Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Cee Lo Green Fight Pandora's Proposed Pay Cut

A slew of artists released an open letter regarding Pandora's attempt to persuade Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act.

When it comes to cutting their money, you can expect a lot of music's greatest to take action.

Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Cee Lo Green, Ne-Yo, Maroon 5 and about a hundred other artists have released an open letter to Pandora, regarding their attempt to persuade Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act, which would reduce the fees the Internet radio service pays for playing artists' music, saying that this proposal would "gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon."

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"We are big fans of Pandora," the letter starts. "That's why we helped give the company a discount on rates for the past decade. Pandora is now enjoying phenomenal success as a Wall Street company. Skyrocketing growth in revenues and users. At the same time, the music community is just now beginning to gain a footing in this new digital world.

"Pandora's principal asset is the music," the letter continues. "Why is the company asking Congress once again to step in and gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon? That's not fair and that's not how partners work together."

According to the Los Angeles Times, Pandora officials explain that reducing their fees is necessary to keep them competitive with broadcast radio.

"Today, the discrimination is extraordinary. In 2011, Pandora paid over 50 percent of revenues in performance royalties, while SiriusXM paid less than 10 percent," reads Pandora's statement obtained by LAT. "Internet radio brings millions of listeners back to music, plays the songs of tens of thousands of promising working artists, enabling them to build their audience while receiving fair compensation."

Do you agree with the musicians or does Pandora have a point? Let us know in the comments!

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