http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/pandora_on_the_verge_of_closing_shop.php
Pandora.com is an online music radio. This website was created in 2000 as a way to listen to music, while simultaneously discovering artists you might have never heard. For no cost users can create "radio stations" based around musicians and/or songs of their choice. The website is programmed in such a way that songs are streamed randomly, yet selectively. Pandora has recently received recognition as one of the best ways to listen to music via iPhone, but this beloved source of free music may be nearing the end of its run.
These days, CSO and Founder Tim Westergren is paying more money than ever to keep the website going. This is the result of heavily increased fees per song. Last year, these fees were implemented by a federal panel to every online service of this nature. Obviously, this hurts the creators of these websites financially. But in the past year, it is becoming anti-lucrative for Westergren to run Pandora. As you may already know, free websites make profit by selling advertisement space on the site. The number of ads have obviously increased on pandora.com, and this is not what Westergren had in mind for his free website where anyone can listen at all times. Many of Pandora's peers have already shut down due to financial issues.
The Pandora community, counting over one million registered users, are hoping Pandora's fate is not the same as others. There is a legal battle being fought, with Representative Howard L. Berman of California at the forefront. He is trying to work with SoundExchange, a representative group of musicians and record companies, to lower the recently jacked-up fees. Berman had had no luck thus far.
I have really enjoyed Pandora over the past year or two as a way to discover new artists and to hear music that I like for free. For example, last year, I was exposed to a few songs by Sigur Rós and Múm, two bands I had never heard before from Iceland. These songs were appealing and unique. I wanted to hear more from these artists, as well as similar music to diversify what I was listening to. Just for fun, I added Aphex Twin as well. So, I created one station that streams music by each of these three artists in addition to songs that Pandora thinks I might like by similar artists. Every time a new song plays, you can rate it "thumbs up" or "thumbs down," helping Pandora fine-tune your station to only play music that you like. I have listened to this station of mine for months. I can usually go an hour hearing only music that I like, even if I have never heard it before.
You may be wondering how such a large-scale free service like this is allowed to operate in this age of digital restriction. It is mainly because, while you can listen for free, you cannot download anything from Pandora; all audio files are streaming. You can click links that take you to amazon.com or the iTunes store to purchase music you like. Therefore, Pandora is not promoting piracy in any way, but rather, encouraging their listeners to purchase music they have discovered.
There are petitions on various websites to keep Pandora from closing down. While this might give Pandora's staff a greater desire to keep the site up and running, it ultimately could simply be a list of people who will be most let down when the money runs out for the home of "stations that only play music you like." Like the rest of the music world, it's all a matter of money.
- Jordan Morsberger
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3 comments:
It is really sad when you hear that a site is about to fall, especially one that provides such a good service like Pandora and I am very willing to sign that petition.
It's messed up that the prices to put those songs on the websites are so jacked up. You would think the record companies would want to lower them because sites like Pandora get their songs out and listened to just like the regular radio does, except Pandora can market to exact genres based on what people listen to. If Pandora is forced to shut down that's just more bad business by the record labels...
It is sad because this company sounds like a good company that provides a quality service to its coustomers. A good company that is forced to shut down because of records companies will not in anyway benefit record companies. People will get creative and find other ways to get their music.
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