Time for a revolution in the music industry

A while back I introduced Flo Radio to you as a technique for producing environmental sound to enhance team productivity.  The idea was to use Pandora’s streaming radio site, which allows you to set up “stations” that learn from the listeners preferences. 

Being based in the UK, this morning I received an email from Tim Westergren of Pandora stating that they were about to start blocking transmission to us:

“It continues to astound me and the rest of the team here that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don't often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent - and by that I mean both well known and indie artists. The only consequence of failing to support companies like Pandora that are attempting to build a sustainable radio business for the future will be the continued explosion of piracy, the continued constriction of opportunities for working musicians, and a worsening drought of new music for fans. As a former working musician myself, I find it very troubling.

“We have been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable...so that is what we are doing. Streaming illegally is just not in our DNA, and we have to take the threats of legal action seriously. Lest you think this is solely an international problem, you should know that we are also fighting for our survival here in the US, in the face of a crushing increase in web radio royalty rates, which if left unchanged, would mean the end of Pandora.

“We know what an epicenter of musical creativity and fan support the UK has always been, which makes the prospect of not being able to launch there and having to block our first listeners all the more upsetting for us.”

My opinion:  The music industry, in fact the whole entertainment industry, is like a deer frozen in the headlights of an on-coming truck.  They will shortly become road-kill unless they think through the implications of commodity-priced high-bandwidth communications, pervasive computing, and the virtualisation of content.

— Philip Greenwood

Tags: Flo, Radio