Music-download service 7digital faces plenty of skepticism since its U.S. launch two weeks ago.
According to Ben Drury, its co-founder and chief executive, many of the questions–how do you compete with iTunes, how do you stand out amid a sea of music services–are valid ones.
The next generation of radio listeners might not remember the olden days of scrolling through stations. Instead, the radio they listen to could very well be on their mobile phones.
Pandora has finally emerged from a two-year battle with the Copyright Royalty Board over royalty payments for the artists of songs streamed online. And for the first time in its history, the popular streaming-music service will charge its heaviest listeners a fee for using it.
Pandora, a private company that has created the most popular Internet-based radio service in the U.S., has a lot of zealous fans. In fact, they are a bit like the fanatics who love Apple Inc. and its well-designed products.
In August, Pandora founder Tim Westergren told the Washington Post that the future could be bleak for the Internet radio station due to high percentage of its revenue being forced to go to royalty fees.
Pandora is one of the nation’s most popular Web radio services, with about 1 million listeners daily. Its Music Genome Project allows customers to create stations tailored to their own tastes. It is one of the 10 most popular applications for Apple’s iPhone and attracts 40,000 new customers a day.
The bell is tolling for Webcasting in the U.S. after the Copyright Review Board refused to alter the new proposed royalty rates, which represent an enormous hike in the money online radio stations must pay. The new rates take effect July 16, and a coalition of Webcasters led by the popular Pandora are pleading that their business will go away with these new payment obligations.
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