Pandora just dropped $450 million on a startup called Ticketfly

Pandora’s acquisition of ticketing company Ticketfly, announced today, marks a seismic shift in the way digital music companies serve artists. While artists and labels continue to publicly debate streaming royalties and harbor great uncertainty about their future, the leading Internet radio service made a move that will strengthen the link between listening and live events, and provide a potential financial boon for artists. Rights holders will still push for higher royalties, but artists will push for tools that help their careers in other ways. This acquisition is the centerpiece of the Brian McAndrews era. The CEO arrived two years ago to find a bitter relationship with the creative community. The company had, the year prior, sought to ease its royalty burden through its support of the Internet Radio Freedom Act, legislation which drew battle lines between digital radio services on one side and rights owners and artists on the other. McAdrews quickly sought to improve the company’s relationships with creators, building an artist relations team and creating a portal for artists called Artist Marketing Platform, or AMP. Last year’s deal with independent rights organization Merlin was the first time Pandora negotiated royalty rates directly with record labels. A similar deal with classical music label Naxos followed.