Pandora Settles Pre-1972 Lawsuit With $90 Million Payment

No other terms of the settlement were disclosed by Pandora and the labels, including Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Warner Music Group, Capitol Records and ABKCO Music & Records.

The settlement follows satellite-radio company Sirius XM’s (NASDAQ: SIRI) $210 million settlement in June with the same coalition. The labels’ suit against Pandora was filed in April a year ago. Previous year the Recording Industry Association of America, the major labels’ trade group, sued Pandora state court in New York, one of several states offering copyright protections.

The settlement covers Pandora’s past plays of pre-1972 music, and it also covers the music service through the end of 2016.

“We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the USA, Australia and New Zealand”.

“Together we share a common objective to grow the music industry and support artists”, said Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews in a statement. The settlements give Pandora time to seek a long-term resolution to disputes with labels and music publishers that own the rights to songs. Analyst on average were expecting $351.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

That said, SiriusXM and Pandora are still facing class-action lawsuits over this same issue, spearheaded by the band the Turtles. Excluding charges related to the settlement and retroactive royalties it’s deciding to pay, it posted earnings of 10 cents per share.

Pandora fell as much as 16 percent to $16.05 in extended trading after the announcements.

For the current quarter, Pandora projected $325 million to $330 million in revenue, and Ebitda of $25 million to $30 million.