pandora

PARIS -- Licensing constraints mean that Europeans who want to try the Pandora music service had best be patient, Chief Technology Officer Tom Conrad said today.

"The reason we're not here today is because of music licensing," Conrad said here at the LeWeb 2012 show. In the United States, Pandora can use a statutory licensing provision that "allows us to do what do without having directly negotiate licenses with record labels. It's very likely in other international settings we'll have to pursue direct licensing."

Direct licensing, a difficult series of negotiations between online … Read more

It seems that every couple months, rumors heat up about Apple releasing a Pandora rival. But this time, analysts give a rough time frame of 2013 for "iRadio," which they say will be "vastly superior" to Pandora.

What could Apple's streaming-music service offer that would make it superior to any of the other services that are out there right now? Let us know in the comments!

Also this week, a Facebook rumor gets debunked in around 48 hours, and Asus might be cooking up another low-cost tablet, but we're too into watching TV to … Read more

Pandora Media, the company behind the Web's largest radio service, saw its share price drop nearly 20 percent in after-hours trading this evening.

The company's dismal forecast spooked Wall Street, which was already growing skeptical of the company's business model. Pandora shares declined 18 percent, or $1.71, to $7.74. When Pandora went public earlier this year, the company's shares changed hands at more than $16.

Pandora reported net income of just over $2 million, or a penny a share, on sales of $120 million in its fiscal third quarter, which ended Oct. 31. That … Read more

Pandora Radio is an app that provides a free audio feed that is customizable to your musical tastes. The free app provides the basic service, or you can upgrade (for $3.99 a month) to a higher-quality feed that removes all ads and has fewer interruptions. The app installs easily from iTunes.

When you start Pandora Radio for the first time, you select a favorite artist, song, or album, and Pandora Radio will start to create customized playlists with similar music. As the playlists go on, you can fine-tune the types of music you like or dislike and the feed … Read more

WASHINGTON D.C.--The technology sector is supposed to be one of the new power players in national politics. But you might be wondering what happened to its newfound political capital after watching its hapless attempts to lobby Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act (IRFA), a bill that would reduce the music royalties paid by Web radio services.

At a hearing yesterday before a House subcommittee studying IRFA, the tech world seemed to be the same amateurs in navigating Washington as they were before January's triumph over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Pandora and the other … Read more

I was probably one of the last people in our great land who regularly purchased CDs. After Spotify landed on our shores, however, I finally stopped the practice of buying them, instead relying on Spotify and Pandora for my listening pleasure. I enjoy both services, and now with a Chrome extension called Pandora to Spotify Playlist Converter, I can get the two talking to one another, to a degree.

The conversation is one-sided. That is, the extension helps you move tracks from Pandora to Spotify. Specifically, it lets you copy links for tracks you've liked on Pandora and paste … Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Two representatives from the technology sector told Congress today that distributing music online is a losing business and that's due to the high cost of music.

A House subcommittee is holding a hearing this morning on the Internet Radio Fairness Act, a bill that would reduce the royalties Web radio services, such as Pandora, must pay for music. One of the six witnesses who testified was David Pakman, the former CEO of Web music service eMusic, who is now a partner at Venrock, the venture arm of the Rockefeller family.

The music industry, which opposes the legislation, … Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Five songwriters responsible for well-known hit songs wanted members of Congress to consider this question: What would Internet radio be without the artists and songwriters who create the music played by these services?

The writers: Lee Thomas Miller, BC Jean, Kara DioGuardi, Desmond Child and Linda Perry, performed their songs, all made famous by others, such as Bon Jovi, Beyonce, and Christina Aguilera, on Capitol Hill today. The performance was held an hour before a House subcommittee was scheduled to hear testimony about a proposed bill that would cut the music royalties Pandora and other Web radio … Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C.--It doesn't take a sophisticated algorithm to know that Pandora's pitch for a new music royalty rate has been a dud.

Pandora says Web radio services pay too much in music royalties and is backing the Internet Radio Fairness Act. If passed, this federal legislation would reduce the rate these streaming services would pay. Pandora gets another chance tomorrow to convince the public and lawmakers of the bill's necessity during a hearing before the U.S. House subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet.

The music industry, which will also send representatives to … Read more