There is no doubt that restrictions on Pandora/Rhapsody/Slacker outside
the US are extremely frustrating, but it's not their fault and
certainly not the fault of Logitech/SD. The blame lies with the
recording industry associations. As I understand it, here in Australia
ARIA (our equivalent of the RIAA) were pretty tough in their
negotiations with Apple, which mean that the iTunes store launched
around two years later than in the US. My correspondence with Pandora
certainly indicates that they are keen to be able to operate outside
the US (and why wouldn't they want to extend their market?) but
negotiations with the industry bodies is a slow and painful process. In
my opinion it will open up, but it will take some time. I even believe
that ultimately subscription services will net *more* revenue for the
recording industry than the "artefact" approach of selling CDs (etc). I
certainly know plenty of people who would average less than one CD a
month but, if they started using Rhapsody or another subscription
service would just leave their subscription running as they do for
their mobile phone, cable TV, etc.

As for the misleading advertising question, I'm not really convinced by
that charge: follow any of the "more" links to Pandora or Rhapsody and
you'll immediately discover that the service is only available in the
US. Where there probably is misleading advertising over here in
Australia is from high-end HiFi stores who are all pushing Sonos on the
strength of the Rhapsody service, which is not actually legal here!

Anyway, I'm as keen as the rest of the world for these services to
become available, but I'd bang on the doors of the RIAA, APRA, etc
before SD.


-- 
smc2911
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View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41626

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