Pandora CFO Mike Herring expects that the popular digital music site will be able to lower its royalty payments in the coming years. Pandora currently pays out around 60 percent of its revenue to artists and labels, but Herring predicts that number could go down to 40 percent in the future, according to Bloomberg.

Speaking at an investor conference in California, Herring said Pandora expects to reach this 40 percent figure over the next few years. He added that the service is working to close the gap between its ad revenue, which is current at approximately one percent of the radio industry’s total, and its 8.5 percent listener share, noting that "It’s a long road."

Herring added that Pandora is now gearing up for "a long debate" on setting the royalty rates for 2016 and beyond, according to Bloomberg. A two-year arbitration process to set the new royalty rates is slated to begin in January 2014.