keep pandora’s box open

Excellent Web 2.0 music recommendation service, Pandora, is in danger -- again; along with every other US-based internet-radio site, thanks to the lapdogs in DC rimming the rear portals of the MAFIAA. This was in my Inbox today:

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)

This clearly seems to be the "copyright industry" attempting to keep a stranglehold on the venues through which people can access their content. Traditional broadcast radio was in the pocket of the record labels LONG before clear channel monopolized the airwaves. Satellite radio has also caused panic in the RIAA despite the opportunities for business growth that it presented. But the one thing that scares companies most is change, and the introduction of webcast radio holds the greatest potential for change that music dissemination has ever seen. I urge you to take a look at the site Westergren has offered up, and if this concerns you at all (and if you enjoy Pandora, or any 'net radio, it should) and let the government know who they're supposed to serve; the form is dirt simple and automatically selects the congresspeeps based on your state of residence.