The music industry should pay Pandora...
I can't help thinking the record company representatives are shooting themselves in the foot here. Lke some of the other posters here, I am one of the decreasingly few people who actually pay for the music they listen to. Thanks to Pandora, I have spent more on music in the past 6 weeks than I had spent in the past 2 years. I have at last been able to find music I actually like and had never heard of. From my perspective, the Music Genome project's music selection process is far more accurate than any other method I have tried and I certainly have no wish to listen to music that I don't like on the off chance I spot something that is worth listening to.
I use Pandora as a method of finding music that I want to buy, not as a traditional radio that drones on in the background, very rarely playing something I like. From my perspective, I think the record companies should be embracing Pandora and realise that it is selling their music and making them money, not denying them a minimal income stream. Just because I cannot buy music through the US based Pandora interface, doesn't mean I do not then go to iTunes or Amazon in the UK and order it there. I don't know how you can say that Pandora isn't selling music since that would be very hard/impossible to trace once a user leaves the Pandora site - you just don't know and there are quite a few people here prepared to state the contrary.
I really hope someone from the UK music publishing industry reads the responses to this article and reconsiders their position. Pandora has led me to spend hundreds of pounds on music I would never have known about and for artists who are unknown in the mainstream music business. This industry seems to aim at one hit wonders and an audience of teenagers - precisely the sort of people who don't have much cash, aren't keen on spending it on music and look for 'other ways' to get the music they want.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
