How long can Pandora continue to get it wrong?

On Pandora.com’s blog as at 4 October 2007:

Dear Global Pandorans -

It’s been a few (painful) months since we had to begin blocking listeners outside the US. Many of you have been writing in for updates, so we thought it would be useful to post the latest news. Sorry for not having done so sooner. Sadly, our posting that “we are working hard on international licensing” remains the same.

We have been working intensively on bringing Pandora to the UK first and we were hopeful of doing so. The situation with regards to licensing took a bad turn a couple months ago with the issuance of a publishing rate in the UK which leaves total sound recording royalties and publishing royalties substantially out of whack with the realities of ad-supported webcasting/internet radio economics. So we’re back in the trenches trying to find an answer, working with the recording and publishing industries, that works for everyone. This has been an intense period of education and negotiation and it continues unabated.

As it stands now, there is still no affordable license for a webcaster to stream legally (ie. abiding by all standing copyright law and properly compensating performers and composers) anywhere outside the US, (actually, make that within the US too as we’re trying to work through a whole other mess here as well!) Paul (our Managing Director of Pandora Int’l) is working full time on the international business out of London.

We continue to be cautiously optimistic that a reasonable answer will be reached – largely because it would be so counter-productive for everyone not to do so. But we remain unable to make any solid predictions about timing – history has taught us that’s a fool’s errand.

You can trust that this remains at least as frustrating for us as it is for you.

Keep the faith…

Tim (Founder)

Can it really be true? Can they really have launched an entire service without really figuring out their contractual obligations? First by having problems with global users, and now with their existing setup? If this were a publicly quoted company there are so many phrases in this innocent blog posting that would give me cause for concern: a few painful months; situation took a bad turn; no affordable license; whole other mess; unable to make any solid predictions. It doesn’t sound good.

My take on it is that, in ‘blocking’ non-US residents, they screwed up bigtime and will never be able to recover (and I’ve said this before). How do you block non-US residents from an online service? In a similar act of naivety their answer is, only accept US zipcodes. So just find any US zipcode and use that. How can they prove you don’t live at the White House? Along with the (presumably) thousands of other people who cohabit with you at the seat of US democracy, or indeed at the Pentagon, or Beverley Hills 90210 for that matter.

It seems they cannot figure out a way to make online streaming radio pay. If so, how can Last.FM manage this? My hunch is that Last.FM didn’t totally screw up their marketing information so they’re sitting on a gold mine of information they can sell on, allowing them to overcome prohibitive licensing fees.

I hope Pandora make it, I really do. I prefer it to Last.FM. But I fear Last.FM may have done the right thing, and Pandora have not.

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How long can Pandora continue to get it wrong?

On Pandora.com’s blog as at 4 October 2007:

Dear Global Pandorans -

It’s been a few (painful) months since we had to begin blocking listeners outside the US. Many of you have been writing in for updates, so we thought it would be useful to post the latest news. Sorry for not having done so sooner. Sadly, our posting that “we are working hard on international licensing” remains the same.

We have been working intensively on bringing Pandora to the UK first and we were hopeful of doing so. The situation with regards to licensing took a bad turn a couple months ago with the issuance of a publishing rate in the UK which leaves total sound recording royalties and publishing royalties substantially out of whack with the realities of ad-supported webcasting/internet radio economics. So we’re back in the trenches trying to find an answer, working with the recording and publishing industries, that works for everyone. This has been an intense period of education and negotiation and it continues unabated.

As it stands now, there is still no affordable license for a webcaster to stream legally (ie. abiding by all standing copyright law and properly compensating performers and composers) anywhere outside the US, (actually, make that within the US too as we’re trying to work through a whole other mess here as well!) Paul (our Managing Director of Pandora Int’l) is working full time on the international business out of London.

We continue to be cautiously optimistic that a reasonable answer will be reached – largely because it would be so counter-productive for everyone not to do so. But we remain unable to make any solid predictions about timing – history has taught us that’s a fool’s errand.

You can trust that this remains at least as frustrating for us as it is for you.

Keep the faith…

Tim (Founder)

Can it really be true? Can they really have launched an entire service without really figuring out their contractual obligations? First by having problems with global users, and now with their existing setup? If this were a publicly quoted company there are so many phrases in this innocent blog posting that would give me cause for concern: a few painful months; situation took a bad turn; no affordable license; whole other mess; unable to make any solid predictions. It doesn’t sound good.

My take on it is that, in ‘blocking’ non-US residents, they screwed up bigtime and will never be able to recover (and I’ve said this before). How do you block non-US residents from an online service? In a similar act of naivety their answer is, only accept US zipcodes. So just find any US zipcode and use that. How can they prove you don’t live at the White House? Along with the (presumably) thousands of other people who cohabit with you at the seat of US democracy, or indeed at the Pentagon, or Beverley Hills 90210 for that matter.

It seems they cannot figure out a way to make online streaming radio pay. If so, how can Last.FM manage this? My hunch is that Last.FM didn’t totally screw up their marketing information so they’re sitting on a gold mine of information they can sell on, allowing them to overcome prohibitive licensing fees.

I hope Pandora make it, I really do. I prefer it to Last.FM. But I fear Last.FM may have done the right thing, and Pandora have not.

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How long can Pandora continue to get it wrong?

On Pandora.com’s blog as at 4 October 2007:

Dear Global Pandorans -

It’s been a few (painful) months since we had to begin blocking listeners outside the US. Many of you have been writing in for updates, so we thought it would be useful to post the latest news. Sorry for not having done so sooner. Sadly, our posting that “we are working hard on international licensing” remains the same.

We have been working intensively on bringing Pandora to the UK first and we were hopeful of doing so. The situation with regards to licensing took a bad turn a couple months ago with the issuance of a publishing rate in the UK which leaves total sound recording royalties and publishing royalties substantially out of whack with the realities of ad-supported webcasting/internet radio economics. So we’re back in the trenches trying to find an answer, working with the recording and publishing industries, that works for everyone. This has been an intense period of education and negotiation and it continues unabated.

As it stands now, there is still no affordable license for a webcaster to stream legally (ie. abiding by all standing copyright law and properly compensating performers and composers) anywhere outside the US, (actually, make that within the US too as we’re trying to work through a whole other mess here as well!) Paul (our Managing Director of Pandora Int’l) is working full time on the international business out of London.

We continue to be cautiously optimistic that a reasonable answer will be reached – largely because it would be so counter-productive for everyone not to do so. But we remain unable to make any solid predictions about timing – history has taught us that’s a fool’s errand.

You can trust that this remains at least as frustrating for us as it is for you.

Keep the faith…

Tim (Founder)

Can it really be true? Can they really have launched an entire service without really figuring out their contractual obligations? First by having problems with global users, and now with their existing setup? If this were a publicly quoted company there are so many phrases in this innocent blog posting that would give me cause for concern: a few painful months; situation took a bad turn; no affordable license; whole other mess; unable to make any solid predictions. It doesn’t sound good.

My take on it is that, in ‘blocking’ non-US residents, they screwed up bigtime and will never be able to recover (and I’ve said this before). How do you block non-US residents from an online service? In a similar act of naivety their answer is, only accept US zipcodes. So just find any US zipcode and use that. How can they prove you don’t live at the White House? Along with the (presumably) thousands of other people who cohabit with you at the seat of US democracy, or indeed at the Pentagon, or Beverley Hills 90210 for that matter.

It seems they cannot figure out a way to make online streaming radio pay. If so, how can Last.FM manage this? My hunch is that Last.FM didn’t totally screw up their marketing information so they’re sitting on a gold mine of information they can sell on, allowing them to overcome prohibitive licensing fees.

I hope Pandora make it, I really do. I prefer it to Last.FM. But I fear Last.FM may have done the right thing, and Pandora have not.

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The blogosphere is leaking into the real world

From a policeman blogging anonymously about the privations of bureaucracy we get a Panorama edition; and from the (fictional?) accounts of a prostitute, we get a TV drama.

First, the blogging bobby: Stuart Davidson has been revealed as the blogger behind The Policeman’s blog. In it, he described how forces spent inordinate amounts of time with paperwork, to the extent that they were reluctant to carry out certain arrests given the prospect of filling in a 27B/6. Tonight there is a Panorama programme on BBC1 profiling Davidson’s reality of modern-day policing.

Meanwhile, Billie Piper is to play Belle de Jour, based on the blog (and consequent book) of the same name (reported wittily under the title ‘Billie du Jour’ on thestage). Today’s entry on the blog itself? I would rather be pissed than give a blow job.

Is this laziness on the part of commissioning editors, or acknowledgement of the role online can play in the offline world? I would like to think that the more considered opinions of Panorama editorial teams and ITV script-writers will shed more light on these issues, but I fear they will simply choose the blog-lines they consider newsworthy or, heaven forfend, titillating – several months too late.

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The blogosphere is leaking into the real world

From a policeman blogging anonymously about the privations of bureaucracy we get a Panorama edition; and from the (fictional?) accounts of a prostitute, we get a TV drama.

First, the blogging bobby: Stuart Davidson has been revealed as the blogger behind The Policeman’s blog. In it, he described how forces spent inordinate amounts of time with paperwork, to the extent that they were reluctant to carry out certain arrests given the prospect of filling in a 27B/6. Tonight there is a Panorama programme on BBC1 profiling Davidson’s reality of modern-day policing.

Meanwhile, Billie Piper is to play Belle de Jour, based on the blog (and consequent book) of the same name (reported wittily under the title ‘Billie du Jour’ on thestage). Today’s entry on the blog itself? I would rather be pissed than give a blow job.

Is this laziness on the part of commissioning editors, or acknowledgement of the role online can play in the offline world? I would like to think that the more considered opinions of Panorama editorial teams and ITV script-writers will shed more light on these issues, but I fear they will simply choose the blog-lines they consider newsworthy or, heaven forfend, titillating – several months too late.

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Diana: no wonder people are confused

I work close enough to Kensington Palace Gardens to walk around them occasionally at lunchtime. It’s a post-prandial palliative for the pressured world of PR.

Today, however, it was quite surreal, more so than usual (it gets surreal occasionally when you are dive-bombed by Canada geese or see terrapins floating around in the pond). Today, it was full of people bemoaning the loss, ten years ago to the day, of Diana.

There wasn’t actually weeping and wailing or gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair, but it was quite strange. It was almost like walking into a stage set, with media everywhere (the nice man from London news was there but he didn’t say hello), someone playing Candle in the Wind on a stereo, phalanxes of photos, people picknicking. All you needed was Elton John to materialise from thin air and the suspension of disbelief would be complete.

Stepping into this parallel universe it occured to me that really, that was the Diana phenomenon. It was the closest people got to ‘real fairytale.’ Diana was real, she was really a princess, she had real children, you can really see where she really lived, and died. She also appeared on the telly a lot.

This crossover between real and fantasy was, today, for me, a crossover between real and media. Which are essentially the same thing in a lot of people’s minds. Remember how strange it was to see Larry Hagman interviewed on Wogan while at the height of the evil incarnate that was JR, around the early 80s? And apparently John Altman has been abused in the street during his stints as Nasty Nick on Eastenders.

It seems to me that as entertainment swallows reality, so news programmes adopt the entertainment clothing (or lack thereof - what could be more entertaining than Emily Maitlis’s legs). No wonder people are confused. After becoming hooked on the Spencer Soap (think Dallas/ Dynasty/ Eastenders/ Coronation Street rolled into one, mixed to a dropping consistency and baked for 3 years at 700 degrees fahrenheit) they’re still bereft. They still want that elusive yet strong fix of realityfantasy. And today, in Kensington Palace Gardens, they were able, tantalisingly, to step back into that media-created fairytale.

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Diana: no wonder people are confused

I work close enough to Kensington Palace Gardens to walk around them occasionally at lunchtime. It’s a post-prandial palliative for the pressured world of PR.

Today, however, it was quite surreal, more so than usual (it gets surreal occasionally when you are dive-bombed by Canada geese or see terrapins floating around in the pond). Today, it was full of people bemoaning the loss, ten years ago to the day, of Diana.

There wasn’t actually weeping and wailing or gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair, but it was quite strange. It was almost like walking into a stage set, with media everywhere (the nice man from London news was there but he didn’t say hello), someone playing Candle in the Wind on a stereo, phalanxes of photos, people picknicking. All you needed was Elton John to materialise from thin air and the suspension of disbelief would be complete.

Stepping into this parallel universe it occured to me that really, that was the Diana phenomenon. It was the closest people got to ‘real fairytale.’ Diana was real, she was really a princess, she had real children, you can really see where she really lived, and died. She also appeared on the telly a lot.

This crossover between real and fantasy was, today, for me, a crossover between real and media. Which are essentially the same thing in a lot of people’s minds. Remember how strange it was to see Larry Hagman interviewed on Wogan while at the height of the evil incarnate that was JR, around the early 80s? And apparently John Altman has been abused in the street during his stints as Nasty Nick on Eastenders.

It seems to me that as entertainment swallows reality, so news programmes adopt the entertainment clothing (or lack thereof - what could be more entertaining than Emily Maitlis’s legs). No wonder people are confused. After becoming hooked on the Spencer Soap (think Dallas/ Dynasty/ Eastenders/ Coronation Street rolled into one, mixed to a dropping consistency and baked for 3 years at 700 degrees fahrenheit) they’re still bereft. They still want that elusive yet strong fix of realityfantasy. And today, in Kensington Palace Gardens, they were able, tantalisingly, to step back into that media-created fairytale.

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It’s all about the data, stupid: Last.fm wins, Pandora loses

Today I read in the Guardian about Last.FM being adopted by Music Week to provide the publication’s first online-based chart. As the piece astutely says: “it’s the data generated by the site’s 20 million enthusiasts that is priceless.”

I’m typing this while listening to Pandora, the alternative to Last.fm which I found out about through Seamus McCauley at Virtual Economics. It is a truly wonderful idea. By identifying a set of musical parameters for each song, Pandora can then match any music to any other music by how ’similar’ they are. So, for example, if you want to listen to music that is ‘like’ Beck, you set up a station for Beck and Pandora comes up with similar material, in my case specifically Cracker and Modest House. I have no idea who these bands are but they sound great.

Pandora is the result of the Music Genome project, the exercise of which - identifying musical properties –  is neatly referred to as the music’s ‘DNA’. By building up a playlist in Pandora you are essentially matching music DNA to your own DNA. One project I recently set up at my company is a company-wide Pandora music station. Anyone from the company can log on and add their preferences. In this way we end up with the company’s music DNA, we get to listen to some half-decent music (no more Gwen Stefani),  and some people learn a bit about new media to boot. Everyone wins.

In one respect Pandora is beautifully elegant. It approaches ’social radio’ through the music and is almost uncanny in the way it brings up musical suggestions similar to those friends’ compilations made on chrome tapes in the 80s (yes, I am that old). In another, however, it is ugly. It relies on musically astute contributors to identify musical DNA in what I would describe as an extended exercise in folksonomy. So whereas you just kick-start Last.fm and let it chug away with its Amazon-like referential algorithms, Pandora will always involve considerable manual effort.

But where Pandora has really missed the trick is in its marketing data. Get this: its license only allows ‘broadcast’ in the US. Yes, you read that right. Pandora is only available to north Americans. And if a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his ass when he hopped.

So I imagine the Pandora marketing database is, to put it mildly, totally screwed. I daresay they have a fair proportion of subscribers based at the White House zipcode (20500), the Pentagon (20301) or even Beverley Hills 90210. I certainly cannot imagine how their potentially ‘priceless’ marketing data is worth a dime. Or a Euro, come to that. How sad.

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It’s all about the data, stupid: Last.fm wins, Pandora loses

Today I read in the Guardian about Last.FM being adopted by Music Week to provide the publication’s first online-based chart. As the piece astutely says: “it’s the data generated by the site’s 20 million enthusiasts that is priceless.”

I’m typing this while listening to Pandora, the alternative to Last.fm which I found out about through Seamus McCauley at Virtual Economics. It is a truly wonderful idea. By identifying a set of musical parameters for each song, Pandora can then match any music to any other music by how ’similar’ they are. So, for example, if you want to listen to music that is ‘like’ Beck, you set up a station for Beck and Pandora comes up with similar material, in my case specifically Cracker and Modest House. I have no idea who these bands are but they sound great.

Pandora is the result of the Music Genome project, the exercise of which - identifying musical properties –  is neatly referred to as the music’s ‘DNA’. By building up a playlist in Pandora you are essentially matching music DNA to your own DNA. One project I recently set up at my company is a company-wide Pandora music station. Anyone from the company can log on and add their preferences. In this way we end up with the company’s music DNA, we get to listen to some half-decent music (no more Gwen Stefani),  and some people learn a bit about new media to boot. Everyone wins.

In one respect Pandora is beautifully elegant. It approaches ’social radio’ through the music and is almost uncanny in the way it brings up musical suggestions similar to those friends’ compilations made on chrome tapes in the 80s (yes, I am that old). In another, however, it is ugly. It relies on musically astute contributors to identify musical DNA in what I would describe as an extended exercise in folksonomy. So whereas you just kick-start Last.fm and let it chug away with its Amazon-like referential algorithms, Pandora will always involve considerable manual effort.

But where Pandora has really missed the trick is in its marketing data. Get this: its license only allows ‘broadcast’ in the US. Yes, you read that right. Pandora is only available to north Americans. And if a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his ass when he hopped.

So I imagine the Pandora marketing database is, to put it mildly, totally screwed. I daresay they have a fair proportion of subscribers based at the White House zipcode (20500), the Pentagon (20301) or even Beverley Hills 90210. I certainly cannot imagine how their potentially ‘priceless’ marketing data is worth a dime. Or a Euro, come to that. How sad.

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It’s all about the data, stupid: Last.fm wins, Pandora loses

Today I read in the Guardian about Last.FM being adopted by Music Week to provide the publication’s first online-based chart. As the piece astutely says: “it’s the data generated by the site’s 20 million enthusiasts that is priceless.”

I’m typing this while listening to Pandora, the alternative to Last.fm which I found out about through Seamus McCauley at Virtual Economics. It is a truly wonderful idea. By identifying a set of musical parameters for each song, Pandora can then match any music to any other music by how ’similar’ they are. So, for example, if you want to listen to music that is ‘like’ Beck, you set up a station for Beck and Pandora comes up with similar material, in my case specifically Cracker and Modest House. I have no idea who these bands are but they sound great.

Pandora is the result of the Music Genome project, the exercise of which - identifying musical properties –  is neatly referred to as the music’s ‘DNA’. By building up a playlist in Pandora you are essentially matching music DNA to your own DNA. One project I recently set up at my company is a company-wide Pandora music station. Anyone from the company can log on and add their preferences. In this way we end up with the company’s music DNA, we get to listen to some half-decent music (no more Gwen Stefani),  and some people learn a bit about new media to boot. Everyone wins.

In one respect Pandora is beautifully elegant. It approaches ’social radio’ through the music and is almost uncanny in the way it brings up musical suggestions similar to those friends’ compilations made on chrome tapes in the 80s (yes, I am that old). In another, however, it is ugly. It relies on musically astute contributors to identify musical DNA in what I would describe as an extended exercise in folksonomy. So whereas you just kick-start Last.fm and let it chug away with its Amazon-like referential algorithms, Pandora will always involve considerable manual effort.

But where Pandora has really missed the trick is in its marketing data. Get this: its license only allows ‘broadcast’ in the US. Yes, you read that right. Pandora is only available to north Americans. And if a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his ass when he hopped.

So I imagine the Pandora marketing database is, to put it mildly, totally screwed. I daresay they have a fair proportion of subscribers based at the White House zipcode (20500), the Pentagon (20301) or even Beverley Hills 90210. I certainly cannot imagine how their potentially ‘priceless’ marketing data is worth a dime. Or a Euro, come to that. How sad.

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