Fans of listening to internet radio on their Palm Pre will have reason to breath easy today. Pandora (one of the Pre launch partners) whose webOS internet radio app is top-rated on the App Catalog, has been under pressure by SoundExchange to hike their streaming fees to exuberant levels, essentialy forcing Pandora to start charging for their services or close down. They have been looking for a solution for some time now, but to no avail.
However, a deal was reached, in which SoundExchange reduced their per-song-per-listener fee by 40-50%, or collects 25% of total US revenue generated by Pandora; whichever is higher. To compensate, Pandora will now be putting a 40-hour / month listening cap on streaming music, or a $0.99 fee for unlimited listening for the month. So if you're a heavy listener, you may now have to dole out a buck.
Sounds like a good compromise, considering a month's worth of internet radio costs the same as a single song over iTunes. If you're a Pandora user, would you be willing to pay more for internet radio, should they ever hike their fees?
Monday, 13 July 2009