Pandora is on the verge of losing a sizable portion of music. Everyone’s favorite internet radio pure-play destination has lost a bid in a court battle with BMI. Pandora was attempting to gain access to streaming and sharing works that had been excluded from BMI’s new media offerings. Executives at Pandora felt that it’s license for all of BMI’s work should have no exclusions. U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton ultimately rejected Pandora’s request for a ruling that its license for all of BMI’s work should be honored despite publishers’ efforts to modify their contracts to no longer include streaming. A statement from the Judge read, “The publishers are privileged to license, or not license, the performance of their compositions as they see fit.” Agreeing with Broadcast Music(BMI) to withdraw new media rights is “well within their power as copyright holders.”
The ruling leaves Pandora taking a real hit, and if some kind of deal with Broadcast Music can’t been agreed upon Pandora will be dealing with copyright violation, if the particular songs aren’t pulled by Jan. 1. Pandora was sued by BMI in June over a royalty fee disagreement. Pandora won a court order in September to stop the ASCAP from limiting the number of songs that it licenses to Pandora.
