Pandora says they are trying to get more royalty revenue to the artist, but only by saying they want to make massively more revenue overall. Well, so does everyone else. The line about "sure, you get a smaller slice, but we want to make the whole pie bigger!" has been said by a lot of shysters in the past. Pandora wants to pay a lower royalty RATE.
And, Pandora paying performer royalty is not about fairness from Pandora's perspective, so you can't really say they are considering the performer any more than I am considering a random stranger on the street by not punching him. They're required to pay performance royalties by law.
"...they want to make massively more revenue overall." Well every company wants more revenue. But I don't believe that's the goal here.
I believe they avoid saying that they'd love to cut out the middlemen between Pandora and the artist. How much of those royalty payments are sucked up by licensing agencies? Remove that amount from the equation and now artists can get a bigger paycheck and Pandora can pay less overall.
And, Pandora paying performer royalty is not about fairness from Pandora's perspective, so you can't really say they are considering the performer any more than I am considering a random stranger on the street by not punching him. They're required to pay performance royalties by law.