Idiots
Gloomy commentary on the music industry from Ad Age:
Likewise, the hugely popular internet radio station Pandora is “approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision,” as founder Tim Westergren told The Washington Post, because the federal government, prompted by the music industry, doubled the “performance-royalty” rate that internet radio stations must pay (to record companies) to stream music — twice as much as satellite radio.
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All in all, it’s been a depressing summer for the delusional record industry. We’re seeing a total disconnect between labels’ unrealistic, old-school revenue expectations and what the market can bear. On the streaming-music front in particular, the sad reality is that advertising revenue isn’t, and may never be, there to fully support the music industry’s wishful-thinking profit margins.
In a world of quick & easy file sharing, Internet radio services like Pandora could be the music industry’s salvation. If their short-sighted greed kills Pandora, they deserve whatever happens to them. What do they think we’re all going to do, start buying CDs again?
September 12th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I can’t tell you how much I’ve spent because of Pandora. Too much. Perhaps the music industry does not want me to spend money on its products.