An email sent by the internet radio station Pandora to its international (non-US) users today:
Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora’s streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S.
… In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable us to legitimately offer Pandora around the world. Other than in the U.K., we have not yet been able to make significant progress in our efforts to obtain a sufficient number of international licenses at terms that would enable us to run a viable business…On May 3rd, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from your country.
It’s not good when you’re forced to shut out a good proportion of your user base due to licensing issues - and it’s even worse when you’re still fighting rate hikes in your own country. I think I speak for Pandora’s international users when I say: noooooo!