Watching Stupidity Strangle Itself
I got this e-mail this morning, and thought I’d share.
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 at that time.
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.
It’s copyrighted, so I’m probably not supposed to share it, but I don’t really care.
This is genuinely depressing news. Tim Westergreen is right. Pandora has it’s issues, but it’s an excellent way of promoting music. It links directly to amazon and itunes, and so it makes it incredibly easy to find new music you might like, and then buy it.
And now it’ll be gone from these shores, and I kind of expect it to die off in the US soon, because I can’t see the recording industry growing up enough to realise how important these things are.
New business models need to be supported by the old institutions or those institutions will slowly die.
This may well be a good thing.
It’s more depressing news from the music industry.
I was all excited about Radiohead escaping EMI and releasing their album download only for any price you wanted. But in the end, the result was the realisation, that if you have the marketing clout of EMI behind you for long enough, then you can probably make a shed load of money, whilst appearing to rebel.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the albums amazing and I’m glad they did it. But I think they did it for more cynical reasons than I initially thought. That’s the impression I got from their interview in the Observer Music Monthly.
The changes I want to happen are only going to happen very slowly. The revolution is going to burn slowly, and there’s always the chance that the industry will find ways to strangle it.
In doing so, they strangle the artists they claim to represent, and the public they should be engaging with.
This kind of industrialisation of the arts harms everybody.
I’m in a bad mood, and now I’ve got to go to work.
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Now playing: Thom Yorke – [Eraser Remixes #01] Atoms For Peace (Fourtet Remix) [foobar2000 v0.9.4.3]
via FoxyTunes
I’m sure there is a middle way, I worked for a coach company once and where our coaches were fitted with radios we had to apply for a license for the Performing Rights Society (I think it was) which cost something like £40 or £100 per coach per year. What they should do is something like that, no internet radio company is going to be able to afford £40 per minute (or whatever it is nowadays) the way conventional radio does. However, if the radio company paid a certain amount OR each person who wanted access to music online either as a download or via online radio had a personal dongle which they paid X amount per year for, that would work, too… no dongle, no access. Surely it’d be simpler than the shite we’re getting now!
This is what happens when lawyers, especially American ones are asked to be imaginative. It sucks.
My sympathies.
Cheers
BC
babychaos
8 January 2008
There are a million sensible ways this could be resolved, I’m sure. But the industry is having none of it.
This is the point. Non-negotioability and a lust for profit margins that have always been protected by the big companies monopoly on the whole industry.
From the sounds of it, everyone at Pandora has been trying to find a way to make it work, and they’re getting a resounding no from everywhere they turn.
I mean, I stopped using the service a while back, but did use it at home at Christmas, it meant I could listen to the music I liked whilst away from my record collection. The amount of money I’ve pumped into the dying record industry is phenomenal, and still they treat people who try to help promote their artists as if they were criminals, or abusers of the system.
It’s not right, and I’m not happy. But I’ll live…and I’m sure music will too. It’s just going to have to fight harder to overturn the businesses hell bent on ruling it and exploiting it for eternity.
It can’t last, and things will change.
That is the way.
Sorry for ranting, and thanks for commenting. You have more sense than them…and that may not mean that much…but it’s good.
Thanks.
Alabaster Crippens
8 January 2008