Help Save Pandora and Internet Radio

ivan · April 17, 2007, 8:33am

Okay, I got this e-mail from Pandora. I think it’s a shame. I can’t sign, because I’m outside of America, but I can help spread the word.
If you listen to internet radio, it concerns you!

Tim Westergren:

Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora,

I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I’m no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster’s business potential.

I hope you’ll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

monkeyman · April 17, 2007, 1:09pm

I sent it.

ivan · April 18, 2007, 1:47am

Thank you, man! All help is appreciated.

Personally, I love internet radio and it would be a shame to not have it anymore. The modern technology gives us so many opportunities, but they are all blocked by greedy corporations who have way too much money as it is. Help reverse the process!

ivan · April 19, 2007, 2:02am

Apparently, nobody gives a toss. The man is raping you and you won’t do anything about it.

Or am I missing a point here? Why doesn’t anyone want to post(except for Alex)?

tobbogonist · April 19, 2007, 1:14pm

Some Tosses

tobbogonist · April 19, 2007, 1:16pm

He is not a tosser

Tosser%20poster%20low%20res.jpg

tobbogonist · April 19, 2007, 1:17pm

and someone gave him a toss, a whole full one.

john_childs · April 19, 2007, 1:41pm

I do care. And I was already familiar with the issue and the consequences. I’ve just been preoccupied with other things to give it much thought yet (been looking for a new apartment, getting ready to get ready to move).

I do need to make my voice heard on the matter.

The service that Pandora provides is very valuable in terms of exploring music. When you get to explore new music you tend to buy more music. I don’t buy music that I’m not already familiar with. If I haven’t heard it before I’m not going to take a chance on buying it. The record labels should be happy about that. But it’s obvious that they don’t see the connection.

I have used Pandora before. Haven’t though in the past year. Been preoccupied with other things and listening to CDs I already own.

forrestunifreak · April 19, 2007, 1:49pm

Pandora is cool. I’ll help.

monkeyman · April 19, 2007, 7:38pm

I agree. Dunno what y’all have over there, but over here, the RIAA (in my opinion, of course) just makes it harder for artists, and does more harm than good to the music industry in general.