Pandora is Being Run Out of Business by the RIAA

Are you one of the few people who hasn't tried Pandora yet? If not, then you should before the corporate interests of the music industry run it out of business.

Personally, I have probably about 300-400 CD's in my collection. I listen to a lot of music on a daily basis. I'm also really knowledgeable about the music over the past 100 years or so. One of my problems is that I've basically bought everything that I like - if you look at the average output of the music industry in a year, I might buy one or two CDs. I replaced all my vinyl years ago.

So when I discovered Pandora , I thought it was a god send - you put in any artist you want, and it will start playing music that sounds like them as a personalized radio station. Genius.

Unfortunately, the RIAA has just pushed the US copyright board to increase the royalties that are paid by Internet Radio stations through the roof in ways that show that they really still don't GET IT:

1. There is a $500 minimum fee per channel. The problem is my personalized radio station is now considered a channel in the way that a radio station broadcasting to thousands of people is a channel.

2. There are performance fees charged to Internet Radio that aren't charged to traditional broadcasters because traditional radio is seen as a "promotional service" for the music industry. Its amazing how you could view a non-measurable, non-transactable, and non-personalized radio station is a better promotional tool than Pandora!

3. Fees go up every year by much more than inflation, making the problem worse in future years.

4. The rates were based on a model defined by Mark Cuban and Yahoo when they did the deal for broadcast.com, a deal which as a model has been shelved and Mark admits was designed to squash the competition!

For more information, see:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/03/16/if-streaming-rates-stand-well-have-to-shutter-says-pandora-founder/
http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/030207/index.shtml
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000196

So enjoy Pandora as a very cool idea while it manages to survive!