Pandora going offline?

[Mike]

Wired have run an article that suggest that Pandora Radio station (which stopped broadcasting in the UK in 2007) will be forced to stop broadcasting soon if the Royalties do not ease and allow them to make some money. At the moment the company pays over 70% of generated income to the Artists and Studios and it cant keep loosing money. If I was the artists or studios I would play a long term game with this one. Reduce the royalties and let them keep 70% of generated income and hope that the internet traffic booms before ramping the Royalties up to make up for the reduced CD sales.

[BarcelonAl]

You see, the record companies have got the wrong idea here (imo)...I've bought cd's from bands that I'd only been introduced to through Pandora, so forcing it to shut-down will harm them more than allowing it to continue...muppets!

[Mike]

I agree, better to keep it online. It is a famous brand now and to take it off air to raise peanuts is a bad strategy. To be honest though the accountants and MD's of record labels seem to be struggling to adapt to a digital age.

[mr_e]

The record industry appears to be run by greedy megalomaniacs at the moment... there's no long-term thinking, just short-term profiteering. Capitalism sucks at music, basically, even more so now digital music has come into play.

It doesn't help that the actual artists get a low percentage from album sales, given their importance in the process. Then again, they do get exposure that allows them to tour and make money (and they need to pay back the record company loans), so there's a strong counter-argument to that. The best way to financially support your favourite bands remains going to see them live or buying merchandise, or buying directly from the artist if they offer that option.

[Mike]

I suppose it is a compromise of allowing the record labels to make sufficient money to keep publishing the artists work and the artist for wanting to continue working! I think they just need to calm down a bit and understand that the industry has to be sustainable, ie generate sufficient money for every part for it to be able to be fully nourished.

[Mike]

At the moment they are just making redundancies. The key bit of legislation was kept out of 'law' so they can keep trading for now. Common tech blogs have questioned their cut of staff at this key point where their audience figures and income is rising, however, it is a bad time. Especially for a music organisation where more than 70% of income goes out of the company.