Oh woe is Pandora

If you haven't heard by now, Pandora might be closing due to rising royalty rates. Now some of you may remember a while back, when you heard that Pandora was possibly shutting down because the rates were too high. The truth, it sounds like, is that Pandora kept on chuggin' even though they had to give 70% of their revenue to record labels and artists (70%!!). They decided it was better to keep going while fighting the rates (I assume in some sort of court...). Their hope is that this situation will be resolved and they won't have to shut down, but wired.com says they've already stopped broadcasting in the UK, and the US is next in line. In fact Pandora says they're losing money right now. It seems they're just holding on in case they win the fight and can afford to stay afloat.

Hi recording industry. You're all idiots. You're the old man in the rocking chair with a blanket over his knee wheezing and reminiscing about the 1950s. Do you not understand that the world only turns in one direction? (unless superman's around, but I don't think he's gonna get out of bed for the recording industry) We've gone beyond CDs and albums! We can share information too quickly these days to be hoarding it. Do record labels and some artists really want us to go back to the days where we listened to the radio all day and then went out and purchased a CD when something the DJ and record companies decided we should listen to caught our ear? It's not gonna happen, and I'm hoping I'm a perfect demonstration of why. This is how I listen to music:

In the car and pretty much only in the car I listen to the radio. I listen to country, classic rock, and alternative. I can pretty much gaurantee you that I will never again buy a CD containing music I have heard on the radio, and I'll tell you why--it's probably not the reason you're thinking. It's because I know that I will hear it again on that station. Stations overplay everything! I won't buy the CD, because I know that by the time they are finished playing it everyday on the radio, I will have decided that I'm pretty much bored with it. Hey, I'm not even in the car that much, and I still can't believe how often some songs are played.

I don't listen to the radio that much. (Hi record companies, this part's important!) In fact I get most of my music from computers. I buy new albums online from artists I already know, I use playlist.com to create playlists of music I enjoy or am listening to right now (there's one in the sidebar right over there!! -->), I listen to friend's playlists and suggestions, and oh yeah, I listen to pandora. If I am ever wanting to hear something new and interesting, I listen to pandora. If I find something I like (which I often do) I go to itunes or amazon or somewhere else ... and I purchase it (which I also often do). oh boy. Then I can listen to it just long enough that I know it by heart, but not quite so long that I can't stand hearing it anymore. It's a very simple system. Now maybe not everyone listens to music like I do, but I've got a hunch that at least many of my friends do . . . eh?

So I got worried when I heard Pandora could possibly shut down, because there are a few playlists that I just absolutely love, and I haven't gotten around to purchasing some of the music on a couple of those lists. So I just opened it up and starting writing down the name and artist of every song, and holy cow!! They really have a spectacular variety of music. I never realized how much it was. I filled a couple of pages of a legal pad in an afternoon ... Pandora is amazing--not just for the internet radio hole it fills, but also for the whole project. You can give them nearly any song you can think of (not German songs though, I've tried ) and they will be able to come up with similar styles and artists. The project was massive, and it turned out so well. I think I took it for granted how easy it was for me to type in "Fratellis" and have it spit out everything from The Real McKenzies to The Young Knives. It just came out with good stuff everytime, and that took a lot of work, and I really hope it doesn't get shut down. I think I would cry. Or at least be really really sad if I am ever forced to listen to the radio at work . . .