onlydarksets
08-20-2008, 02:30 PM
I saw this in the paper the other day (I live near DC), but just got around to posting it (http://onlydarksets.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/pandora-shutting-down-in-2010/). Others (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/pandora_on_the_verge_of_closing_shop.php) have (http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2008/08/17/pandora-may-shut-down-due-to-rising-royalty-fees/) picked it up, too.
According to an interview with its founder in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503367.html), it’s getting close to shutting its doors:“We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision,” said Tim Westergren, who founded Pandora. “This is like a last stand for webcasting.”
Basically, the Copyright Royalty Board decided to double the royalty payments for Web radio by 2010 (http://www.loc.gov/crb/fedreg/2007/72fr24084.pdf) (see page 6). Pandora currently spends $17 million of it’s $25 million on royalties as it is, so, obviously, the “math don’t work.”
This seems incredibly short sighted of the recording artists lobby. Of course, the big player here is SoundExchange (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundExchange) (a RIAA puppet), so that shouldn’t be too surprising.
According to an interview with its founder in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503367.html), it’s getting close to shutting its doors:“We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision,” said Tim Westergren, who founded Pandora. “This is like a last stand for webcasting.”
Basically, the Copyright Royalty Board decided to double the royalty payments for Web radio by 2010 (http://www.loc.gov/crb/fedreg/2007/72fr24084.pdf) (see page 6). Pandora currently spends $17 million of it’s $25 million on royalties as it is, so, obviously, the “math don’t work.”
This seems incredibly short sighted of the recording artists lobby. Of course, the big player here is SoundExchange (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundExchange) (a RIAA puppet), so that shouldn’t be too surprising.