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The robot-powered music streaming service Pandora will close its UK operation next week. The company blames high royalty demands from the two main UK collection agencies. The site will continue to stream to what it recognizes are US-based IP addresses, but will block connections to UK addresses from January 15. Pandora left the UK side running after it closed the rest of its non-US operations in July. In an email to users, Pandora founder Tim Westergren wrote:
Quote:
"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."
Quote:
"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 oflegal action seriously."
Unlike Web 2.0 poster children such as YouTube, Pandora had tried to work with copyright holders from the outset. Yet Pandora has struggled to create a sustainable business, or findcapital willing to sustain the business until it finds one. Withoutrevenue, it's hard to pay the smallest bill. British fans of the Pandora net radio service will be cut off on 15 January. Pandora said it was being forced to stop streaming music to British users of the service thanks to an unresolved royalty row.
The argument hinges on the rates Pandora pays to UK music rights groups to stream music to British users.
In an e-mail sent to UK listeners, Pandora founder TimWestergren said he was "very, very sorry" for the abrupt end to theservice.
Switch off In the US net radio services are licensed under theterms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act but any company wishingto stream music overseas has to negotiate deals on a nation by nationbasis.
In May 2007, Pandora cut off all its listeners who werenot based in the US but kept streaming music to UK users whilenegotiations over a licensing deal for Britain continued.
BBC wrote:
At that time Pandora began tracking users via the uniquenet address their computer is using which can be used to reveal thegeographical location of that machine.
In the e-mail sent to all those reaching Pandora via aUK net address, Mr Westergren said efforts to negotiate an"economically workable license fee" had proved "impossible".
The rates demanded per track by UK licensing authorities were too high to support, he wrote.[
Wrote Mr Westergren: "We have been told to sign thesetotally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable...sothat is what we are doing."
He added: "We're going to keep fighting for a fair and workable rate structure that will allow us to bring Pandora back to you."
Pandora works by building personal radio stations for users based around their individual musical tastes.
i have made a related and quite useful post for anyone who stillwants to use pandora outside the US. im not computer literate reallyand i would appreciate the support for my group. please join it (its onface book) and contribute advice and pass it around. i think its sowrong what the station has been forced to do. if the music industryhadnt spent all its time ripping of the public it may have found someloyalty in its consumers, the fact that theyre taking a hit is nothingto do with stations like pandora and once again theyre trying tounfairly control the markets. to all major record labels around theworld, your time has come and its your fault. try giving something backto the people youve taken from for so long. here is the link to thegroup
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19184375491 thankyou to all who help. Don
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