August 19th, 2008
Webcasters can't reach compromise with SoundExchange; Pandora set to close
I’ve been loving the Pandora app on my touch so news that Pandora is about ready to “pull the plug,” is a heart-breaker.
And yup, the Post reports, it’s because of the draconian burden on webcasting royalties sought by SoundExchange and approved by the Copyright Royalty Board. Sez Tim:
Rep. Howard Berman (D-Cal.) is trying to broker a deal to reduce the royalty cost to webcasters. So far, no luck.
“Most of the rate issues have not been resolved,” Berman said. “If it doesn’t get much more dramatic quickly, I will extricate myself from the process.”
“We’re losing money as it is,” said Westergren, a former acoustic rocker. “The moment we think this problem in Washington is not going to get solved, we have to pull the plug because all we’re doing is wasting money.”
Venture capitalists’ money. “We’re funded by venture capital,” Westergren said. “They’re not going to chase a company whose business model has been broken. So if it doesn’t feel like its headed towards a solution, we’re done.”
