The author didn’t state that nobody buys his songs on iTunes. And just because Apple pays artists well, is that a justification for Spotify to pay peanuts? “I see you can pay your rent this month. Good, then you won’t be needing my money!”

I think the point is that Pandora acts as a discovery app. It plays you something and you think "hey I like it, I'll go buy it on iTunes".

Now I have no reason to believe I am representative (and in fact I would be surprised if I was), but 60% of the music I have purchased in the last couple of years has been as a follow-up to a Pandora play. Another 35% has been following a Shazam tag from a radio station, and about 5% from a movie soundtrack or something like that. Of those, Pandora is the only one that causes me to buy albums instead of solely individual tracks, which is an order of magnitude more money.

So I know for a fact that N artists got money from me that they would have never gotten if not for Pandora. That doesn't help the (100-N) whose track played and I didn't buy them; but, you know, I actually didn't care enough to want to listen to them again. Or, Pandora played them while I had the computer on mute (played is not the same as listened).

Now the legitimate question is, how many people are like me, as opposed to people who use Pandora without buying anything at all as a result of what they hear? I don't know the answer to that question and I suspect neither does Pandora (they have a "buy" button so they can presumably track that, but I only sometimes use it rather than just independently look for the artist on iTunes some later time).

this reminded me of a guy who downloaded an audio book at piratebay, enjoyed it and then searched for it on amazon, to see what other books people bought with it. then downloaded those at shady sites too. but then, he usually donates to authors of software that he uses (e.g. Libre Office). Maybe we need an easier donation model for music. one that gives 99% of the money to the author/perfotmer

> an easier donation model for music. one that gives 99% of the money to the author/perfotmer

So it’s fine for record companies and distributors to get stiffed? Hosting, payment processing, and marketing are not free.

Actually On pirate bay the hosting is payed for by hirls in my srea that would like to mert me.

His point, of course, is that Pandora should be viewed as a marketing channel, not a way to make money in itself. In the old days of Payola, this artist would have paid Pandora in order to be played on their stations. This is an improvement for the artist; he's just not seeing the big picture.

Not every musician wants to tour (often a very expensive venture), and even those who do can't cover 100% of the globe. Further there are so many streaming options now that actual purchases are becoming somewhat of a relic.

It is incredibly cheap to dictate the business models of others. Are you a software developer? How about you do that for free then and maybe you can do like training classes or something and you can make all of your money on that. I hear that's where the programming economy is going.

You realize that it was technology itself, in the first place, that allowed musicians to work hard for some months, and then get paid for a lifetime from the results.

You also realize that not-yet-established musicians would pay exorbitant amounts of money to merely get heard.

So, excuse me if I have little sympathy for the "plight" of the recording-only musician.

You have no idea what you're talking about; you're assuming everyone who ever had a recording contract made out like a bandit, based on the most successful 0.01% of recording artists.

Really? How so?

'technology...allowed musicians to work hard for some months, and then get paid for a lifetime from the results.'

As if that were the norm.

Its not a norm, but it is now giving many people a chance to try.

If I have to compare, its synonymous with building a online presence with a blogging site. It won't earn you much and you won't buying yachts with that money. But the purpose of that blogging site is to get you some following and recognition in the community.

Then you need to go on and build something awesome that sells. That is playing the bigger game.

Pandora is the first step. Not the last one.

I didn't mean to suggest that this was the norm. It is, however, the system that you seem to want to defend. And it's a system that is an artifact of how technology used to work.

Making music is fun, social, and status enhancing. People are going to keep doing it, and doing it enthusiastically, whether it's possible to make money from recordings or not.