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Thursday, May 10, 2007

No more Pandora

Once upon a time (a couple of years back) there was a site that someone at work (can't remember who) told me about. It was Pandora by the Music Genome Project. It was the first thing of its kind. You could name an artist or song and the subsequent songs where played depending on that first choice. It took a lot of info for that like genre, tonalities, voice pitch, influences, etc. You get the point.

I'm writing in past tense because now, if you're not from the U.S., you'll get to this restricted notice from Pandora. Well, that sucks greatly.

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

What are these licensing constraints? It's so damn vague so as not to tell who the hell is restricting them (that is if it's true that someone's restricting them).

I'm getting tired of this kind of site behavior. It happens everywhere. Where else have you seen this crippled site behavior outside the U.S.? (I've seen it in plenty of Google sites BTW)

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting on this subject. Appreciate your addressing the issue. The problem lies with the lack of a central license in any other country. Virtually all countries require a payment for performers for songs played on radio, including internet radio. In order to actually do this, there needs to be a central administrative agency to monitor, collect and distribute the royalties to artists. SoundExchange does that in the US.

    There is NO similar system available for anyone wanting to stream webcasts in any country outside the US. So there's literally no way to stream legally right now - this is not just an issue for Pandora, but we've chosen to abide by the existing law and wishes of the copyright holders. Hopefully, a global licensing structure will come soon. We've been working hard on finding a solution for a year now. Some good progess being made in the UK with an organization called the PPL, which will hopefully be replicated elsewhere.

    Cheers. Tim (Founder, Pandora)

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  2. Thanks for giving more details about the restrictions, I really appreciate it (you're the last person I thought would comment here :)). I just made some searches and found out more about the situation, and I hope this gets resolved in the future.

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