One of my co-workers called me this morning. "Have you started up Pandora yet?" Pandora is a site that plays music based on artists and songs you prefer.

"No," I said. "Why?"

"I don't think it's going to work today," she said. "There was something on the radio about a day of silence."

I went over to Pandora, and sure enough, saw this message:

"I'm sorry to say that today Pandora, along with most Internet radio sites, is going off the air in observance of a Day Of Silence. "

There was more. You can get an overview, and a list of the online radio stations that participated in the Day of Silence, at http://www.kurthanson.com/dos/ .

Just what is going on? A protest. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has set up new tiers of royalty rates for Internet broadcasters. You can see the table at http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/030207/index.shtml . Not only are these rates higher than what Web radio broadcasters are willing to pay (some are saying "are able to pay") but they're also retroactive, which means that many online radio sites are facing huge bills as of July 15. Many sites do not expect to be able to handle the fee increase, and would simply shut down.

Is all lost? No. The {{a href="external_link-4}}Internet Radio Equality Act{{/a}} would overturn the decision of the CRB and have Web broadcasters pay a percentage of revenue. Pandora and the other radio stations involved in the protest are asking listeners to contact their congressional representatives and express their opinions.

I had not realized how much I liked Pandora. It was nice to get a mix of all genres of music, with no commercials, and to discover new artists I hadn't known about. I have spent a lot of money on music I learned about only because of Pandora, and I suspect I'm not the only one. I wouldn't have bought music from Olive, The Bell-Rays, The Peels, and many more if it weren't for Pandora. I wouldn't have gotten back into country music or discovered James T. Booker.

I'm definitely contacting my congressperson. Furthermore, I'm going to get a paid membership to Pandora. It's a great service and I need to put my money where my ears are.

So what did I listen to at work today? Mostly Musicovery, which I mentioned yesterday. If Internet radio does go away I suspect there were be much playing of iPods, consideration of satellite radio, and perhaps exploration of the audio offerings at the Internet Archive.