Record companies aren't at the table here, or are you implying the copyright board is in the pocket of the record companies and just a 'vendor'?
The copyright board of Canada serves more functions than mere disbursement back to record companies. A significant portion of the percentage paid by new licensees (broadcasters) is for Canadian Content Development.
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/cancon/r_support.htm
Companies such as Pandora and Sirius have ways around Canadian content regulations, therefore their expected cut of Canadian Content Development is significantly higher.
An artist that is semi-successful in Canada makes less than a McDonalds employee due to the small number of Canadians to whom to sell their music. A similar level of moderate success for an artist in the USA means you get to see them on 'Cribs'.
Canada's copyright board is not a 'vendor'. Canada's copyright board exists to keep Canadians making music, to put money back to the rights holders ('vendor') and to protect the existing players through essentially a punitive tariff. I would agree that parts 2 and 3 are not so great, which supports your earlier post. Ultimately the copyright fees are a cost of doing business and have shown to be negotiable.
I certainly would not call that a 'non-starter'.
Go back to the shareholders and tell them 'Sorry, we walked away from a deal that would add several million annually to revenue because we'd only get to keep half' The cost to Pandora to sell here is minimal, so does it really matter? They are throwing away revenue as every Canadian that I know that understands how Pandora works would probably sign up.
Pandora needs to get off the horse and get down to business.
