Billboard Magazine Clueless On Pandora

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Union Square Ventures principal Fred Wilson maintains an excellent blog: AVC: musings of a VC in NYC If you invest, care about tech and enjoy learning, read Fred's blog. I do almost daily.

During a recent interview with Wilson, Bill Werde, editorial director at Billboard, gave the Internet radio royalty discussion, as it pertains to Pandora (P) , shockingly shallow treatment.

Wilson wrote about the exchange at his blog. He asks readers to skip to the 7:45 mark of a video that captured part one of the powwow.

I didn't think Billboard was a shill for the music industry, but after the way Werde not only disrespected, but blatantly mischaracterized Pandora, I have to wonder.

There's no excuse for this, particularly from a respected publication like Billboard that -- credibly and rightfully -- called Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren out for a blog post about how much his company compensates artists.

Werde compared Pandora to Live Nation (LYV) because the two firms have similar market capitalizations. I know. I don't understand why either.

Echoing what he calls popular sentiment in the music industry, Werde refers to Live Nation as the product of "10, 15, 20 years of work" by some of the greatest minds in the business. (Giggle). He then falsely states that Pandora came "along relatively recently."