Pandora Sued by Licensing Collective for Underpaid Royalties (1)

Pandora Media LLC has refused to pay what it owes for its interactive music service Pandora Free based on misinterpretation of a 2018 law, according to a new lawsuit from the royalty clearinghouse established by that law.

Pandora didn’t include all revenue from its Pandora Free service in royalty calculations, resulting in “unusually low” royalties to streams ratios, according to the Mechanical Licensing Collective’s Monday complaint in the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The MLC was established by the Music Modernization Act of 2018 to collect streaming data and royalties from interactive streaming services and distribute ...