The Pandora Problem

What seems like an impasse over internet royalty fees might close down an increasingly popular web service, Pandora, which allows listeners to order up streaming music that suits their tastes. Like show tunes? You can configure your own “radio station” to play nothing but that all day long at www.pandora.com. Want Schubert and composers like him? Pandora will deliver. But Pandora, which is now paying out about 70% of its income in fees, may shut down unless California Democrat Howard Berman and like-minded legislators can work a compromise. Read more here. Here’s some history and discussion of the Pandora experiment. I must say that I listen to Pandora off and on, and I think it’s an innovative idea. It’s introduced me to artists I didn’t know before, and I’ve purchased their music. I would miss it if it went away.