This may go without saying, but I like to listen to music that I like.
Having a continuous playlist playing in iTunes can get rather tedious after a long day in front of the computer, so I liked nothing more than loading up Pandora and listening to music that is “genetically” similar to music I already own, or like.
Pandora describes itself as the Music Genome Project. It is an effort to categorise all types of music based on things like tempo, tonality, virtuosity, etc. You tell Pandora what type of music you like by supplying an Artist or Song Name, and Pandora will go out and compile a playlist of music that is similar to the style of the Artist or Song that you started with.
It’s a great way to fall in love with Artists you’ve never heard of before. All the songs have links to iTunes and Amazon so that you can buy it if you like it. There are some limitations, for example you can’t skip backwards through the playlist and you can only skip over forwards 5 times within an hour. If you hit the 5 skip limit, then you’re free to start again and create a new playlist from another artist or song.
But as with all good things, they come to and end. Pandora is still going strong in the US, but in the UK it is being blocked after January 15th. Why? Why else other than the big cheeses at the top of the tall towers that house the Music Industry. Once again, the RIAA, PPL and MCPS/PRS Alliance have ruined it for everybody.
After a year of negotiation for a feasible and sensible licensing contract with the Music Industry for broadcasting internet radio outside the US, Pandora were told to block everywhere outside the US or be shutdown, non-negotiable.
What kind of attitude is that? Pandora doesn’t encourage piracy. The site is ad-supported, the music can’t be downloaded, it can only be played once. If you want the music, you have two choices:
- Buy it using the links to iTunes or Amazon provided (this helps Pandora by using a referral URL)
- Download it illegally through Limewire or some other P2P solution.
Sure, it can be argued that Pandora would encourage people to go and illegally acquire the music after hearing it, but that can be said for regular radio and Music TV, but they’re not being blocked are they?
Contradictory, Pandora is less likely to encourage that behavior since it provides the links to places where the music can be bought at a low price, and right there and then. TV and Radio can’t do that. TV and Radio offers more of an excuse to go and download it illegally than Pandora does.
It’s not that much of a problem for the tech-savvy users among the UK listeners though, I’m sure that the site will be accessible through a web-based proxy service. This should work since it seems that Pandora are blocking areas outside the US via IP. As long as the web-proxy is US based, it should be work.
So once again, the Music Industry sabotages itself. A great deal of the music on my iTunes playlist was purchased after hearing it on Pandora. Some of the bands I would never even have thought to listen to without Pandora’s recommendation. How is that in anyway counter productive to the Music Industries interests? Without Pandora I wouldn’t have purchased the music, the industry would have lost out. And now they’re denying would be non-US customers the chance to pay for music. Hello? Earth to RIAA? That is counter productive.
This rant was inspired by an e-mail I received from Pandora this evening:
Hi, it’s Tim,
This is an email I hoped I would never have to send.
As you probably know, in July of 2007 we had to block usage of Pandora outside the U.S. because of the lack of a viable license structure for Internet radio streaming in other countries. It was a terrible day. We did however hold out some hope that a solution might exist for the UK, so we left it unblocked as we worked diligently with the rights organizations to negotiate an economically workable license fee. After over a year of trying, this has proved impossible. Both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.
Based upon the IP address from which you recently visited Pandora, it appears that you are listening from the UK. If you are, in fact, listening from the US, and are denied access from Pandora on or after January 15th please contact Pandora Support: pandora-support@pandora.com.
It continues to astound me and the rest of the team here that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don’t often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent - and by that I mean both well known and indie artists. The only consequence of failing to support companies like Pandora that are attempting to build a sustainable radio business for the future will be the continued explosion of piracy, the continued constriction of opportunities for working musicians, and a worsening drought of new music for fans. As a former working musician myself, I find it very troubling.
We have been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable…so that is what we are doing. Streaming illegally is just not in our DNA, and we have to take the threats of legal action seriously. Lest you think this is solely an international problem, you should know that we are also fighting for our survival here in the US, in the face of a crushing increase in web radio royalty rates, which if left unchanged, would mean the end of Pandora.
We know what an epicenter of musical creativity and fan support the UK has always been, which makes the prospect of not being able to launch there and having to block our first listeners all the more upsetting for us.
We know there is a lot of support from listeners and artists in the UK for Pandora and remain hopeful that at some point we’ll get beyond this. We’re going to keep fighting for a fair and workable rate structure that will allow us to bring Pandora back to you. We’ll be sure to let you know if Pandora becomes available in the UK. There may well come a day when we need to make a direct appeal for your support to move for governmental intervention as we have in the US. In the meantime, we have no choice but to turn off service to the UK.
Pandora will stop streaming to the UK as of January 15th, 2008.
Again, on behalf of all of us at Pandora, I’m very, very sorry.
-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)
I hope one day the Music Industry wakes up and sees what a shambles it’s making of it’s own industry.