Tech-Me – Blogging my thoughts on gadgets, techology and web based media – chapmanmania

Today, a message landed in my inbox from Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, detailing the unfortunate imminent closure of the service in the UK. Back in July last year, Pandora was closed to all territories but the US and the UK. Since then, the company have been working diligently to attempt to rescue the service for UK listeners. But ‘both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US’. As sad news as this is, I’m not as sad as I would’ve been because I’ve since moved on to last.fm; a service which scrobbles what I listen to, as well as recommending new music like Pandora did. Last.fm has more of a community feel, allowing me to listen to friend’s and neighbours stations.

However, Tim had stronger words to say about the music industry.

‘It continues to astound me and the rest of the team here that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don’t often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent – and by that I mean both well known and indie artists. The only consequence of failing to support companies like Pandora that are attempting to build a sustainable radio business for the future will be the continued explosion of piracy, the continued constriction of opportunities for working musicians, and a worsening drought of new music for fans. As a former working musician myself, I find it very troubling.

We have been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable…so that is what we are doing. Streaming illegally is just not in our DNA, and we have to take the threats of legal action seriously. Lest you think this is solely an international problem, you should know that we are also fighting for our survival here in the US, in the face of a crushing increase in web radio royalty rates, which if left unchanged, would mean the end of Pandora.

We know what an epicenter of musical creativity and fan support the UK has always been, which makes the prospect of not being able to launch there and having to block our first listeners all the more upsetting for us.

We know there is a lot of support from listeners and artists in the UK for Pandora and remain hopeful that at some point we’ll get beyond this. We’re going to keep fighting for a fair and workable rate structure that will allow us to bring Pandora back to you. We’ll be sure to let you know if Pandora becomes available in the UK. There may well come a day when we need to make a direct appeal for your support to move for governmental intervention as we have in the US. In the meantime, we have no choice but to turn off service to the UK.’

Not too dissimilar to Jobs’ own thoughts on music last year. Pandora will stop streaming in the UK on January 15th.