End nears for web broadcaster


End nears for web broadcaster

Pandora and its 1m plus listeners on the verge of being nickeled and dimed to death...

Washington Post reports that Pandora, an internet broadcaster with 1-million daily listeners (said to be growing by 40,000 new customers a day), is on the verge shutting down in the face of egregious royalties charged by the record labels.

"We're approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision," said Tim Westergren, founder, Pandora. "This is like a last stand for webcasting."

Pandora says royalty fees this year will devour 70 percent of its projected revenue of $25 million.

Last year, the US Copyright Office ordered a doubling of the per-song "performance" royalty that Web radio stations pay to record companies. Over-the-air radio, by contrast, pays no such fee. Satellite radio operators XM and Sirus pay fee but at a less onerous rate.

Pandora for iPhone, which is available at no cost, is among the Top 10 most popular applications for the hot-selling handset.

Editor's note: Write your Congressman and Download, Play, Burn MP3s! No DRM. No Restrictions. No Worries.