Internet, I-tunes and later Pandora had driven me back (briefly) to the music stores where i had not bought music albums for years. With Pandora, I was able to build radio channels around some of my favorite artists – Moby, Pat Methany, Massive Attack, Philipp Glass (on Last.fm) and many more. What i particularly liked with this concept is that they made me discover new artists in tune with my taste while i have little time to listen to radio, hang out to concerts, spend evenings with friends listening to their own favorites.
On May 30th, CBS announced the acquisition of UK Last.fm, founded in 2002, financed by Index, for $280 million cash. The founders, Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel and Richard Jones will continue to drive the company as an independant entity : they always say that after an acquisition and start to integrate about 12 months later! Let’s see how it evolves. The smart move from CBS is that they acknowedled the network building knowhow of the founders and tasked them to expand the CBS internet activities. Last.fm claims 15 millions users worldwide including me since mid-may.
That’s because Pandora shut down on May 3rd outside the US, based on your IP address. The issue are the internet radio rights requested by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB). These rights are in 2006 – $.0008 per performance, with a minimum of $500 per channel per year. The story is on their blog.
Now, if you still want to use Pandora from outside the US, try here.
Or try Lastfm…