Songwriter David Lowery lashes out at rates streaming radio pays

The title of David Lowery’s blog post says it all: My Song Got Played On Pandora 1 Million Times and All I Got Was $16.89, Less Than What I Make From a Single T-Shirt Sale!

Lowery, the singer and songwriter from Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, posted that article on The Trichordist along with his royalty statement for the 1993 hit “Low.” It works out to about four one-thousandths of a penny per play, divided between Lowery and his bandmates.

When Pandora was introduced, it seemed like an improvement for artists over the piracy of the Napster era. Online music streaming from legal services is increasingly the norm.

Along with Pandora, Spotify and YouTube, Google has recently introduced a music stream, and iTunes plans to launch a service in the fall. So the paltry royalties from Pandora are cause for concern, especially for songwriters, who typically don’t benefit from bands’ ticket sales and merchandise.

On-demand services like Spotify and YouTube pay only slightly better.

Songwriters who want higher royalties face an uphill battle.

Lowery says there is a nuclear option.

“We (songwriters) could withdraw from all digital services,” Lower said. “Then I have no idea what Pandora would play.”

Pandora is currently lobbying Washington for even lower royalty rates, he added.

“We are heading towards a streaming model,” Lowery said. “If we don’t get this right, you’ll never make any money off of songwriting.”

The implications of that, he believes, are huge.

“Let’s do that with books, let’s do that with films,” he said, rhetorically. “Let’s do that with all intellectual property. We’re the idea country. This is the beginnings of undermining the entire American economy.”