Pandora Wins Summary Judgment In ASCAP Rate Proceeding - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Pandora Media Inc. (P), internet radio service, announced that the federal court in the Southern District of New York has granted summary judgment in Pandora's favor in the company's rate proceeding with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or ASCAP. This judgment upholds Pandora's right to perform all compositions in the ASCAP repertory.

"We welcome the court's decision. We hope this will put an end to the attempt by certain ASCAP-member publishers to unfairly and selectively withhold their catalogs from Pandora," said Chris Harrison, Pandora's Assistant General Counsel.

The motion for summary judgment, which sought an interpretation of the consent decree under which ASCAP has operated since 1941, was entered on July 1, 2013. It asked the court to determine that selective withdrawals of so-called "new media" rights by ASCAP-member publishers could not be implemented against Pandora without violating the consent decree.

The company said that the decision makes clear that Pandora is entitled to a blanket license the scope of which is not diminished in any manner by the publishers' attempts to "withdraw" these rights from ASCAP. The ruling has no impact on the royalty rates Pandora currently pays to ASCAP.