.

Pandora is happy to pay these ‘performance fees’ to artists, but the RIAA and US Congress keep trying to make it harder for internet radio stations to succeed. Sigh. Artists getting paid good money for their own music would be something the awful RIAA would be against. [Pandora via Business Insider]