Pandora wants radio stations to pay up
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For a couple of years commercial Webcasters have fought mightily against royalties they were forced to pay music performers and record labels. One argument some Webcasters made was that Internet radio should not be forced to pay fees that terrestrial radio is not required to pay. Radio stations are required to pay fees to songwriters but not performers and record labels.
Now Pandora, perhaps the best-known Webcaster, is urging Congress to level the playing field and make radio kick in money for performers and labels, too. Pandora itself never argued it should be exempt from performance royalties, maintaining only that the fees were too high.
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I just had to comment on this story becuase I would not have heard this story had Pandora not changed there "free"-ness in the last few weeks. I listened to MPR often at home but usually listen to Pandora at work. Very recently (like in the last two weeks) Pandora went from being completely free to adding commercials interruptions to limiting the amount of hours someone could listen to 40 hours per month. I have exceeded my 40 hours. So now I am listening to stories about Pandora being great on MPR. It's just too precious of a story to not share!
I agree with kevin. It was a great website, it even broadcast the fact that it was allegedly part of the human genome project, and I loved to listen to it regularly (I mean what a great idea!). It wasn't such a let down after they began their loud and obnoxious adds in the middle of listening to music that made me irritated but the fact that we are limited to listening. I hope they understand that I (and the 50 other employees who were also using it) wont be listening to pandora anymore, there are other alternatives (such as iTunes radio stations or college radio stations).
