At the 2/15/11 Conference Call, Mel Karmazin said the following:
“We think that there is an awful lot of people who like the, Slacker, Pandora, Last.fm, iheart services because it’s free. Nothing is really free because the way they make their money is they make you listen to commercials and a lot of that IP content as they get and try to get more and more revenue are going to be running more and more commercials.”
On 2/22/11, Tyler Savery rebutted as follows:
“As for Karmazins comment…..He is pumping so much shit in that statement that we all need to buy hip waders! Anyone who believes what Karmazin is saying there on blind faith is a bigger idiot than I could possibly imagine!”
On the same date . . . Tyler Savery:
“What many fail to realize is that the new royalty deals make it more beneficial for Internet Radio services to become subscription based, which is exactly the move Pandora and Slacker have already shifted to.”
Now on March 4, 2011 . . . Tyler Savery:
“While I personally see a shift to paying subscribers, Pandora will not likely give up what has become a lucrative advertising platform any time soon.”
Which takes us back to Mel Karmazin on 2/15/11:
“And again, we like our business model, which is principally subscription driven as compared to the model of where you’re offering service for free and running commercials, that sounds an awful lot like Terrestrial Radio.”