The case is one of the fronts in the music industry's war against Pandora. The top music publishers don't want Pandora accessing songs through consent decrees agreed upon by the publishers and Congress. Music labels and publishers would prefer that Pandora sit down and negotiate royalties directly with them. That would likely mean, however, that Pandora would end up paying more. Much of the music industry believes Pandora inadequately compensates artists for their music.

"All means all."

Some of the direct licensing deals cut out artists Still left to decide is what percentage of advertising Pandora must pay to license ASCAP's music. The judge set a court date of December 4th. Meanwhile, Kristelia Garcia, a visiting fellow at Yale Law School, writes in Digital Music News that some of the direct licensing deals the labels are entering into outside the PROs cut out artists. Garcia noted that in one deal SoundExchange was elbowed out of the equation. SoundExchange collects recorded music royalties and then sends a portion to the labels and another directly to songwriters, musicians, and other performers. In the direct deals, all the money goes straight to the labels, and then the performers must collect from them. Needless to say, Garcia doesn't think that benefits artists.