Pandora signs new licensing agreement with two publishers

Pandora has reached a new licensing agreement with ASCAP and BMI, two major publishers in the music industry. 20 million songs are published between the two of those companies, so that’s a major plus for Pandora, although there aren’t any specific details about compensation rates.

This new deal also means Pandora will be withdrawing its appeal of one of the lawsuits from BMI, which presumably means their legal battles will wind down, too.

Pandora Signs Licensing Agreements with ASCAP and BMI

Pandora to drop its appeal of recent BMI rate court decision NEW YORK & OAKLAND, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 22, 2015– Pandora (NYSE:P), the world’s most powerful music discovery platform, and ASCAP and BMI, the world’s leading Performance Rights Organizations (PROs), today announced the signing of two separate multi-year licensing agreements for their combined catalogs of more than 20 million musical works. These deals create business benefits for Pandora, while modernizing compensation in the U.S. for ASCAP and BMI songwriters and publishers. In connection with the signing of the BMI agreement, Pandora has agreed to withdraw its appeal of the May 2015 order in the recent BMI rate case. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here:http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151222005117/en/ “This agreement is good news for music fans and music creators, who are the heart and soul of ASCAP, and a sign of progress in our ongoing push for improved streaming payments for songwriters, composers and music publishers that reflect the immense value of our members’ creative contributions,” said ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews. “We’re extremely pleased to reach this deal with Pandora that benefits the songwriters, composers and publishers we are privileged to represent,” said Mike O’Neill, President and CEO, BMI. “Not only is our new agreement comparable to the other direct deals in the marketplace, but it also allows us to amicably conclude our lengthy rate court litigation and focus on what drives each of our businesses – the music.” “At Pandora we are delivering on our commitment to ensure that music thrives,” said Brian McAndrews, chief executive officer of Pandora. “These collaborative efforts with the leading Performance Rights Organizations, as well as our recent direct deals with several music publishers demonstrate our progress in working together to grow the music ecosystem.” While the specific terms of both multi-year agreements are confidential, for each deal, the respective parties worked together to build an innovative approach to public performance licensing. The deals allow both ASCAP and BMI to further their goal of delivering improved performance royalties for their songwriters and publishers, while Pandora will benefit from greater rate certainty and the ability to add new flexibility to the company’s product offering over time. The public performance royalties Pandora also pays to rights holders of master recordings are not affected by this agreement. ABOUT PANDORA Pandora is the world’s most powerful music discovery platform – a place where artists find their fans and listeners find music they love. We are driven by a single purpose: unleashing the infinite power of music by connecting artists and fans, whether through earbuds, car speakers, live on stage or anywhere fans want to experience it. Our team of highly trained musicologists analyze hundreds of attributes for each recording which powers our proprietary Music Genome Project®, delivering billions of hours of personalized music tailored to the tastes of each music listener, full of discovery, making artist/fan connections at unprecedented scale. Founded by musicians, Pandora empowers artists with valuable data and tools to help grow their careers and connect with their fans. www.pandora.com | Pandora Blog | Pandora LinkedIn | @PandoraPulse ABOUT ASCAP ASCAP is a professional membership organization serving and advocating for songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music for over 101 years. ASCAP’s mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world’s best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business – from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With over 555,000 members representing more than 10 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the world leader in performance royalties, advocacy and service for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com, on Twitter @ASCAP and on Facebook. ABOUT BMI Celebrating 75 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, Broadcast Music, Inc. ® (BMI®) is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. BMI represents the public performance rights in more than 10.5 million musical works created and owned by more than 700,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers. The Company negotiates music license agreements and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to its affiliated writers and publishers when their songs are performed in public. In 1939, BMI created a groundbreaking open-door policy becoming the only performing rights organization to welcome and represent the creators of blues, jazz, country, and American roots music. Today, the musical compositions in BMI’s repertoire, from chart toppers to perennial favorites, span all genres of music and are consistently among the most-performed hits of the year. For additional information and the latest BMI news, visit http://www.bmi.com follow us on Twitter @BMI or stay connected through Broadcast Music, Inc.’s Facebook page. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151222005117/en/ Source: Pandora Pandora Dominic Paschel, 510-842-6960 Corporate Finance & Investor Relations investor@pandora.com or Tracy Zamot, 917-579-6704 PR & Corporate Communications tzamot@pandora.com or ASCAP Cathy Halgas Nevins, 212-621-8414 cnevins@ascap.com or Audrey Cooling, 202-741-5568 acooling@gpg.com or BMI Liz Fischer, 212-220-3160 lfischer@bmi.com

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Possible image and specs for LG G5 show up on the Internet

A leakster on reddit claims to have a fairly full set of specs for the LG G5 believed to be in the works for 2016 and if accurate, LG fans will have something to cheer about. One of the key changes revealed by an image alleged to be of a prototype LG G5 is that the company is transitioning their G series to a glass and metal frame that seems to be sweeping the industry. One of the byproducts of that decision will be the elimination of a user removable battery, but access to a microSD card slot is still retained.

According to the information provided, the LG G5 will come with a 5.3-inch screen, which is a bit smaller than some previous indications that LG was going to stick with a 5.5-inch or 5.6-inch display. There is also mention of a “pressure sensor” but it is unclear whether this is a reference to an atmospheric pressure sensor or whether LG is working on incorporating pressure-sensing features into the screen.

Like many other flagship devices in the works for 2016, the LG G5 is likely going to be powered by a Snapdragon 820 processor. This will be mated with 3GB of RAM to help keep things moving smoothly.

The leaked image and specs also point to a dual-camera configuration for the LG G5, with one of the sensors running at 16MP and the other running at 8MP. Sources think LG will provide laser autofocus and there has been some speculation that a color spectrum sensor will be packed into the smartphone.

Some of the other hardware includes a heart rate sensor, a fingerprint reader built into a power key similar to the LG V10, an IR blaster, a USB-C port, and a single speaker located in the back of the device. There have been rumors that LG may add an iris scanner in an effort to move security beyond fingerprints, but the presence of that technology was not mentioned in this latest leak.

source: mobile_leaks (reddit)
via: phoneArena

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New Mediatek Helio X20 scores pop up on GeekBench

Although many flagship devices planned for 2016 appear to be on track to use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor to provide the computing power, we have seen rumors that other manufacturers are trying to figure out how to get into the high-end chip game. One of those is Mediatek which has primarily played in the budget and mid-range markets. However, with their line of Helio chips the company is trying to compete at the higher end. The forthcoming Helio X20 should be able to at least get Mediatek a place on the field, especially in light of some new scores that have surfaced on GeekBench.

Mediatek is pushing the speed and performance of the Helio X20 by using a 10-core architecture. With so much silicon being thrown at crunching the numbers, it should be no surprise that the Helio X20 posted a multi-core score in excess of 7,000 putting it into some rarified air. This puts it closer to Samsung’s Exynos 8890 chipset which is believed to be testing in the 7,400 score range.

The downside for Mediatek is that their single-core score is a more pedestrian 2,094 which lags behind Apple Twister cores and Qualcomm Kryo cores. This is likely due to Mediatek still using a 20nm manufacturing process instead of the 14nm to 16nm processes other leading chips are moving to.

source: GeekBench
via: GSMArena

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