Pandora Reaches $90 Million Settlement With Record Labels Over Music Before 1972

Well, it wasn't going to last forever.

Pandora announced a $90 million settlement with big record labels Thursday after Sony, Universal, Warner — and Abkco — sued the digital service under New York state law last year for not paying royalties for older music (Abkco owns control rights to early Rolling Stones music).

Previously, Pandora used a nifty copyright loophole, which stated that songs before February 1972 weren't covered under federal law, so the digital broadcaster skated by without having to pay up. Well, record labels weren't going for it and filed a successful lawsuit in 2014.

"Pandora is excited to have found resolution with these record labels," said Brian McAndrews, CEO of Pandora, in a press release statement. "Together we share a common objective to grow the music industry and support artists. We pursued this settlement in order to move the conversation forward and continue to foster a better, collaborative relationship with the labels."

This marks the second significant settlement of this sort in recent months, as Sirius XM reached a $210 million deal with record labels in June.

"Major settlements with Sirius XM and now Pandora means that an iconic generation of artists and the labels that supported them will be paid for the use of their creative works," Cary Sherman, the chief of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a presiding trade group of the labels, said in a statement with Pandora.

Pandora's settlement paves the way for the music-discovery platform to collaborate within the guidelines with record labels more in the future, as McAndrews alluded to.