Trash

I just recieved a notice from Pandora via email informing me that I’m about to exceed 40 hours of listening this month.  I was shocked!  Not only because they want me to pay to keep using the service, but also because I just figured that I was using way more than that.  How did I miss this news 4 months ago?  I guess that I vaguely recall reading something about this and thinking about how tragic and sad it was.  Though I never thought it would affect me!

Perhaps its for the best for both of us.  I for one will be exploring other options with my listening time.  I’ve got a few leads on some internet radio stations outside the jurisdiction of the RIAA that I can squander a few hours a day on.  At $0.99 a month too keep the stream alive, I’m almost tempted to just bite the bullet reluctantly, but I won’t.  For $36 a year I ought to be able to pick the exact songs that I want to hear and repeat songs that I like among MANY other things.  For instance, there’s an echoing rumor that I’ll be able to subscribe to my favorite TV shows via iTunes inside of a year for about $30/month.  That I could get behind.  Pandora’s business model is a nice try, but ultimately its doomed to failure.

The real crux of my problem is that I (like many others) am philosophically opposed to the position taken by Pandora that followed the initial legal defeat.  What position is that?  ”If we have to pay ridiculously high fees to the RIAA then so should everyone else.” (paraphrased)  They were in such a fatalist, compromised position that they made a deal with the devil.  At this point, I’d like to thank Pandora for reminding me of this point so that I can take corrective action to avoid supporting them (and vicariously the greed-heads at the RIAA) in the future.  It’s for the best that they just fade into history.  Farewell, Pandora I hardly knew ye!

Does anyone know of any good alternative’s to Pandora that aren’t knee deal in slime from the RIAA?

The email from Pandora after the jump:

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