18 August 2008

One more against the wall

I use Pandora radio service. It's a really awesome way of discovering new music. I put in an artist that I like, Pandora plays me that artist's music along with similar artists that I may not have heard of. It's simple, effective, and efficient. In the two weeks since I started working I've discovered no fewer than 5 new musicians that I enjoy. 5! I intend to buy their music and I intend to see some of their concerts (some of them are dead). This article from the Washington Post pretty well sums up SoundExchange's destruction of an effective radio format for the sake of a failed business model:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2008/08/music_biz_still_trying_to_kill.html

An excerpt:

"As I wrote a year ago, when the CRB reaffirmed this foolish idea, choking off Web radio by imposing discriminatory and disproportionate fees is just about the last thing the music industry needs. Webcasters like Pandora are far more effective at exposing listeners to new music than the playlist-choked wasteland of commercial FM and AM -- so of course we should tax them to extinction, ensuring record labels and musicians a one-time profit, followed by years of much poorer exposure for new musicians."

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I listen as well and don't read your blog as much as I should. Tina pointed out that I basically ripped off your post. =)

I just started listening to Pandora about two weeks ago when my ipod batery died and I needed music to lull the voices in my head telling me to kill. =)