Allison Langer
Staff Writer

Many of us students use Pandora while we surf the web or do work. Pandora was founded in 2000 by Tim Westergren. This online radio is based off of the Music Genome Project, the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Fifty musician-analysts spend up to thirty minutes picking out over one hundred details about every song that Pandora plays. To start using Pandora, you pick a band or artist you like, and Pandora creates a station with other bands and artists that have similar characteristics to the music you picked so that they play only music you’ll love. Pandora had been running smoothly, playing unlimited music that pleased listeners, for almost seven years; that is, until now.
In 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) issued a new fee on web music broadcasts. The CRB raised rates from 0.08 cents per song to 0.19 cents per song. Many Internet broadcasters challenged the ruling, including Tim Westergren. “For us this is the difference between existing and not existing, so we’re going to do everything we possibly can,” he said. Fortunately, Web casters, artists, and record labels reached a resolution this past summer. Pandora had to limit its listening hours to forty a month. Any listener who exceeds this limit will be asked to pay one dollar and will receive unlimited music for the rest of the month. After a few months of this new constraint only 10% of Pandora users said they were affected, although the issue of royalties is still being discussed today in Washington, D.C. A new effort in congress has been made to change the unfair system of how musical artists are compensated across all forms of radio.
Internet radio services, like Pandora, are paying higher royalties than other forms of radio and musical artists are not receiving compensation when their music is played on AM/FM radio. A Performance Rights Act bill was introduced to Congress in February 2009 that would ensure a truly fair system among artists and the radios that play their music. The bill has yet to be voted on so the issue of parity in radio performance rights continues, but listeners can be sure Pandora will continue streaming music for many years to come.