Pandora is a service that thousands of people enjoy every day, yet there’s a chance that they may not be around for very long. Why you ask? In short, it’s because of the royalty fees that they are required to pay which traditional radio stations don’t have to worry about. Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren recently spoke to the Washington Post saying, “We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision. This is like a last stand for webcasting.”
Royalty fees that they pay amount to around 70% of their revenue which is simply too much. This is all due to a decision a federal panel made last year about how much services like Pandora need to pay. If Pandora is forced to shutdown, we imagine other services like it, including Last.fm, will have no choice but to shutdown as well. Westergren sounds frustrated, to say the least, and it’s not hard to blame him.
There may be a chance for them to survive, if a State Representative from California is able work a last-minute deal. Westergren is put in a position where he can hope for the best, but he has to be prepared to shut-down if no deal is worked out. He says, “The moment we think this problem in Washington is not going to get solved, we have to pull the plug because all we’re doing is wasting money.”
The numbers below should help put things into perspective as to how much Pandora is expected to pay:
- Traditional Radio: they are not required to pay a penny in royalty fees
- Satellite stations: they pay 1.6 cents per hour per listener
- Pandora/Other Internet Radio Stations: by 2010 they will pay 2.91 cents per hour per listener
Obviously the recording industry wants to maximize the amount of money that they can make, but at what point will they realize the value that Pandora and other Internet radio stations bring to their business. They are an amazing marketing tool for artists and likely contribute to more sales of songs and albums, just as traditional radio stations do.
I am an avid listener to Pandora, even have the desktop version of it, I think this is outrageous and that I wish them the best in getting around it somehow, I always used Pandora as an alternitive for downloading music and I think that by killing off these services there going to push people back to illegal music. Just my 2cents anyway
Your comparison of royalties is a bit misleading. Traditional broadcast stations DO pay royalties. But they only pay ASCAP/BMI. The problem is Soundexchange. Traditional stations do not pay into that (unless they stream their signal). Webcasters have to pay BOTH ASCAP/BMI royalties AND Soundexechange.
In other words, traditional stations only pay publishing royalties. Webcasters pay that AND performance royalties.
The only entities that do not pay any royalties whatsoever are retailers that sell music. Since it is their job to sell the music, they have never been required to pay royalties.
Oh, just to add…I like Pandora as well. There are many artists that I would never have given a listen to if not for Pandora.
Way to go RIAA. You will never learn. Shoot yourself in the foot AGAIN.
Way to ruin a powerful promotional outlet. You might as well just close down your business if you keep suppressing that kind of services.
Totally agreed Pieter. I have bought so many cds and got to know so many new artists through Pandora and Last.FM – it brought back my love for music! They are incredibly short sighted and stupid if they won’t look for a solution with Pandora and Last.FM.
Thank you for the clarification.
You said it well. I think it would almost take Pandora shutting down and all of the outrage that would come from it before the music industry learned that Internet radio isn’t harming their business, it’s likely helping it more.
If it wasn’t for Pandora I would not have listened to many different artists that I have come to love. However, the way I use Pandora probably isn’t the way they expect or want. I listen and as I listen if I like a song or artist I look into them a little bit more and download everything I like from them illegally. I think a lot of people do this. This might be another reason why Pandora and other web casting services aren’t seeing any sympathy from the recording industry.
Update: I heard somewhere that Pandora is now officially saved. I hope that someday they will return to the European market like in the olden days.
So do I Pieter! I still miss this service (especially now that Last.FM started charging).
I prefer Pandora over Last.fm anyway when it comes to music discovery.
I do too, but Last.FM was the next best thing for quite a while after Pandora wasn’t available anymore for us.