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Royalty issues continue to plague Pandora

This is a very sad situation and unfair that the more money you make the more the entities want in royalties. It is a clear set up for failure as over the air Radio does not have to follow the same rules. Web Radio has been very successful for artists both re discovered and New. Internet Radio has so much to offer and yet is stifled due to corporate greed in the RIAA's behalf along with their co partners.
 
The real problem for Pandora is going to be when the pureplay licensing runs out. It is extremely unlikely another pureplay license will be established or at least not one that will include companies the size of Pandora.
 
Casey said:
The real problem for Pandora is going to be when the pureplay licensing runs out. It is extremely unlikely another pureplay license will be established or at least not one that will include companies the size of Pandora.
Click to expand...

OK if this is the case I'd like to now for everyone's info how did iTunes just launch their Internet Radio just a few days ago and seemingly they were licensed without any incident for Pureplay? I sure don't know why the entities show favoritism towards one and not the other although iTunes has always been the Loin's share of legit digital music distribution here in the USA.
 
I think Pandora, Apple etc are big enough to negotiate their own (lower) rates with individual labels, allowing them in many cases to sidestep SoundExchange and the statutory rates. They will probably be fine.

But negotiating with individual labels is way too much work for your average Joe, who may end up stuck with the next set of 5-year statutory rates. Those rates are unknown, but will probably not include the current "Small Webcaster percentage of revenue/expenses" or "Pureplay" options because it took Congressional intervention to make that happen the last two times, and the general feeling is that Congress will not intervene this time around.

That could, quite honestly, mean the end for many small outfits and aggregative networks.

The fact is, Pandora and Apple have the resources to ensure their own survival through some creative manoevers (link below). The rest of us? Not so much...

http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/201...tation-what-does-it-mean-for-music-royalties/
 
The interesting part about this is that the Future of Music Coalition, an arm of the RIAA, really feels the smaller web broadcasters are more helpful to artists and labels than the big guys. But the RIAA has stacked the deck against smaller operators in terms of the costs and amount of paperwork required. Their lips say they love small operators, but their actions say otherwise. Then again, they're suing all the big guys. So truthfully, they don't like anybody.
 
Of course they'll say they love small webcasters because more and more small broadcasters are coming out of the woodwork. Think of it as a FREE jukebox for the listener but profit for the RIAA. If you start having a million stations paying an avorage of $40/Mo for licensing the RIAA's pockets get more money. The only solution is to sign up with a CDN service which allows you to insert ads and there are more of them coming out as well. The RIAA will make more and more money as folks like myself love running their stations even though its an expensive hobby.
 
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