Congress to vote on the future of Pandora this morning
At 11 am Eastern Standard Time this morning congress is scheduled to vote on a bill that, if defeated, will represent a major nail in Pandora’s coffin. In fact it’s not just Pandora, we’re talking about legitimate internet radio in general. The major opposition? Why it’s none other than the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)! Surprise, surprise. The bill in question is H.R. 7084 (Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008); merely a procedural bill that would give Pandora, SoundExchange and the RIAA more time to come to a new agreement with regards to revising the royalty program currently in place. You know, the one that’s killing internet radio. From Pandora Founder Tim Westergren:
We were just starting to feel optimistic about getting close to a settlement. H.R. 7084 is a procedural bill that would extend the negotiation period and give us all the time we need.
The thing that’s so crass is that this bill is beneficial to broadcasters, it just gives us more time to reduce Webcasting fees. They [the NAB] know we’re running out of time and if they can kill the bill they can kill Internet radio.
It’s amazing how terrified the NAB has become of progress. This issue of course is that collectively, they know they have a terrible product. Does anyone listen to terrestrial radio anymore? For years the ratio of advertising to music has been a sick joke on popular stations. With the increasing popularity of Satellite radio and portable audio player-friendly inputs in car stereos we would hope everyone is on the road to moving beyond the dinosaur that is terrestrial radio. After all, you wouldn’t ride a donkey to get to work or use a handful of leaves to… Well, you know.
The House vote on H.R. 7084 is at 11:00 am EST this morning. If passed, it will go before the Senate on Monday. If you’re tired of cleaning yourself with leaves, give Congress a ring (202-225-3121) and tell your representative you support H.R. 7084.
Totally agree with your position. Have equal hatred for the NAB, the RIAA, MPAA, all those organizations that pretend to be “protecting the consumer” but are really just protecting their own existance and cash-flow (and actually, I feel the same way about labor unions, but that’s neither here nor there). And I will be calling my senator.
I’m not sure just how “dead” terrestrial radio is, though. Yeah, in our little techie world, with Pandora, Sirius/XM, iTunes, and what have you, that might be the case, but I suspect for the general US population those media are a drop in the bucket compared to terrestrial radio. Maybe not a drop in the bucket, but still definitely in the minority. I don’t disagree that it’s on the way out, at least in it’s current form (sort of like broadcast TV), but I think there’s still a ways to go. Which goes exactly to my point that the NAB et al. are purely looking to scrape every dime they can out of the system. If they were really “protecting consumers” they would allow these much smaller markets to co-exist, and relish the free market competition. But no.
I doubt it will pass, the lobbyists of the NAB will get it killed. I hope that the situation changes as I’m a big fan of Pandora. Good Post zach, does;t always have to be shiny new toys.
I hope it passes howerer calling Harry mitchell would do no goo he’s in the tank with Nanny state Poloci
dont they have bigger things to worry about like idk… OUR FAILING ECONOMY AND THE MORTGAGE CRISIS
just a suggestion…
While I agree the economy is a more pressing issue, this beats things like the steroids investigations.
we wouldn’t have to call during the economic crisis if NAB hadn’t tried to kill it on friday. with over 300 congresspeople running for re-election, it’s ok to tell them what we want them to do, even in the midst of economic crisis. The ripple effect into the music industry if NAB wins overall will also effect the new music economy in a negative way and spill over into the way music is consumed in the united states as well as the way artists in america make a living overall.
LOL
SwissFreek said it well. The general population (read: not us tech-nerds) still not only listens to “dinosaur” radio, but relies on it.
235 million people a week tune into terrestrial radio. Both satellite services COMBINED are in the neighborhood of 15-17 million. And most of satellite’s numbers are inflated thanks to free 1-year subscriptions that end up getting cancelled when that year is up.
Does it have a long way to go before it’s out of the proverbial doghouse? Definitely. But it’s not going away. Ask Houston or Galveston how many of their iPods or Sat services were useful when Ike hit.
wait having the curent music industry tank as it is can actually be a good thing LOL
Good luck with your campaign. I’m a passing Brit and we’ve been denied access to Pandora recently. It introduced me to a great many musicians I had not heard before. I bought the bands’ CDs and promoted their work – so it does a good job for the musicians. Even created a radio station linked from the site – but I cannot listen to it myself.
Pandora (while its poor design that makes its page look ugly when you block adds) is a great site and one of the first internet radio stations I’ve listened to. Good luck to them.
I have contacted both my Senators and am against this bill. I feel it fails the reasonable person test. Why should internet pay nearly double that of any broadcast in the nation. However, although I will continue to vote and fight …. I think the corporations own America right now … make me sad…
B!
whoops…….. not aginst…… I am for this Bill. sorry.. writing to many posts late at night..
Hey NAB,
If you are reading this..spend this lobbying $$ on making more of your stations mobile web friendly or ink out some sweet contracts with the wireless providers. Maybe you heard of a little something called 3G & 4G…it makes things go fast over a wireless network.
…now let’s see if all their high tech studio equipment can pick up the sound of the rusty gears turning in their heads..
Why can’t a tech blog just talk about tech and not get political? Seriously… what’s the point anyway? We get it. You hate the NAB and you think radio is dead. What does that have to do with boygeniusreport.com anyway?
For the record… the dead, dinosaur that you referred to reaches 95% of American consumers each week. Oh, and ask anyone most directly impacted by our recent hurricanes what media they turned to in the midst of disaster. It wasn’t satellite radio, that’s for sure.
All in all, not bad for a dead dinosaur.
Now, can we please stick to the tech talk?