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Uh-oh.
With AT&T announcing limited wireless data plans, the unavailability of an unlimited plan unless you are a legacy customer, what does this mean for services that depend on streaming via the cloud, like Pandora?
Pandora may be making money, but once its users find out they've got to pay to listen to that music, will they?
I'd say this is a bonus for satellite radio, but it appears Sirius XM has shot itself in the foot. Its programming is barely different from that broadcast for free, its only advantage is a lack of commercials on music channels. Whereas Pandora is something completely different, modern. I prefer Sirius XM to Pandora, but perception is everything in today's society, and the perception of Sirius XM is awful.
And the perception is you can listen to Pandora anywhere! But will that now be true?
You must understand that you don't profit by researching what the public has to say. Because the public hasn't seen the future. Conventional wisdom is people don't want to rent music. But isn't it funny that people rented movies, then bought them and are now renting them again? Yup, the trip to the video store and the threat of late fees was replaced by low cost DVDs and now Netflix and Redbox rule. So, when you say people won't rent music, you're pulling this statistic out of your behind.
This is all a set-up for the modern music app. Most people have never used one, and have no concept of how they work.
Spotify and Rhapsody and MOG...have either delivered or are promising auto-sync with playlists that live on your hand-held. I've used the Spotify version, it allows slightly more than 2,000 tracks to live on your iPhone permanently, well, as long as you continue to pay the monthly fee. In other words, you can listen to your favorite tracks on the top of Mt. Everest, in the backwoods, where there is no cell signal, assuming you've got juice. Sure, you can still stream via the cloud, but many will prefer not to if they've got to pay.
Few are going to pay bandwidth charges to listen to supposedly free Pandora. It's a contradiction in terms. How is Pandora the new model if you're paying for it, and you're paying the dreaded AT&T, not even Westergren and his buddies, certainly not the artists.
Will Verizon follow AT&T's lead? Indicators say so. T-Mobile's got such a shitty high speed network, they almost don't matter here. But Sprint probably won't cap usage, they need some kind of advantage to avoid hemorrhaging customers.
So here we have the music business, once again, with its tiny mass being flung around by powers much larger than itself. Believe me, AT&T's goal is not to kill Pandora, but to put a dent in usage by those using their hand-helds like desktops. Pandora is just collateral damage. But when are the rights holders in the music business going to peer into the future instead of burying their heads in the sand and imploring everyone to come back to the past? Pandora paid, it exposed the public to new artists, you kill it and then what?
