No Pandora for you, like Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi” character might say. At least, not if you are an international user. That supposedly means anyone outside the United States will be prevented from using the service, due to a certain federal statute. This is of course due to net radio royalty issues. Last.fm is apparently being purchased by Viacom. I’ve not heard anything regarding Pandora.
This is very disappointing news as for a long-time music fan like myself, I’ve never come across anything quite as cool/ brilliant in its recommendation functionality. However, despite being in Canada, my IP address sometimes shows as being in the US. This might explain while I can still see the site as of this writing. Oddly, I didn’t receive any email from Pandora, though I have received newsletters in the past.
Originally posted on May 3, 2007 @ 9:42 am
Thanks for posting on this, Raj. Just wanted to make sure you knew that we’re actually keeping the service on in Canada (the UK too) – those are the only two countries where we’ve been able to make any headway in the past year on licensing.
This is a real heartbreaker for us. We’re working as hard as we can to make progress, but have to abide by the existing laws.
Regards, Tim (Founder)
Thanks, for the update, Tim. It’s too bad that only Americans can sign the petition. I know that I’d be happy to pay a small monthly fee, via Paypal, to use Pandora. I like it that much.
it’s a shame so many will not be able to take advantage of all Pandora
has to offer, I just recently discovered it & would be very upset if I didn’t
have access to it anymore. I survive on a limited budget & was delighted
to find something so good& innovative for free
thank you,
Cat