KEY POINTS:
Like Juha at Geekzone I'm really sad to see that the fantastic web radio station Pandora has been restricted to use in the US only.
It used to be that you could sign up using a US post code, say 90210, and that would be enough to get you using the free service. Now, Pandora has been forced to block international IP addresses.
As Pandora's founder Tim Westergren writes on the Pandora.com website:
"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 US 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."
This Herald Tribune article pretty well sums up the problems Pandora is facing:
"With 6.5 million registered users, Pandora stands at the vanguard of the sprawling, global internet radio market. But Webcasters are suffering severe growing pains in the form of a looming increase in US royalty rates and the free-wheeling atmosphere of the Wild West with competing collection agencies all over the world in search of royalties."
For me, Pandora was much more effective than LastFM.com LastFM.com or a Live365.com in steering me towards artists it thought I might enjoy, based on the music I was telling Pandora I liked. I wrote a Herald article about Pandora last July which had a huge response - people found out that their tastes were also being accurately identified by Pandora. Now it's gone, at least until some sustainable model of collecting royalties worldwide can be implemented for web radio stations.
The thing is, Pandora was so good I'd have eventually signed up for the premium service. With 6.5 million users before the bridge was drawn up on international listeners, there seems to be enough of an audience there for a viable subscription service or one supported by advertising – along the lines of the SpiralFrog model ie: watch some adverts and listen for free.
Pandora will now strike licensing agreements in individual countries and if judging by the delay iTunes took to get here, that could mean the service will be out of action for some time.
Any other good web radio stations out there that do a good job of identifying your listening tastes?
