David Lowery, frontman of US rock band Crackers, has posted a scan of his royalty statement that reveals US streaming service Pandora paid him just $16 for one million plays of his 20-year-old track ‘Low’.

Now it isn’t as clear cut as you might think, Lowery doesn’t own the entire rights to the track, so he only sees 40% of all the song’s royalties, but even if you factor that in it would still only amount to $42.23 for 1 million plays.

The revelation comes at a bad time Pandora who are attempting to find a way to pay artists even less for their wares. In comparison, Lowery revealed he got $1,400 for 19,000 plays of ‘Low’ via U.S. terrestrial radio, whilst a paltry 179 plays on Sirius XM satellite radio yielded him a heathly $182.

Lowery, who feels artists are being squeezed by music streaming sites, has recently criticised Pandora after it was revealed they were going to great lengths to try and reduce how much it pays artists.

“Soon you will be hearing from Pandora how they need Congress to change the way royalties are calculated so that they can pay much less to songwriters and performers.

“Why doesn’t Pandora get off the couch and get an actual business model instead of asking for a handout from Congress and artists?

“I urge all songwriters to post their royalty statements and show the world  just how terrible webcasting rates are for songwriters.” he added.

What do you reckon – should artists let their music onto services that don’t pay a fair royalty rate?

Via The Trichordist