While “Happy” was one of the most popular songs of this year, recent e-mails from Sony/ATV CEO Martin Bandier tell a different story. According to Bandier, 43 million streams of “Happy” on Pandora only made Pharrell $2,700 in royalties. This turns into $60 dollars for every one million plays. Damn. In the same e-mail, Bandier continued to say $60 per one million streams was a “totally unacceptable situation and one that cannot be allowed to continue.” It will be interesting to see how Pandora will fix this and how the other streaming services will follow.
