There’s no denying the power that Sirius XM and Pandora have on their own nowadays. Sirius XM now has more than 22 million subscribers, while Pandora reportedly has a 68% market share among internet radio. And according to new calculations found by Digital Music News, the two combined account for roughly 90% of SoundExchange’s total annual revenues.
For those unaware, SoundExchange is the non-profit performance rights organization that collects statutory royalties from satellite radio, internet radio, cable TV music channels and other streaming services. According to calculations done by Live365 attorney Angus MacDonald, Sirius XM paid around $200 million in statutory royalties, while Pandora paid $136,346,980 in 2011. With SoundExchange’s total revenue of 2011 coming to $371,922,621, Sirius XM and Pandora account for specifically 90.4% of that revenue.
As Digital Music News points out, this means that both Sirirus XM and Pandora have major voting and veto power. It also proves that while Spotify has been gaining lots of buzz since launching in the U.S. last Summer, Sirius XM and Pandora are still doing pretty well for themselves (though Pandora appears to be having some issues with advertising).
