Support Our Site
Get Better Gear!
- Madden NFL 10: The Grizzled Veteran from Electronic Arts, US$9.99
- NFL 2010: Rookie of the Year from Gameloft, US$2.99
- UNIEA Intrecciato, U-Pouch and U-Hip Pop iPhone Cases from UNIEA, $34.95, $22.95, $29.95
- Kensington Windshield/Vent Car Mount with Sound Amplified Cradle for iPhone from Kensington, $39.99
- SigFx Energy iPhone Case Contains Smart Battery from SigFx Energy, US$69.95
Premier Sponsors
Top 5 Free Apps
iTunes New Music Releases
Top 5 Paid Apps
Discover New Music
An Evening with George Shearing & Mel Torm�
- Mel Torm� & George Shearing
- Of the three men who taught me how to sing, the last was Mel Torme. Apparently, Mel Torme is a joke to anyone more than a decade older than me, a living parody of a Vegas crooner. But I stumbled on th
- Brian Eno
- In his first proper solo release since 1996's relatively cold "The Drop," Brian Eno has constructed a whimsical and ecclectic masterpiece which is arguably one of the year's strongest records thus fa
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- The Strokes
The Strokes set the music world on fire with this 2001 album, with headlines declaring that the New York band was here to save Rock and Roll. While the band hasn't made as much of a splash since t
- U2
- This record is perhaps U2's finest hour, yet it has been forgotten as a strange by-product of the ZooTV tour's overload, and is generally regarded by most fans as a poor effort. It is this sentiment t
Reader Specials
Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!
News
Pandora Radio on Brink of Collapse
Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 4:00 PM - by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Pandora radio has been very popular on the Web and the Pandora player is very popular on the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch. However, royalty fees, approved by the federal government, may put Pandora out of business soon, according to the Washington Post on Monday.
"We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision," said Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora. "This is like a last stand for webcasting."
Rep. Howard Berman (D - Calif.) is trying to broker a last minute deal with SoundExchange, the representative of the RIAA that collects royalty payments. However, Rep. Berman is frustrated, and the two sides are very far apart.
Pandora’s royalty fees amount to 70 percent of its US$25M annual revenue.
"We’re losing money as it is," said Mr. Westergren. "The moment we think this problem in Washington is not going to get solved, we have to pull the plug because all we’re doing is wasting money."
Steve Jobs at one time said that it’s very hard to make money selling music. Apple uses near break-even music sales to support its hardware sales, the iPod. Even so, there has been a seemingly endless succession of companies that insist they can make good money selling only music on the Internet, only to have their business model collapse. Pandora may be about to become yet another one - no thanks to onerous royalty fees that have been imposed.
Recent Headlines
- EA Publishes Original Monopoly for iPhone
- New iPhone Games: Secret of the Lost Cavern Ep 1, New DJ Nights, More
- Musée du Louvre, Art Lite, SketchBook Mobile X and More.
- GelaSkins Intros Tim Burton, Bettie Page, WETA iPhone Skins
- iPhone Gets the Green Light in South Korea
- Qualcomm Hopes to Get In On the iPhone Action
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Lands at App Store
Post Your Comments