Pandora Issues "Call to Arms"

The Internet radio site, Pandora, has been in a legal argument with artists and record companies over royalties for more than a year. However, recently they have made substantial progress in reaching an agreement and are now faced with a more senior legal decision that could potentially ban their site and others like it. Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren announced last week on the company blog that large broadcast radio companies, like Clear Channel, have launched a covert lobbying campaign to sabotage the on-going legal proceedings. Westergren is convinced that this strategy is a “blatant attempt by large radio companies to suffocate the webcasting industry” in order to continue their monopoly of the airwaves. Interestingly enough, Pandora has made a plea using various guerrilla tactics such as blogging and podcasts, in order to garner public approval and over turn this unneeded pressure. Unfortunately, many believe that there is not enough support from Congress and that the lobbying efforts of big traditional broadcast companies may prove to be too much for webcasters. Since its creation, the technology used in programs like Pandora and iTunes "Genius" has been a tremendous success, allowing users to expand their tastes in music.

Gareth Hornberger

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