Comments on: Pandora Not Long for this World?

By: Bbo Wise

Bbo Wise — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:30:53 +0000

We pay the same statutory royalties as Pandora,
you are correct.

However, our primary business model is selling the mobile client - $4/mo or $19.95/device-lifetime. We don’t depend on ad revenue on the web the way Pandora does. With web-based revenue they have to generate huge volumes of traffic (which they do) and get paid relatively little per page view/song play.

Consequently the hike in rates doesn’t affect us the same way. Another way to look at it is Pandora makes a very small amount of money per song play - we make much more so we can absorb the rate hike easily.

The new rate hikes do make ad-based music streaming really hard to make work (as Pandora is discovering).
It’s a shame to see the music industry trying to kill off another potential revenue source for their business in this way.

-Bob

By: Chip

Chip — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:05:33 +0000

So, Bob — don’t you face the same copyright issues that Pandora has?

By: Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:41:21 +0000

alrighty, I see your connection now…i like the slider option…

thanks for your readership…i’m a relatively new writer to this little bit of the web, so Mark and Yan are probably the ones you love the most…

By: Bob Wise

Bob Wise — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:37:08 +0000

Thanks for at least a kind putdown…

On nuTsie you can listen to anyone’s itunes lists on the site, but also check out the recommendation slider on the players. If you slide it all the way to the right you get 100% recommended music - kind of like Pandora except if you’ve uploaded your playlists we start with a much better set of music to create recommendations. With Pandora you have to train it one song at a time.

Also, if you login and use the “grab it” button (kind of like thumbs up in Pandora) you get to build an “all favorites” playlist while you listen. Why don’t you give it a second go?

BTW, great blog, I’ve been a regular reader for a while.

-Bob the Friendly Dev

By: Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:59:30 +0000

I hate to put down down a friendly dev…but I don’t see very much to compare between Pandora and Nutsie…other than they play music and it can be mobile. In fact, Pandora was really created to break the mold of having to own all the music you like.

Also…I’ve got an iPhone so I carry all my music with me (and if I didn’t, I’d use Simplify Media, sorry) and I don’t really want to share my stuff….

By: Bob Wise

Bob Wise — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:55:08 +0000

Hi Jimmy - why don’t you try nutsie.com? I run the engineering team there, and we think in many ways we’ve built something way cooler than Pandora.

-Bob

By: Chip

Chip — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:56:12 +0000

I love Pandora and listen to it every day. Artists will only be hurt by shutting it down, especially lesser-known artists.

By: Balu

Balu — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:52:07 +0000

It’s closed for foreign visitors for quite a while now. Looks like they never managed to get licenses for the rest of the globe.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:20:35 +0000

I would rather see an ad ridden Pandora than no Pandora at all. It will be a sad day when/if they have to shut their doors.

By: Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:31:54 +0000

Aww, that’s sucks Kiltak

By: Kiltak

Kiltak — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:16:10 +0000

It seems that pandora is for US only traffic now..

From the site:

Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

By: R. Alexander Spoerer

R. Alexander Spoerer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:05:04 +0000

Pandora is a great service and I’ve found many a new band with their Music Genome expertise. It will be a sad day when they are forced to close only because of the lack of political clout web radio broadcasters have compared to the larger traditional radio syndicates.