In recent days, questions have arisen about the viability of two of the best ways to listen to music on the Internet, Pandora and Muxtape.
Muxtape is unavailable because the company is sorting out a "problem with the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America]."
The way Muxtape works is that you upload songs you own so you can create a mixtape (just like in the old days) that you can share with your friends by sending them a link. I wrote about Muxtape in March.
Muxtape has always had certain restrictions that seemed to protect copyrights, like the prohibition on uploading an entire album or uploading more than one song from the same artist per mixtape, but I guess those rules didn’t go far enough for the RIAA.
Here’s a statement on Muxtape from an RIAA spokesman, via Portfolio:
"For the past several months, we have communicated our legal concerns with the site and repeatedly tried to work with them to have illegal content taken down. Muxtape was hosting copies of copyrighted sound recordings without authorization from the copyright owners. Making these recordings available for streaming playback also requires authorization from the copyright owners. Muxtape has not obtained authorization from our member companies to host or stream copies of their sound recordings."
Meanwhile, in an article in the Washington Post last week, Pandora founder Tim Westergren said his site faces a "last stand," because of a plan to double the per song performance royalty that Pandora and other Internet radio services must pay to performers and record companies. This year, royalty fees will eat up about 70 percent of Pandora’s $25 million in revenue, the article said.
Traditional radio stations do not have to pay the fees and the fees paid by satellite radio are considered to be less hefty.
There are efforts to broker a deal to keep the fees at a level that Pandora can afford, but the article raises doubts whether that will happen.
"We’re losing money as it is," Westergren told the Post. "The moment we think this problem in Washington is not going to get solved, we have to pull the plug because all we’re doing is wasting money."
I hope Pandora can find a way to survive, because it’s one of the best ways to listen to music on the Internet. Its iPhone application is even better that the web version. Here’s a column I wrote about Pandora (and competitor last.fm) in February.
