A service like Pandora generating $500 million in payments to artists and songwriters in 9 months was almost imaginable just 5 years ago.  And while some wish it were more, the milestone stands as an example of what building sustainable artist revenue streams can look like in 2016 and beyond.

Pandora has generated more than $2 billion in all-time royalties for artists and songwriters, according to stats released by the music streamer today. The milestone comes just nine months after it hit $1.5 billion.

Each month, 80 million users spend an average of 23 hours streaming on Pandora. 

“The rapid acceleration of royalty payments from internet radio is very promising news for the industry,” said Tim Westergren, founder and CEO of Pandora. “We are delighting listeners, driving discovery for new music, and creating powerful new promotional tools for musicians, all while creating a massive new revenue stream for labels and artists that has never existed before from radio."

Delivering Data Free To Artists

Pandora has taken some steps in recent years to support artists. Artist Marketing Platform (AMP),  launched in October 2014, recently introduced AMPcast, a free platform that allows artists to record and deliver targeted audio messages to their Pandora audience from their mobile phones.

Artists also have free access to data through Pandora’s Next Big Sound. NBS aggregates a comprehensive view of listener demographics and song performance on an "Insights" dashboard. It will eventually power a range of offerings, including tour planning and ticket sales as Pandora completes its integration of Ticketfly, which it purchased late last year.