MappingTheWeb //

I love Pandora. I used to use the service everyday until they were forced to shut down in Canada in mid 2007. It was truly a sad day. Now, TechCrunch is reporting that the service will be shut down in the UK as well. After failing to obtain a licensing agreement, Pandora is going to block all UK traffic as of January 15 - not a very good start to 2008 for the company.

Pandora knew that this day might come, but it held on to the hope that it could strike a deal with the appropriate parties and continue providing the service. This didn’t happen. The RIAA has stepped in and pulled the plug. It truly is a pity for UK users. I know this because I had the same thing happen to me.

This move will likely boost the traffic of competitors, most notably Last.fm, in the UK region. Ironically enough, Last.fm is located in the UK, hence the reason it hasn’t had as many problems as the US-based Pandora.

As a side note, there is an interesting article from TechCrunch on how to access Pandora, Hulu, and other serivces from outside the US: Accessing Hulu, Pandora And Other Sites From Outside Of the United States.

Finally, I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Conrad, the CTO of Pandora, at Gnomedex in August 2007. He was a true gentleman and assured me that the company was doing everything in its power to make a return to Canada. I guess they can add another country to that list. Good luck Pandora. I’m rootin’ for ya.