The Box Closes

Pandora has finally closed the hole in its check for U.S. users. Previously the "check" consisted of asking for the user's zip code, but now the service actually finds out the geographical location using the user's IP. Just as I suspected, the ban was put in place due to the recent increase of royalties paid by webcasters. For this reason I don't blame Pandora for turning its back on me. Unfortunately for them, I'm not particularly upset by the ban. AOL radio continues to stream XM satellite radio to my speaker, and the Hong Kong version of Yahoo! Music has recently opened up a streaming radio station. In short, the loss of Pandora is practically inconsequential to me because there are still many other services up and running. And of course there is the P2P option, which I will not hesitate returning to if the music industry pisses me off too much by driving every player out of the game.