News came out the other day that one of the most popular worldwide music streaming sources, Pandora, has put its plans to expand into Canada on hold. That’s because the royalty rates we’re demanding “are astronomical,” according to Tim Westergren, who founded the California-based music service.It also features a choice quote from industry stooge Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association:
[He] cited widespread illegal music downloading in Canada as the real reason why services like Pandora wouldn’t want to come here. “Why would you spend a lot of money trying to build a service in Canada when Canadians take so much without paying for it?” he said.I'm pretty tired of hearing this argument... if anything the Canadian music industry has weathered the digital storm and ensuing cloud pretty well, as the article mentions later, in regards to CBC Radio 3. Might I also mention the wonderful Polaris Prize?
"Old" media is changing, as is "new" media... 100 years from now people will laugh at the brief period in human history where music was commodified in a absurd fashion for 50 years. To oversimplify an extremely complex argument, the music/audio/radio industry has to adapt.
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