Scion Music is over the moon to announce its 2 newest writers Alexandra Lavelanet and Jaquita Ta’le, who make up the killer hip-hop duo “Nola Darling.” Hailing from New York and Los Angeles...by way of Haiti & St. Lucia, NOLA DARLING's sound is new school fresh, yet old world cool. Tongue in cheek sensibility and spit-fire flows combined with a mash-up of sweet and siren, experimental vocals and a killer live show, make this band the girls you want to get to know. The duo has traveled the world in search of various hip hop cultures giving their music unusual flare and depth.

Nola Darling’s unique sound has not gone unnoticed. The duo has been featured on BET's show for emerging talent, "the Deal," The NY Post, URB: Top 25 Now, xxlmag.com, Vibe Vixen, to name a few publications. We could not be more pleased to have them with us. Check out some of their tracks to hear what all the noise is about.

In a New Year’s message, Pandora’s CEO called 2014 the “year of the working artist on Pandora”. However, the validity of this statement recently been called into question by David Israelite, head of the National Music Publishers’ Association. Israelite points out that, while recording artists receive 50% of Pandora’s revenue, songwriters only receive approximately 4%. Why are songwriters paid so much less than recording artists from streaming? By law, non-interactive streaming services (such as Pandora) are granted a compulsory license, meaning that songwriter consent is not required. In short, songwriters have no bargaining power regarding their royalty rates.

Pandora justifies its position, claiming that the publicity its platform provides is well worth the low songwriter payments. However, this statement is highly disputed. After all, publicity needs to translate into record sales to be worthwhile. On this point, Israelite notes that “Ironically, Pandora is competing with and overtaking the actual purchasing of music, while claiming it spurs sales.” Furthermore, a recent study conducted by Pandora on the supposed “Pandora Effect” revealed both artists and songwriters featured on their platform typically see little to no increase in sales.

Israelite states that while Pandora may claim to support artists and songwriters, they’re actually fighting to keep “archaic government regulations in place in order to pay them less and less.” He concludes with the hope that Pandora will “actually do something good by starting to pay them fairly.”