According to Bloomberg, Sony Music and Universal Music, the two largest labels, and Merlin Network, which represents rights for more than 20,000 independents, have agreed to the licenses, Pandora said in a statement Tuesday. Warner Music, the third-biggest, has yet to reach an accord with Oakland, California-based Pandora.
The deals ensure Pandora can introduce two new services it has been developing: an advertising-free radio service called Pandora Plus and an on-demand service akin to one offered by rival Spotify.
Pandora has said it plans to begin selling both to users before the end of the year.
By letting users select songs on-demand, replay them and customize playlists, Pandora hopes to attract listeners and prevent existing customers from defecting to competing products like YouTube and Spotify.
Details of the new agreements weren’t immediately disclosed, but The Wall Street Journal last month reported that Pandora was close to reaching deals with record companies to allow it to launch a new on-demand music streaming paid tier in both the U.S. and internationally.
However, the deals announced Tuesday only apply to U.S.-based listening. Currently, Pandora is limited to the U.S., Australia and New Zealand--the few countries that make music licensing essentially automatic for internet-radio firms, as long as they pay the mandated rates.
Neither of Pandora’s free or paid offerings allow users to select specific songs to listen to. Users instead are able to chose a custom “station” that includes music similar to their initial choice. The new agreements might allow Pandora to let users chose to listen to songs on demand.
“This was a truly collaborative attempt to find a solution that would support artists while profitably growing our respective businesses,” Pandora Chief Executive Tim Westergren said.
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