Bye bye Pandora in the UK

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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:58 am

For the last two years I've spent many hours sat at my PC listening to Pandora Radio.
It's been a real pleasure because the set up quickly gets to know (with little interaction) what music you like to hear.
However, the UK authorities are forcing Pandora to zap UK listeners.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7178699.stm

I'm going to miss this service.
If you are in the US and haven't tried it, then have a look.
http://www.pandora.com/

My message from Pandora:

Quote:

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: [email protected].

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_signature.jpg

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Can't you go to the site whilst using a US proxy IP, should work.

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:21 am

You two are too smart. Laughing

You know that I'm really in Belarus and that it won't affect me.
I was just trying to alert all the UK users I've encouraged to use this excellent service over the last two years. Smile

EDIT: "You two" referred to SP and someone else who has since deleted his shivering post Wink

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Yeah, Shiver was a bit slow there Razz

:

Shiver wrote:

Two words BB; proxy server Very Happy

EDIT: SP beat me to it Evil or Very Mad

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Great site indeed. What is so retarded about the licensing issues is that I can't count how many songs I've bought for iTunes after hearing the song on Pandora. But for the free streaming, I likely never would have heard these songs.

And record companies stand around great big circle jerks wondering why they can't make any money. Rolling Eyes

419Eater Admin Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7469

I didn't want to take away from SP's intelligent post, so I removed mine Smile

Master Baiter Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 101

The radiohead experiment was interesting. The band stated they made more money when people paid what they thought it worth than by normal marketing methods ...

and 3 months later when released on CD it went in at No 1 again.

Would suggest record companies really don't understand their own market place.

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 12:54 pm

Pandora is a fantastic service!!!! Thank god for proxy servers!!!!! Laughing

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