Comments on: Pandora to Congress: Vote now, we're running out of time

Vote regarding royalty fees for Internet radio is set for Saturday, after start-ups like Pandora insist that they can't wait any longer for financial reasons.

[tomconrad]

If you care about Internet Radio, please call your congressperson and ask that they support HR 7084, aka the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008. The switchboard is [phone]; just ask for your congressperson. Calling right now -- yes in the middle of the night on a Friday. It means everything to us. The vote is tomorrow morning. We have it on good authority that staffers will be there through the night.

Tom
CTO @ Pandora

[GlennAllen]

Dear SoundExchange (aka MAFIAA),

Be careful what you ask for... you may get it: nobody buying music that they can no longer listen to means no money for you, no money for labels, no money for artists--exactly what you, and they, deserve.

[HlLLARY CLITON]

I called

[casabear]

I called my congressperson here in California and the voice mail message said his mailbox was full. Maybe that's good news that others are leaving messages for him to support this measure. I love Pandora and listen to it every day. It is wonderful that you can listen to songs you pick out and not ones that you don't like. Since I couldn't leave a voice mail message I wrote him an email. Please join this cause and do the same. https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

[cahomsy]

Sounds to me like the NAB, RIAA, etc., are all trying to keep us in the fifties with their constant griping about how they are becoming extinct dinosaurs and not allowing technology to advance. Do they think that by doing what the insurance company's did in the fifties, crying loud enough to congress that if their product isn't legislated into existence or they would go out of business, that they to will go the way of the dinosaur's? Mildred, pass me some more of that cheese to go with this whine, please.

[twotall610]

Law of greed. We want more and more and more. In the end , only the strong will survive.

[ofmyony]

Listen music labels I do not need you. As far as I am concerned you can go bankrupt. I will be better off with musicians making and distributing their own music. Without the big companies these bands will go to smaller labels who are more willing to let Pandora and over the air stations play their music. I think Pandora will survive they will just have to go with smaller labels which is better for the consumer in the long run.

Copyright is a good thing. But hiding under the umbrella that you own the music and you control the rights to how someone uses content after they legally purchased it is wrong. If I buy a song and want to share it with the world well, I ought to have that right. If you do not like it stop making digital music and go back to records.

I would be glad to start up a company and I will promote sharing of the music. Share with the world I will make plenty of money, I encourage sharing if it was my label. People will buy from me because they want to make more music, get my point!

[ofmyony]

correction on final sentence.
People will buy from me because they want my company to make more more music, get the point!

[enovikoff]

The "musicians making and distributing their own music" is a nice blue-sky fantasy if you assume that all people are interested in listening to is music that will be written and performed in the future. For those of you top-40 junkies, this may be the case, since last month's top songs are already in the dustheap of history. But most people associate music with the history of their lives, and want to listen to music they have heard before. This music is owned by the RIAA labels, and they're holding the world hostage with it. Essentially the RIAA's approach is "Give us all your money, or we'll take away your life history in sound." The internet radio debacle is just another part of this same strategy. This is why Pandora won't survive unless the royalty rates drop: they need to have a demonstratable income stream, and music that will be created in the future isn't it.

To twotall610: it's not the strong who will survive this attack on our personal histories, it's the *unattached* If you can't live without your music, they've got you by the short hairs

To ofmyony: If you try to start up a company now that promotes sharing of music, it will go bankrupt, as so many have and are. Until the laws have changed or the RIAA is gone, investors won't invest in your music sharing company, so unless you're a bazillionaire... no company. There are artists who want an audience, and audiences who want what the artists produce, but the RIAA stands between them and prevents the market from happening.

[enovikoff]

BTW, I called as well, after the deadline but they hadn't voted yet. Best of luck to you Tim, and to Pandora.

[enovikoff]

BTW, I called as well, after the deadline but they hadn't voted yet. Best of luck to you Tim, and to Pandora.

[enovikoff]

The "musicians making and distributing their own music" is a nice blue-sky fantasy if you assume that all people are interested in listening to is music that will be written and performed in the future. For those of you top-40 junkies, this may be the case, since last month's top songs are already in the dustheap of history. But most people associate music with the history of their lives, and want to listen to music they have heard before. This music is owned by the RIAA labels, and they're holding the world hostage with it. Essentially the RIAA's approach is "Give us all your money, or we'll take away your life history in sound." The internet radio debacle is just another part of this same strategy. This is why Pandora won't survive unless the royalty rates drop: they need to have a demonstratable income stream, and music that will be created in the future isn't it.

To twotall610: it's not the strong who will survive this attack on our personal histories, it's the *unattached* If you can't live without your music, they've got you by the short hairs

To ofmyony: If you try to start up a company now that promotes sharing of music, it will go bankrupt, as so many have and are. Until the laws have changed or the RIAA is gone, investors won't invest in your music sharing company, so unless you're a bazillionaire... no company. There are artists who want an audience, and audiences who want what the artists produce, but the RIAA stands between them and prevents the market from happening.