It Took Congress to Save Pandora

Blamed for many of the nation's ills, our legislative branch kept the music playing.

If the music keeps playing on and on, give a thank you to Congress.

No less than three acts of Congress were required to "save" music-streaming service Pandora, according to PandoDaily.

Tom Conrad, the firm's CTO who's been there for a decade, related the tale as part of a retelling of his firm's dance with the music industry over royalties -- a dance that nearly teetered over the edge.

To get a royalty rate that was affordable, Pandora needed to cobble together a "coalition" of other companies in order to negotiate down the so-called "fixed-rate royalties" paid for playing music over the Internet, Pando reported.

The coalition fell apart at the last minute, but Congress stepped in -- and since then, Pandora's stock has gained 200 percent in the last year and the company's value is pegged at $6.7 billion.

Pandora, by the way, didn't pay its employees for two years and its founders were $500,000 in debt before they raised more venture funding, Pando reported.

The plight of an entrepreneur.
 

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