Pandora Agreement Saves Internet Radio

@Fractal the Meek: LMAO! Great response!

Magic Beans? Sure, I'll Buy Some!!

Does anyone think that now with some incoming.....money (don't want to say profit), that Pandoras library will be expanded?

Most of the stuff I listen to is only available on last.fm, however, I use Pandora in my car because there is no last.fm client for BlackBerry.

Mike Daly

This is a pretty fair solution, but really ... the powers that be should just be taking truckloads of money up to Pandora and giving it to them because it's doing what broadcast radio used to and that is exposing customers to new music and driving sales.

Early on in my use of Pandora I was relaxing on the couch listening to Pandora stream from my computer. A soothing song came on and I thought, "Wow, this station based off one Afro-Celt Sound System song is great, this tune sounds exactly like something ACSS would do." A minute later it hit me hard: that WAS ACSS and I bolted up to discover that one of my favorite groups had dropped a new CD I hadn't heard about. Ka-ching, CD bought the next day.

I only listen on and off but I can think of two times where a song has been so to my liking I bought the CD, and about 5 times where I bought an mp3 of just the song from Amazon. One of those purchases offered up a related album and I bought that too. I also talked about a group I heard that sounded like something a friend of mine would be a fan of; he hadn't heard of them and when he checked them out he immediately loved their stuff and started buying it.

So, that's about 5 CDs and more than a half dozen mp3s.

Goodbye Pandora, hello Slacker.

icy_one

I used to use Pandora a lot, but I got way too many repeats during a work day.

Saboth

@brandeis1: $2 a month extra to support a good service on the internet is pretty worth it in my opinion. They have to make money somehow, and I've been using their services for free quite long enough to definitely justify any (reasonable) price they would like to give.

Taking 25% of their revenue? That is not a win. It's like saying... "Yeah we won but we have to bend over every day for the music companies." I'd rather die then be raped like that. I love Pandora but a fresh teen revolt is needed to get those companies in line with those who listen and purchase their crap.

addiktion

How do you cram 40 hours into a 24 hour day?

David Oliver Zamor

@Wibble: Understandable, but I usually only open Pandora on one machine at a time.

@Valnen: I feel bad for Pandora as a business, 25% is so large, but for the consumer this is a win. $0.99 a month is to be honest, free. give up a pack of gum to listen to unlimited internet radio? yes I can deal with that. now if only the industry would stop suing p2p traffickers.

rotaryfan

Well there is always

slacker.com
last.fm
jango.com

and lots of other services, just switch it up every week.

Also $5 gets you napster.com and 5 downloads, so there is always that.

jackelmatador

This is Bullshit! How is it the record execs don't realize how much new music I have been turned onto AND PURCHASED because of Pandora.
Fuckers should be paying them.

BigDogues

I dumped Pandora for Slacker LONG ago. Better mix, better control, free Blackberry app all at the cost of one or two ads every 5 or 6 songs...

To me it's not about the $0.99. I'd pay that in a heart-beat. I left Pandora for Slacker because the algorithm that decides the next song is so much smarter. If I have to listen to an Ace Hardware ad (yeah see Ace; I DO listen!) so be it.

What has me a bit miffed is the 40 hour limit a month. Can't they find a way to use advertising to cover costs?

Matt Torbin

does the dollar per month include unlimited skips? that alone would be worth it for me.

Ala Hadji

@Valnen: LOL! Paying...

lolgreg prays to Joe Pesci

@[en.wikipedia.org]

@NurseDave: ha wow... It's been a long day...

Thanks RIAA! I'm ditching Pandora from both my iPhone and Blackberry. Oh, and I'm closing my Pandora account too. I'm not working with a 40 hour limit, and I don't care how long it would take to actually reach it.

rileyjam514

Pandora deserves a lot of credit for keeping itself operational and fighting off all those that are trying to kill it. The 0.99 cents is lame, but I'll see. I think I might go barely over the 40 hrs a month sometimes.

Giz....i love your article photos too much sometimes haha they never cease to amaze me..
and as for the article, well i can say i'm actually quite happy about this

@Log1c: $1 is expensive in the AppStore economy...!

@Wibble: Your logic wobbles, but it doesn't fall.

Benjamin Urquidez

I've never been able to figure out why content owners always try so hard to squash popular new methods of distribution just because they're different. The music industry never wants anybody to listen to their music, Fox is still running around trying to make Hulu suck, and the movie industry spends every minute of every day making sure that the experience of legitimately buying and watching movies is as big of a pain in the ass as possible.

Let people use this crap as they want to, companies become successful because they go out of their way to make sure their audience enjoys their product. How can you possibly expect to stay in business long-term by punishing the people using your product?

chefgon

This is a very nice accomplishment by them. I never really used the service but them staying in business is a great thing. It's also pretty lame, the different rules they have been forced to play by. Thanks for fighting the good fight Pandora. If I want some internet radio, I'll be coming your way.

jasoncourt

@LCL: How about not being a scumbag and paying.

Internet Radio is "saved" only if you think internet radio consists solely of Pandora, Accuradio, Digitally Imported, RadioIO, and a few other big names.

But the $25,000 entry fee is a kick in the balls to the smaller webcasters, who are now left to fend for themselves in what's left of the CRB appeals process while the big dogs cut and run.

@Log1c: time to switch to slacker.

(slacker.com)

Daren

It's ridiculous that lazy middlemen from the music industry can pad their pockets by doing absolutely nothing while hard working innovators like the people behind Pandora may suffer. All these music licenses are insane. There's no way I'm paying when I know the money is going to the a-holes at the collection agencies.

NICU

@brandeis1: commercial after commercial after commercial after commercial after commercial after commercial after commercial...

@LCL: Shhhh.

jetRink

@Fractal the Meek: Yeah its absolutely not worth complaining about $11.88 a year. I guess it just sucks that something previously free now has a fee.

That image made me laugh for some reason.

kaplanfx

@Eavangel: It means you're paying 24.00 for a desktop app. Paying the $1.00 for the remainder of the month is only 12.00/year... I don't see the point in paying 3x the price when I can just run it in my browser instead.

But then, I'm thrifty and don't listen to all that much music.

@Log1c: Screw a week. I'd blow through the time limit in a day.

What? Why are you looking at me like that?

@Log1c: But it's 12.00 a year, man. 12 A YEAR.

Okay. I'm done. But really, it's pretty reasonable. And the downside to listening to your local station is always commercial after commercial after commercial...

@Eavangel: I did it to get rid on the "Are you still listening" prompt. It is especially nice as I can go to sleep with out worrying. I also like the 192kps stream. It also seems to buffer better.

The app is programed in Adobe Air, which means it is a process hog! It's better to pipe the audio through my iPhone through my speakers or my Mac.

I wonder if it will track between players, I listen on my ps3, pc, and blackberry. Easily adds up to more than 40 hours very quickly

kosai - doesn't want to be disenfrachised

@met2art: Ad-free, higher bit-rate. Plus..it goes to Pandora.

jcrockerman

@Log1c: Fortunately it's not even a whole dollar. For pennies a day, you too can support your aural addictions!

Fractal the Meek

@LCL: Now see, that's why we can't have nice things.

Fractal the Meek

@Eavangel: So, rather than $11.88 a year (potentially if you surpass 40 hours a month every month), you choose to pay $36 a year instead?

I've always thought Pandora should go for targetted advertising revenue instead of subscription. They shouldn't be paying once cent more for royalties than an FM broadcast station, either... (last time I checked that amount was nothing). Recording execs need to wake up and realize that a streamed song is even more valuable marketing than a play on the radio, because the listener has already expressed interest in the specific type of music.

With a larger library of songs, the ability to stream over phones (why is my wife's iPhone Pandora free, and my mobile Pandora priced at $9.99 a month?) and the simplest feedback and customization possible, Pandora could conceivably overshadow broadcast music radio in the forseeable future. I wish it acted like it.

It seems perfect for an advertising delivery system... because you can target listeners with certain musical tastes, in specific areas, and using specific delivery systems... and unlike tv or radio, Pandora can easily see how many ads are actually delivered, thereby increasing the value of each ad played to an advertiser. I mean, Starbucks could decide to play 3 ads over a week to everyone listening to light jazz in the state of Washington, if they wanted to... it'd be an ad agency's wet dream.

Instead we get random subscription rates... supposed premium packages... and an uncertain future.

Eddie Sarphie

$12 a year paid monthly doesn't seem unreasonable. I use Pandora on my BB all the time when I am driving through areas with few radio stations.

computerwiz3491

@jmurph05: "through the end of the month"

NurseDave

lol I love the picture giz.

We use Pandora all day day at work in the mechanic shop I work at. That's about 10 hours a day. Yikes! Well... .99 isn't bad. Hell...we should probably just pay the full amount.

jcrockerman

yeah, i got one of the letters today.

i listen at work pretty much all day so i'll be either rationing my pandora or plugging in my cc #

here is the copy:

------------
Hi, it's Tim -

I hope this email finds you enjoying a great summer filled with music from Pandora.

I'm writing with some important news. Please forgive the lengthy email; it requires some explaining.

First, I want to let you know that we've reached a resolution to the calamitous Internet radio royalty ruling of 2007. After more than two precarious years, we are finally on safe ground with a long-term agreement for survivable royalty rates - thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our listeners who voiced an absolute avalanche of support for us on Capitol Hill. We are deeply thankful.

While we did the best we could to lower the rates, we are going to have to make an adjustment that will affect about 10% of our users who are our heaviest listeners. Specifically, we are going to begin limiting listening to 40 hours per month on the web. Because we have to pay royalty fees per song and per listener, it makes very heavy listeners hard to support on advertising alone. Most listeners will never hit this cap, but it seems that you might.

We hate the idea of capping anyone's usage, so we've been working to devise an alternative for listeners like you. We've come up with two solutions and we hope that one of them will work for you:

· Your first option is to continue listening just as you have been and, if and when you reach the 40 hour limit in a given month, to pay $0.99 for an unlimited number of hours for the rest of that month. This isn't a subscription. We'll charge your credit card for just that one month and you'll be able to keep listening as much as you'd like for the remainder of the month. We hope this is relatively painless and affordable - the same price as a single song download.

· Your second option is to upgrade to our premium version called Pandora One. Pandora One costs $36 per year. In addition to unlimited monthly listening and no advertising, Pandora One offers very high quality 192 Kbps streams, an elegant desktop application that eliminates the need for a browser, personalized skins for the Pandora player, and a number of other features: [www.pandora.com]

If neither of these options works for you, I hope you'll keep listening to the free version - 40 hours each month will go a long way, especially if you're really careful about hitting pause when you're not listening. We'll be sure to let you know if you start getting close to the limit, and we've created a counter you can access to see how many hours you've already used each month.

We'll be implementing this change starting this month (July), I'd welcome your feedback and suggestions. The combination of our usage patterns and the "per song per listener" royalty cost creates a financial reality that we can't ignore...but we very much want you to continue listening for years to come.

Please don't hesitate to email me back with your thoughts.

Sincerely,

Tim
Founder

This is a one-time account message.

------------

relawson

I respect what they're trying to do here, but the whole reason I use Pandora is so I don't have to pay for music from itunes in $0.99 amounts.

It's an evil number really because it taps into the cheap part of my brain and 40 dollars later I hate myself.

Was just using Pandora last night - for about three hours. Love the service - broadcast radio SUCKS!

sharkync

How often does that turn over however? 40 hours a week would be a fair limit, but 40 hours over the life of the account seems like a waste.

Damn, I guess it's back to the ipod for me. I hate to say it folks, but it'll take me about 2 weeks to go through my 40 hours. And I'm not about to bust out my credit card to pay 99 cents, when I have most of the music on my ipod with me already.

farcedude

Whew! I love me some Pandora.

NurseDave

Isn't Pandora One like $36? and that's for a year with a desktop app? I'd rather get that then have to keep paying $1 all the time.

I go through 40hours in a week easy.

Eavangel

I used to miss Pandora when we (the UK users) were blocked/shown the door. But now we've Spotify and the tables have turned tbh.

A small price to pay for a fantastic service.

iFOREIGNi

If I find that I'm using this more than 40 hours per month (is that the rate?), I'll pay the $.99.

newgalactic

Wait fuck that. I'll kill my free 40 hours within the week!

Argh.. I guess a whole dollar isn't much, but I can still listen to my local stations for free....

so.. to avoid a fee, just create multiple accounts?

@Wibble: Ooh, a time machine. Want.

LolpantsofArabia