Apple's Pandora-Killer Delayed Over Song Licensing Negotiations

[charlituna]

If Apple wants to create another internet radio like Pandora, it doesn't need to negotiate with Sony or Universal or Warner Music or anybody. Just pay the statutory rate that was set up by Congress.

That only deals with pricing rates. It doesn't give permission to stream.

And according to rumors this would be more a Spotify service as they already have streaming radio stations in iTunes on computer (so that is a been there doing that).

Oh and Pandora is at least partially on demand.

 

[Bezetos]

Where do you live? It's available here in NZ and we're usually one of the last to get these things!

"To comply with the requirements and protections offered by the DMCA, Pandora only serves users in the United States, New Zealand and Australia."

 

[numlock]

is there no limit to the innovations at this company?

the very company that accused google of going in to their business (smartphones) watches from the sidelines while other companies enjoy some success with smaller tablets and pandora/spotify etc and then jumps in on the movement.

Consumers have spoken. They don't want Macs anymore. It's all about the iOS devices.

i dont know if you are being sarcastic or not but you make a worthwhile point anyway. how have they spoken? have they been given a choice with updates worth spending money on?

 

[kaielement]

I think this would be a great thing if Apple could pull it off or they could just buy Pandora and put links to iTunes for all the songs it plays lol.....

 

[avaloncourt]

I was actually hoping the streaming service would move along and make progress. I just switched back to the iPhone with the latest release. My last iPhone was a 3G. I've been using an Android phone in the meantime and was eagerly awaiting dumping it. (Short version - wife broke her iPhone out of contract and we were on AT&T. I was not going to get another iPhone from AT&T and Verizon had just got it in the middle of antennagate.)

One of my favorite things about iOS devices and iTunes is Genius playlists. I hate trying to figure out playlists myself and I don't want to listen to full albums of one artist. I find the Genius mixes for me are excellent blends of my library (about 7000 songs) for my taste.

I saw the likelihood that the streaming service would be like Genius-on-steroids. Rather than just my 7000 songs, I would get millions for the service to select from.

I've found Pandora tends to repeat itself after a while or gets stuck on an artist and won't get off. For example, I have one 'station' that will eventually decide to suddenly become the all-Phil-Collins-all-the-time station. I have no idea why since the root song is The Tubes - She's a Beauty. It will play a few various songs and then suddenly switch to constant Phil Collins songs. Sometimes Pandora just simply loses its mind and go off from a rock-based root song and suddenly start playing all twangy blugrass stuff. I have no idea why and I hate country but apparently Pandora decides that it has both kinds of music... country and western.

I came back into the iPhone fold to get my Genius music back. I hope the service makes progress.

 

[moderngamenewb]

please fix iTunes Match first! having no cover art on half my songs is pushing my OCD limit

and there's no way to download individual songs on iTunes match, and no way to delete them after listening to them unless you turn off iTunes Match

 

[iChrist]

.
I doubt it will be as good as Ping. That was so good.

 

[Nermal]

"To comply with the requirements and protections offered by the DMCA, Pandora only serves users in the United States, New Zealand and Australia."

Huh. I'm shocked!

 

[Joesmith13245]

Just give me a subscription based music service(like Rhapsody) and I'll gladly fork over the $$.

 

[optophobia]

I think this would be a great thing if Apple could pull it off or they could just buy Pandora and put links to iTunes for all the songs it plays lol.....

Pandora already has itunes links

 

[DakotaGuy]

Why don't they just buy out Pandora? That might be the easiest solution.

 

[deadkennedy]

Google Map Killer worked out pretty well. Let's hope Apple bans that crap Pandora from the app store ASAP.

 

[kaielement]

Pandora already has itunes links

Your right I was thinking more of like integration. like with genius and could track play counts like LastFm. I would use LastFm but it's not free for the mobile app.

 

[foiden]

Not sure why Apple would even bother to go this route. Pandora works well enough, and it actually generates revenue for Apple by the way they easily allow you to jump right in and buy songs and/or albums from iTunes. This is a place where I think Apple could trim operating costs (and other costs) and just gain the benefit of Pandora doing the footwork for them.

 

[satcomer]

Pandora + PandaBar integrated to my OS. Free and no ads. Don't really need much more than that. But thanks Apple.

Image

IMHO the best Pandora App on the MacApp Market bar none!

 

[brock2621]

Well, I just went and re-upped my Pandora contract for another year... Oh well, my whole family enjoys my pandora account

 

[EbookReader]

That only deals with pricing rates. It doesn't give permission to stream.
.

Wrong.

If you pay the Congress mandated statutory rate of $0.0011 per song stream, you don't need to license with the music labels/publishers for ONLINE RADIO.


See this old article:

http://textpattern.kurthanson.com/a...et-radio-right-to-stream-beatles-from-day-one

Yesterday Apple brought the Beatles’ discography to the iTunes Store after years of delay. And yet, Internet radio services — from AccuRadio to Pandora to AOL Radio — have been playing The Beatles music for years. Why? What allows the latter services to stream the Fab Four without worry, while iTunes has to spend years negotiating?

The answer, writes industry attorney David Oxenford, is found in Internet radio’s statutory license. That license for non-interactive services “requires the copyright holder to make available its sound recordings to non-interactive services, in exchange for the service agreeing to pay a statutory royalty – the royalty now set by the Copyright Royalty Board.”

If Apple wants to make a Pandora-like service, it can do it easily and without any license.

So can Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Nokia etc..

but it's only for internet radio (non-interactive services).

----------

"To comply with the requirements and protections offered by the DMCA, Pandora only serves users in the United States, New Zealand and Australia."

LOL. It's from wikipedia and flat out wrong. Pandora can have internet radio in any country it wants if it can get a license (if that country doesn't have statutory rates). DMCA has nothing to do with it.

In the USA, it doesn't need a license because internet radio is governed by the statutory rates set by Congress.

That's how iheartradio, AccuRadio, Pandora, AOL Radio, Spotify Radio, Mog Radio operates.
That's how an internet radio station run by a guy in his garage operates.
I can set up something very similar to Pandora tomorrow and it will all be legit as long as I pay the statutory rate.

Now, if Apple wants something in between Spotify and Pandora, it will need a license because it won't be a none-interactive service as defined by Congress. But to do something like Pandora, Apple doesn't need anyone permission because Congress has given anyone permission as long as they pay the $0.0011 rate. ($1.1 royalties for every 1000 song streamed).

 

[EbookReader]

Look like Microsoft is taking on Spotify/Rhapsody/Muve Music with XBOX Music.

Can Apple/Amazon/Google be far behind before they launch their own version of Spotify?

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/indu...esses-play-on-new-xbox-music-1007979472.story

Microsoft is taking on Spotify -- as well as the rest of the streaming music market.

The technology giant on Monday is taking the wraps off of its rebranded digital music service, now called Xbox Music, that promises an all-in-one music experience. It wraps together free, on-demand music streaming, a scan-and-match feature, a download store and artist radio stations.

Microsoft, which spent a year building Xbox Music from the ground up, says the new service is more than a reskinned version of its previous Zune Music offering. The biggest difference is the free on-demand service, which lets users select from a catalog of about 30 million songs. Similar to Spotify, the free tier will be supported by advertising.

A premium version, for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, lets subscribers get rid of ads and be able to cache music to listen to when there is no Internet connection. The paid tier also allows users to listen on Xbox 360 game consoles via its Xbox Live online service and on mobile devices running Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system.

 

[badcrumble]

I suspect that this will be built into iTunes 11 and iOS 6.1 (both of which are likely coming very soon).

 

[Sardonick007]

That's why I upgraded out-of-contract.

Thought about it, just wasn't worth it to me, but good point. I hope you drain the nazis dry with their silly limitations.

 

[Ryan John]

I certainly enjoy Spotify. I'm sure Apple, with a much larger catalog, can offer a better service.

Larger than Spotify? What size of catalogue are we talking here? At last count Spotify was put at 15 million songs, I find it very hard to believe there is a bigger library in existence.

 

[Technarchy]

Larger than Spotify? What size of catalogue are we talking here? At last count Spotify was put at 15 million songs, I find it very hard to believe there is a bigger library in existence.

iTunes has 28 million songs.