Friday, July 10, 2009

Streaming Radio


Happy Friday everyone! Hope it's a good one for all. I've got a pretty great day planned so far and was getting my daily dose of music in the morning, which made me think about the resource I use frequently. I love the site www.pandora.com for the free music that can be streamed based on an artist or song that you choose. Pandora will then put together a streaming playlist based on your selection(s), which is equivalent in my mind to your favorite playlist on Itunes that seems to go on forever. I absolutely love the site because I get new artist info when I hear a new song, then go find that artist on my favorite music download site. It's great for that.

So when I read that the www.pandora.com site may be going to the way side recently, I got a bit bummed naturally. But, all is well in the land of streaming music thanks to a recent agreement that the site made with the music industry securing a long time royalty agreement that concedes to pay 25% of it's overall profit from the U.S. This is much better than the 75% total profit sharing that was thought would come about, thus putting the site in to the ground. Here's the link to the news if you're interested: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/pandora-and-other-internet-radio-has-officially-been-saved/ .

What this means? Well, potentially this sets a precedent for streaming radio on the internet, but it only protects www.pandora.com for the time being. Other sites could be vulnerable to the music industry and their shrewd, royalty driven operatives. It's understandable that the music industry is seeking alternative sources of revenue given that cd and other physical media sales are down (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/arts/music/01indu.html). This is an article from the end of 2008 but the info is still relevant.

My advice to you: enjoy these streaming music sites now while you can! I love Pandora, but you may find another that's even more to your liking. Have fun.

5 comments:

  1. The Pandora application for my Blackberry is equally great. Awesome for being on the road and forgetting my iPod...hah.

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  2. I didn't realize there was Pandora for mobile devices. Awesome.

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  3. Yeah, I have Pandora and a couple of other radio programs on my phone. It's great for studying or working when you want to hear something new.

    I have to give Pandora a "fail" for Phish music though. You put Phish in as a channel, and it plays Phish, the Dead, and Bob Marley. Not that I don't like that music, but it seems more like a stereotype than really "similar music" ya know?

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  4. Yeah, I agree. I have found that happens with some artists, if not all. I listen to a Jack Johnson station and get some pop music, etc. that doesn't really fit the bill. But, it's free music none-the-less and I'll take that any day.

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