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BlogWhat a week! The outpouring of public support for internet radio over the past seven days has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Following our outreach to Pandora listeners, every congressional office was flooded with constituent phone calls, emails and faxes – literally hundreds of thousands in just 5 days! The entire fax system on the Hill was brought to a standstill. We had to hand deliver the faxes!
The response in DC has been dramatic and immediate. A bill was introduced today to reverse this terrible ruling and bring rationality to bear on this issue.
The bill is called the Internet Radio Equality Act, HR 2060 and is being introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL). For more info go to SaveNetRadio
Please take a moment to call your congress person to voice your support for this legislation and urge them to sponsor or support the bill. It’s very important the we keep pressure on the legislators to ensure that this bill is passed quickly.
If you need help determining who your member of the House of Representatives is, go to www.house.gov where, in the upper left hand corner, you can enter your zip code and get the corresponding Congressperson. Click on their name to access the main phone number of their Washington, D.C. office.
Also, a heads up that I’ll be hosting a town hall next Monday evening in the capital. We’ll be on the Hill meeting with representatives and are having a special meetup. It’ll be followed by an evening of music and a party hosted by the SaveNetRadio coalition. It’s a free event – and friends are welcome. Come join the army of webcasters, musicians, politicians and others that are driving this campaign for a night of music and conversation. Details:
Where: Be Bar , 1318 9th Street NW
When: Monday, April 30th @ 6:30 PM
RSVP: Send email to tim.westergren@pandora.com
Hope to see you there…
Thank you again for all of your support.
Tim (Founder)
Legislation introduced to Save Internet Radio!
I’m so worried not to be able to hear Pandora Station anymore. I hope there will be finally some solution to this.
Will it be possible for us, the banned ones, to access our bookmarked songs? I’ve been adding there many artists since 2005!
Greetings from Spain
Don’t shut pandora please
I would also just like to voice my support for Pandora, and hope that sometime in the future, the music industry wakes up to their archaic and small minded licensing/business model.
What the heck is the difference between streaming music via web, and the radio waves?? Aren’t a lot of radio stations streaming on the web simultaneously now anyway? (They are in New Zealand – said as I sit listening to a NZ station from my office in London!).
Anyway, I hope to be listening to Pandora again… one day. Radio stations come and go, it’s the music matching that made Pandora the best.
Bridget, New Zealand / UK
Hello fellas, i readed your email about blocking users from other countries, I am really sorry you have to do that, but anyway if you must…but thanks for all the time i was enjoying your service, you made me find a lot of great music. I hope in the future we could acces from any country…
Bye bye! And great work with Pandora!
hi, im a Pandora listener from Malaysia. of course, im really saddened by this new ruling and how it affects my frequent dose of great music on Pandora. but i would like to invite the Pandora team to come here and do your roadshow like the one you’ve been doing in the States. i think the main purpose here would be to educate people on this site and how others can get involved in providing great music across the world with fewer restrictions.
i didnt know that the artists and the publishers get paid for their music. putting the artists first is the best thing you’ve done, Tim, kudos for that. i think its revolutionary how Pandora has reached so many people around the world and its a pity i wont be accessing that site anytime soon. thank you for everything. would love to hear more news on this. all the best, Pandora!
I was sad to hear about the cut-off. I do wish you all the best, and hope that some time in the future you’ll be able to stream globally again.
Good luck!
French listeners are very disappointed too.
Thank you Pandora. Bye.
Simon
now i’m so very much saddened by this news.
darn… i hope that the bill will not pass as i am so living OUTSIDE U.S and i absolutely love Pandora!!
-weeps-
and yeah…i’ve bought CSs after listening to some of the songs from Pandora coz i found out that i actually like some off-the-mainstream singers..
Is there any hope for those of us outside the states?
dear tim
I just received your email anouncing there will be no more pandora outside the states from today march 3rd
this is de most terrible email I’ve got in my entire life. I feel so sad and ungry. How can you block me because I listen from spain? Pandora is the most important thing I’ve discovered through the web. When I found it, I run to tell all my friends: musicians, moviemakers and just friends, musicloving friends. I got the same answer from all of them: “This is big”. I still think pandora is the biggest invention in the www for musical meanings.
musicians, songwriters, labels and publishers should see it in an oposite way. Pandora spreads their product. It is free marketing. Music lovers can discover new music from pandora and then push that music until it becomes a mass fenomenon. I have hundreds of vinils and I taped a lot of them for my friends. I have thousands of cds and I’ve copied a lot of them for my friends. Now I had pandora and I dont tape or burn. I just tell the friends to visit. And I keep on buying cds or itunes, like most of my friends do.
please tell all thouse executives and lawers that they will lose money, my money, if they take pandora away from me. And I am sure a lot of other people will do the same: no new music to discover, no money to spend. Lets spend the money in other things.
please, tell that people they are wrong, tell them again you are a helping hand to them, to their bussiness. But this time, say it in my name, please. And please keep me informed. Dont erase me. I want to be part of it when it rises again, brighter and powerfull, as I am sure it will do. I must say, anyway, congratulations for this great idea and all the effort put into it.
thanks for this years of great companion and this enjoyable music experiment.
regards
pepe jordana
spain
Best radio is when plays what I want to hear, according to my mood and taste. With Pandora I discovered musicians and records maybe I never would hear about. Many of them (CD’s) are in my collection now. In my opinion limiting Pandora to States only in the end of the day will reduce incomes from record sales. Again the publishers, managers and other staff protects their stable incomes not carrying with musicians. As usual…
But again thanks for a great idea, great project. Thomas – Poland
Hello, I am from Germany and I loved Pandora.
I am programmer and system admin myself, so I know how much work is behind such a big and well functioning project.
Despite of I won’t get a chance to listen to your great radio, I wish you a nice time.
Maybe we will see us again (I mean, I will listen to you).
Hopefully and sincerely yours, ct. -.-
well,
i used to listen to pandora.
i even had passed some links to friends.
sorry for the limited audition.
best regards,
ampmarq.
I am in Ireland. Still I am able to access the service, whats going on, is the service stopping or not? Legally is using a proxy a valid method of operation?
France vote for Pandora!
I’m a french Pandora user and like the others people around the world I’m sad.
Can’t understand why, we canno’t download we just discover new musics that can check with our musical flavours…
I discovered very good sounds with Pandora (thanks a lot!), I’m very disapointed to know that I can no more listen it.
I hope this service could be soon available here.
Nice day @ll
Surely there is a way to maintain a profitable business model by moving Pandora up here to Canada and welcoming the international people back until the US gets its collective RIAA-BS act sorted out…
Pandora has opened the musical spectrum wide open as far as discovering artists I enjoy, and I’ve gone on to purchase quite a few albums (both on iTunes and via Amazon) of those artists. I’d probably never have found them otherwise.
So, if this is truly goodbye to Pandora for us, let it be remembered as an incredible service for listeners AND the musicians/songwriters whose music was played for a targeted, welcoming audience. Thanks to all who made it as fabulous as it is…
(and there’s always Canada. For now, anyway).
Hi Tim,
Until this very sad day of May 3 I was a Pandora listener. I discovered lot’s of good music and because of that bought CD’s of groups I like. Thank you for that.
I do hope to be able to listen to Pandora again in the near future.
It is very sad to discover that in these modern times of Internet, music industry still isn’t as global as is should be and could be, with al it’s national licensing constraints and national organisations protecting copyrights etc.
I subscribe your statement that everyone is to be paid properly, but it shouldn’t be so difficult to meet all regulations.
Not only when you want to listen to music, but also if you want to perform music. Sometimes, there just are too many constraints, because of national and international legal differences.
Greatings from The Netherlands
Hello tim, im from Venezuela..
If you know the government from venezuela and the United Stated are Having a lot of problems today and like this pronunce about that only the people from the us can have pandora its absurd whit all respect that the american people deserved…
I recibe a e mail from you and let me tell you that pandora means a lot to me you have no idea!!! i work to Hilton Caracas the 5 stars hotel!!! and the only thing that we hear on computers at work its pandora all the time and not only me!!! form the Manager to the Housekiping people!!!
At home the only page that relax me its pandora because the quality of the sound its grate.. the first time that i went to http://www.pandora.com I knew that it was for me its easy to use and no proble to hear good music!!!
i gonna i miss you pandora!!!
i will go to usa next month and i will try to go to the main office of this grate page!!!!
Tim i hope have and personal answer from you in the next days!!!! Gracias!!!
David Castillo
castillohots@hotmail.com
For all those folks who have asked what they can do from outside the US. First, thanks for the support. Two things:
1. Call any friends you have living in the US and ask them to call their congressional representative urging them to support the Internet Radio Equality Act, HR2060. This rights issue in the US is having a very negative impact on the prospects internationally.
2. Rally support in your own countries for your political representatives to take action and create a centralized, statutory licensing body to allow companies like Pandora to get the rights we need. There has been much talk, but little action on this front across the world.
Many thanks.
Tim (Founder)
ATTN: Dominiek
..and anyone else interested in receiving a refund for subscription charges:
Please contact Support at Pandora-Support [at] Pandora.com from the email address with which you subscribed and request a refund.
Thanks so much!
Tim,
). I do appreciate what you have done with Pandora and for all musicians (I count several professional musicians as my friends). Perhaps this thread can go as signature campaign to the powers that be to show support for a change in the licensing laws. After all the Internet does cross international borders indiscriminately!
Thanks for the clarification, and I apologies again for my ranting (an old hippy fighting the “man”
Thanks once again, and I wish you success even with a smaller Pandora audience!
PS It would be interesting to know what the ratio of US / non-US listener is, oops, was!
FYI, I contacted Anna Eshoo’s office and she is backing the bill. You should perhaps post a list of supporters on the site.
Hopefully sometime soon, regulations will provide for the *whole* world to experience Pandora again. Technology has the power to makes the world your neighbor, which can make the world a better place.
I listen to BBC Radio on my Roku…I wonder if there is a country in the world in which you could open a subsidiary that would enable you to resume your global service?
May 4, 2007
Dear Catherine,
Thank you for contacting me about copyright royalty rates on webcasters.
We agree with each other and I share your concerns about the decision by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to propose increased royalty rates for web-based music services. In many cases the rates the CRB proposed are higher than the total revenue these services generate and if implemented, could effectively strangle this fledgling industry.
I will support legislation to overturn the CRB decision and allow the Board to set a reasonable royalty rate that justly compensates artists and copyright owners without destroying up-and-coming webcasting services.
Sincerely,
Anna G. Eshoo
Member of Congress
I just want to greet you all from Berlin and I am very sad what happened. Pandora was such a great pleasure for me, it only motivates buying cds, no need to interrupt this! Let the music live worldwide without any restriction!!!
@bridget:
the web is global; radio waves have limited range
it’s like sunlight versus street light: if you want to plunge a neighboring country into a perpetual state of fear (as an act of terror? hmm…) you don’t turn off your own street lights, these aren’t illuminating another country’s streets anyway!
you find a way to block off their access to the sun
@mark:
while your loyalty to free-market capitalism is to be lauded, I think you misunderstood this bill – the prior situation was that musicians could, if webradio was unable to afford their existing pricing schemes, voluntarily offer a percentage deal instead of a flat rate
but the new situation DISALLOWS musicians from offering mutually acceptable deals, ultimately LOSING them money because the independents cannot afford these higher prices
the proposed bill would RESTORE their (the musician’s) rights to offer different pricing deals
I personally, AS a singer, am in favor of negotiation: being able to decide between selling to someone at a reduced price THAT THEY CAN AFFORD, and not getting any money at ALL because they can’t afford it!
I also like the idea of percentage-based fee structures* because they scale to the success of the business; if the business doesn’t make much, the fees will still be affordable, but if they make a LOT, the artists will see some of that and not be left wondering if they were cheated by some big record/label corps
*http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070502-internet-radio-royalty-hike-delayed-last-chance-to-petition-congress.html
If buying music is possible by Itunes, why shouldn’t I buy through pandora? The car selling companies are making real good marketing by the new “Experience-marketing-ideas”. Tasting the product is loving it, the previous step to buying it… and the companies are really interested in selling, aren’t they?
SIGNED:
A PANDORA ABSOLUT YONKI… REGARDS TO EVERYONE.
Woohoo! Tim, thanks for your tireless efforts on this. This may have been the first time i’ve actually called my representative’s office on the phone. i hate to use this word, but it was kind of empowering.
I’m planning to move to Australia and am gutted at the thought I will lose my Pandora. I have bought a number of CDs by artists I discovered on Pandora. These are CDs I would never have purchased but for hearing them on Pandora. Good luck in the future will all your endeavours.
I’m one of the lucky ones being in the UK and I still have access.
The threat by the industry has convinced me that everyone – both musicians and consumers – are entirely at the mercy of evil corporate giants.
It is the corporate giant and the major record labels that are killing music and replacing it with mass-produced noise performed by brain-dead puppets, which is why pop is so bad these days.
The royalties increase is NOT for the benefit of musicians, it is purely so the executives can get rich quick.
I urge ALL real musicians so sell music independently.
I urge ALL consumers to hit the corporate giants where it hurts – and buy music directly from artists/small publishers where possible, otherwise the only option is to obtain it illegally.
RIAA:
You can thank the RIAA for this type of policy. The music industry wants to control what you listen to. If they control what you listen to they control what you buy. It is as simple as that. I am boycotting all of there music. I am only buying from independent artist from this day forward.
I invite anyone who so desires to join me in this effort to say screw the RIAA!
-What
Hi, all,
Thanks for the kind words about our podcast, too. If you want to keeping hearing the podcast and you’re not in the U.S., just subscribe via iTunes or Live Bookmarks or Bloglines or whatever feed-reader you want to use.
Here’s the feed:
http://podcast.pandora.com/pandora/podcast
I just heard about Pandora’s plight at the net@night podcast. I tried to do my part and contacted my congressman – afterwhich I discovered he was one of the cosponsers of the bill(oops). I guess at least he knows I’ve got his back…
I wish there was some way to express our displeasure at the RIAA. All they’ve done is to limit artists access to the public. I’m tempted to join “what”
Tim,
Any thoughts about getting internet radio broadcasters together to directly compete with RIAA for artists. I know the cash isn’t there for the artists but all you would need is a few homeruns…
Damn the man!!!
Long live Pandora!!!
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) just released a report on Internet Radio and Copyright Royalties at an event on Capitol Hill this morning. In the report, we describe problems with the current copyright royalty system for Internet Radio, and what steps Congress should take to reform this system.
I know this blog has been very active on this issue, and I wanted to make sure you were aware of our paper.
The report is available on our website at – http://www.itif.org/files/InternetRadio.pdf
I hope for Pandora Freedom…
Please contact me if I can make something from Spain.
Thanks for your work.
I just posted a comment to both Senators of Tennessee and this is what I wrote them-I didn’t read this article before I posted the comment to them, I saw the post it on my home page and went there directly! I am new to Pandora but I think its a beautiful thing! Really. Thank you so much for the access to what makes the world go ’round!
Sincerely,
Jessica
Please don’t let the RIAA kill Pandora and all internet radio. Join Senators Ron Wyden and Sam Brownback as co sponsors of the Internet Radio Equality Act. Music has always been a part of my life and I like all kinds. I enjoy being able to listen to the light sound of my favorite songs in the background at work. It makes for a less stressful environment. But, at home it makes for a wonderful way for families to enjoy something together. Equality is very important as politicians have so greatly demanded and expected over the years-why do it to music? Music will set you free, it has brought so many people of all kinds together, when nothing else would! Please help save the internet radio.
I am shocked…..so what I am to do now….?
I’m from the Grenada in the caribbean and listen to lots of Reggae and many other Generes…….I own most of the cds but likes the way it’s played on pandora….
Right now I am listening to Madonna Hung Up….I don’t know what to do…LOL…..I’ll be waiting for you to call nite and day….I hope I don’t get fed up where I have to hung up….LOL
I gotta to listen to last bit of BeenieMan (reggae) and Kevin lyttle (Soca)
All the Best
Make peace, not war!
Internet Radio Bills:
HB2060 -
http://www.statesurge.com/#view-bill%5B&%5Dmain_content%5B&%5Dbill_id=16303
SB1353 – http://www.statesurge.com/#view-bill%5B&%5Dmain_content%5B&%5Dbill_id=14992
Thought you all may be interested in a new site (http://www.statesurge.com) devoted to transparency in government and one of the best ways to find legislation. You can sign up for a free trial on StateSurge.com and test out this legislative management system. Its the best service I have seen for tracking legislation. Apparently, soon much of the information will be open and free to use as a research tool. Currently, http://www.StateSurge.com tracks Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Tennessee, and Federal legislation, but soon all 50 states will be integrated.
Pandora.com used to be amazing. Not only did I not have to spend hours creating playlists, I found new unknown artists.
Then Pandora.com had to go and sell out. My god. How many limits do we need?!
Advertisements between songs
Advertisements blocking my view
Time limit of 40 hours
6 song skips for the entire day no matter the station
Seriously guys. You have successfully alienated every user who has ever used and loved your site. What a dissapointment. Fuck the record industries. They’re greedy bastards anyway. The ARTISTS make nothing from song play.