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back to article Tightwad music spaffer Pandora opens box for Wall St to fill with cash

Controversial webcaster Pandora, under fire for running its music streaming business with the iron grip of a plantation owner, is returning to Wall Street for a cash injection. The company floated in 2011 and its popularity (it has 70 million listeners), revenues (up 55 per cent year on year) and share price (now almost $25) …

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  1. Dan Paul

    Equal terms and conditions for equal transmission

    Perhaps all of those who are complaining should ask themselves how they would feel if they got charged a different rate for electricity if they were white rather than if they were black.

    This is effectively the situation with all Digital Internet/Radio music transmission versus Traditional Broadcast music transmission.

    There is no longer room for "class" distinctions between chargable rates to play songs. This is clearly inequitable justice.

    The transmission medium should no longer matter as almost every popular radio station has an Internet Radio presence and that makes them NO DIFFERENT than Pandora or Sirius/XM.

    Pandora BOUGHT a radio station to get the SAME RATES and is being denied. This is patently illegal.

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    1. User McUser
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      Headmaster

      Re: Equal terms and conditions for equal transmission

      It's not quite the same... Radio (even satellite radio to a lesser extent) is limited by their broadcast power and location. The internet is theoretically available anywhere on the planet.

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      1. Tom 35
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        Re: Equal terms and conditions for equal transmission

        The radio stations have their own internet stream that is most often available world wide.

        Pandora is not available world wide.

        I can receive quite a few US radio stations over the air, and hundreds of them online, but Pandora just tells me that I'm in Canada so go away.

        "We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. "

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      2. Dan Paul
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        Pirate

        Re: Equal terms and conditions for equal transmission

        So what? 90% of all successful radio stations have an Internet Radio offering. How is that at all different than Pandora?

        Pandora does not want 30 different royalty agencies coming after it for transmitting outside of the US. That's why it's not available elsewhere.

        But that's anopther reason why it should not be charged more and why radio braod caster should have to pay the same rates as Pandora and vice versa.

        Inequitable means "not equal". The rate being paid MUST be the same in ALL cases.

        Let's go one further and pay that money DIRECTLY to the songwriter instead of some collection agency.

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        1. User McUser
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          Headmaster

          Re: Equal terms and conditions for equal transmission

          90% of all successful radio stations have an Internet Radio offering. How is that at all different than Pandora?

          Radio stations are a fixed stream; the station decides on the programming and broadcasts it. Those listening over the air get the same songs and what-not as do the Internet streamers for the same station. They might take requests, but only those that fit within the station's chosen "format" (eg: Rock, Pop, Jazz, etc)

          In contrast, Pandora lets each individual user create and customize their own music stream where they can skip songs and incorporate preference data in the form of likes and dislikes. It's more of a music concierge that learns what songs you like and automatically plays new ones it calculates you will also enjoy.

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  2. Rol

    Not too sure about this.

    As I understand it, a radio station pays a fixed price to play a track, which if divided up between its listeners, does come to minute fractions of a penny, whereas the internet station pays a fixed price based on the number of listeners. Obviously inequality exists as the radio station can only take a guess at how many are tuning in and so a per listener fee would be unrealistic, not so the internet station that can tell you exactly how many are "tuned in" at any one time.

    Yes, it does seem unfair, especially when you consider things like water rates, where those who aren't metered get a much higher bill than those who have a similar usage, but can account for every drop.

    Seems to me the music industry still hasn't forgiven us for inventing the computer.

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  3. Killraven

    1% Current Events...

    ...99% Slagging Off on Unrelated Issues

    Nice ratio of "news" there.

    What's omitted from the Wall Street Journal article is the mention of "Pandora has reported wider quarterly losses in recent periods as the company's robust listener growth has brought with it higher royalty costs for songs. "

    I'm thinking that if the afore-mentioned proverbial grocery store had to pay additional costs for their product because they had more sales volume, then yes, they might be complaining a bit. Especially considering that pretty much every other product sale in the known universe makes product cost DEcrease with volume.

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