ARTICLE NO. 169    May 04, 2007

Pandora is now US-only

by Alex Schleifer
Maybe I’m still angry at being one of the billions living in an area not covered by iTunes but enough is enough. Pandora is the latest victim of the recording industry’s complete inability to deal with the internet as a single market. As of May 3rd, it has only been available from within the US which means hordes of stranded international listeners (and music buyers.) This whole international media divide really gets to me. Book publishers benefit from selling globally but the media industry (video, music, games, etc…) throws a hissy fit every time it sees its products seeping into unregulated territories. You can deliver globally, now start selling globally — no geographic restrictions, no staggered release dates, one single price. Wouldn’t that be great user experience?

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Alex is CEO of Sideshow , an award winning creative agency. You can read his blog here.
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June 30, 2010
Pandora will never gonna be global deal with it
February 10, 2010
Hi! Pandora radio is not available in my country - Portugal. I have found http://www.tv243.com a great alternative for it.
May 04, 2007
Actually according to http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/ it is still available in UK and Canada.
May 04, 2007
These idiot corporations won’t go without a fight, but they are loosing. What I find most amusing about this whole “region locking” fiasco is that the more these corporations do it, the more journalists and industry pundits get pissed off, which in turn means more and more of the general public become apathetic with the whole cockeyed reasoning for region locking in the first place. They can just buy elsewhere online anyway! These dinosaurs are, apparantly, experts in generating “ill will” above everything else, but they’ll loose eventually. LJust look at the DRM collapse happening in iTunes right now; that’s the outer wall crumbling right in front of your eyes.
May 04, 2007
I can confirm it is still avaliable from Madrid, Spain. I remember reading somewhere our postal codes are similar to those in the US, and that might be the cause.
May 04, 2007
Dear Pandora Visitor, We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative. We believe that you are in Australia (your IP address appears to be 59.167.X.XX). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com If you are a paid subscriber, please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com and we will issue a pro-rated refund to the credit card you used to sign up. If you have been using Pandora, we will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We will be notifying listeners as licensing agreements are established in individual countries. If you would like to be notified by email when Pandora is available in your country, please enter your email address below. The pace of global licensing is hard to predict, but we have the ultimate goal of being able to offer our service everywhere. We share your disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding. Sincerely, Tim Westergen Tim Westergren Founder
Alex Schleifer
May 04, 2007
Pandora is a great service and I’m pretty sure they’re doing this under pressure. There’s also the song streaming price hike, which isn’t going to help anyone. Someone, somewhere wants to kill online streaming (and shoot him/herself in the foot) — if anything, this isn’t good PR.
Alex Schleifer
May 04, 2007
Here we go — proxies are a great way to listen to music again, not that I condone accessing content “illegally”. Blocking international users accessing Pandora is pointless — just like DRM is pointless. Someone somewhere will break it so you’re just wasting everyone’s time. To everyone involved in this: find ways of making the Internet work for you — not ways to stop making it work for everyone else.
May 04, 2007
I can confirm it’s has been cut Here in italy too
May 04, 2007
restricted access in France too
May 04, 2007
Hello World, outside the USA of course. To continue to listen and enjoy the beautiful music of Pandora Radio use the following:-) http://www.mamboserver.com/ this server will be invisible to those RIAA jackboots. I hope this gets posted, only doing my little bit to help music lovers everywhere outside the USA. Maybe we, in the USA should legislate the outlawing of the RIAA. Now watch – I’ll get a letter from the RIAA ‘telling’ me in a threatening to cease and desist, HA.
May 04, 2007
Hello World, outside the USA of course. To continue to listen and enjoy the beautiful music of Pandora Radio use the following:-) http://www.mamboserver.com/ this server will be invisible to those RIAA jackboots. I hope this gets posted, only doing my little bit to help music lovers everywhere outside the USA. Maybe we, in the USA should legislate the outlawing of the RIAA. Now watch – I’ll get a letter from the RIAA ‘telling’ me in a threatening to cease and desist, HA.
May 04, 2007
restricted access in France too
May 04, 2007
I can confirm it’s has been cut Here in italy too
Alex Schleifer
May 04, 2007
Here we go — proxies are a great way to listen to music again, not that I condone accessing content “illegally”. Blocking international users accessing Pandora is pointless — just like DRM is pointless. Someone somewhere will break it so you’re just wasting everyone’s time. To everyone involved in this: find ways of making the Internet work for you — not ways to stop making it work for everyone else.
Alex Schleifer
May 04, 2007
Pandora is a great service and I’m pretty sure they’re doing this under pressure. There’s also the song streaming price hike, which isn’t going to help anyone. Someone, somewhere wants to kill online streaming (and shoot him/herself in the foot) — if anything, this isn’t good PR.
May 04, 2007
Dear Pandora Visitor, We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative. We believe that you are in Australia (your IP address appears to be 59.167.X.XX). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com If you are a paid subscriber, please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com and we will issue a pro-rated refund to the credit card you used to sign up. If you have been using Pandora, we will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We will be notifying listeners as licensing agreements are established in individual countries. If you would like to be notified by email when Pandora is available in your country, please enter your email address below. The pace of global licensing is hard to predict, but we have the ultimate goal of being able to offer our service everywhere. We share your disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding. Sincerely, Tim Westergen Tim Westergren Founder
May 04, 2007
I can confirm it is still avaliable from Madrid, Spain. I remember reading somewhere our postal codes are similar to those in the US, and that might be the cause.
May 04, 2007
These idiot corporations won’t go without a fight, but they are loosing. What I find most amusing about this whole “region locking” fiasco is that the more these corporations do it, the more journalists and industry pundits get pissed off, which in turn means more and more of the general public become apathetic with the whole cockeyed reasoning for region locking in the first place. They can just buy elsewhere online anyway! These dinosaurs are, apparantly, experts in generating “ill will” above everything else, but they’ll loose eventually. LJust look at the DRM collapse happening in iTunes right now; that’s the outer wall crumbling right in front of your eyes.
May 04, 2007
Actually according to http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/ it is still available in UK and Canada.
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