02 May, 2007

SaveNetRadio.org

I got an email today saying that I couldn't use Pandora after the 5th of May because I am in Ireland, and they don't have licenses to stream anywhere other than the US and the UK. Here's the email.

"
Dear Pandora listener,

Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora's streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S.

It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows.

We show your IP address is '86.40.(((.(((', which indicates you are listening from Ireland. If you believe you are seeing this by mistake, we offer our sincere apologies and ask that you please reply to this email.

Delivery of Pandora is based on proper licensing from the people who created the music - we have always believed in honoring the guidelines as determined by legislators and regulators, artists and songwriters, and the labels and publishers they work with. In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable us to legitimately offer Pandora around the world. Other than in the U.K., we have not yet been able to make significant progress in our efforts to obtain a sufficient number of international licenses at terms that would enable us to run a viable business. The volume of listening on Pandora makes it a very expensive service to run. Streaming costs are very high, and since our inception, we have been making publishing and performance royalty payments for every song we play.

Until now, we have not been able to tell where a listener is based, relying only on zip code information provided upon registration. We are now able to recognize a listener's country of origin based on the IP address from which they are accessing the service. Consequently, on May 3rd, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from your country. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We will be posting updates on our blog regarding our ongoing effort to launch in other countries, so please stay in touch. We will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We deeply share your sense of disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding.

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

This is a one time account message
"

I blocked out my IP, I heard that you shouldn't publish it.

I am really disappointed, as I have just started listening to Pandora again.

5 comments:

Tim said...

THanks for the post, and kind words. This is really heartbreaking for us, but we're stuck with the existing laws.

Working hard as we can to launch this across the pond...

Thanks also for putting up the link to savenetradio - let's hope some friends in the US read it, and start calling their congresspersons.

Cheers. Tim (Founder)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I got the same mail in Sweden.

I have moved to last.fm instead... I think it's even better!

Belcho said...

I'm form Bulgaria and I have access to Pandora now, and i haven't recived that e-mail yet. But after 5th of May... what can we do? Help saveinternetradio

mols said...

I wonder if you can use a US-based proxy to circumvent that.

If you're desperate for good streaming music on the web, try finetune.com. I quite like it but it doesn't work at my workplace.

Declan Meenagh said...

Hi everyone. Thanks so much for your comments.

Tim, I was wondering if you could offer a service which would play independent, creative commons and pod safe music like Pandora's current service. This should work internationally, as there wouldn't be any charge. I really enjoyed Pandora, and look forword to being able to use it again.

Thanks also to everyone else for the sugestions. I am currently studying, but when i'm finished, i'll try out your sigestions.

Finally, Thanks for reading my blog and taking the time to leave a comment.