This was a red-letter week for internet radio and Pandora.  They had a successful IPO and, while the stock is trading below its offering price, much of that may be attributed to the market in general.  I wrote a blog post for Gigaom on the Pandora story and their road to IPO.  I was then interviewed on Bloomberg on the day of their IPO.  It had been a while since I'd done a TV interview and there were many points I wanted to make but couldn't in the time allotted to me.  The TV interview lacked nuance – for instance, they positioned me as someone who had single-handedly 'rescued' Live365 and driven them to profitability.  So I'll use this forum to 'set the record straight' on some things:

• I am big admirer of what Pandora and their team have accomplished.  I separate the Company from the stock (which I thought was overvalued when I did the interview).  I couldn't agree more with what Om had to write on the journey undertaken for love, not money.
• I didn't single-handedly, 'heroically' rescue Live365.  It was a team effort and I would like to think that I played a large part.  While it wasn't a big financial win for me, helping right the boat and turn it around in the aftermath of the dot-com bust is one of my proudest professional accomplishments.
• There is a bullish story for Pandora as well if they can increase their audio advertising take-up, tap into local ad $, continue their growth in mobile, go into premium programming, etc.  Their management team have proven themselves before.
• I think Pandora is weak in some areas, notably on the social side.  I'm biased here – I'm an advisor and investor in 8tracks.com, which is going at it from a much more social angle.  
• There is a bullish story for Pandora as well if they can increase their audio advertising take-up, tap into local ad $, continue their growth in mobile, go into premium programming, etc.  Their management team have proven themselves before.

At the end of the day, Pandora's IPO, as long as they don't crater as a public company, is good for the medium to further legitimize it in the advertising community and I hope Pandora's 'tide' lifts the other boats.  I'll be watching with interest.

Long piece in Wired about EMI's new CEO, Roger Faxon, and their new strategy to become a "comprehensive rights management company".  It doesn't quite roll off the tongue but it makes lots of sense.  Two years ago, I'd advocated that they give up on trying to sign and break new music and instead focus on monetizing catalogue, which they have a proven track record in.  They're not going that far – they still state that they're going to sign new artists – but they seem to be focusing on acquiring and managing various types of artist rights.  Makes a lot of sense to me as long as they have the talent and expertise to be able to properly exploit the rights they acquire.

I subscribe to the WXPN World Cafe podcast and just finished listening to the one about John Forte.  Like their other shows, they intersperse interviews between songs that the artist performs live.  This one was particularly fascinating because John has quite the story to tell, which he does in equal measures of eloquence and wit in the interview. 

To sum up: boy from Brooklyn raised by single mom gets scholarship to Exeter. Gets into music/A&R. Ends up producing & rapping on Fugees' The Score multi-platinum record. Makes lots of money. Spends it. Dropped by label. Gets into drug dealing to earn money.  Gets caught, sentenced to 14 years. Sentence commuted by Pres Bush thanks to Carly Simon & Orrin Hatch.  Now performing music, teaching & working with prisoners' charities.

I remember hearing about Pres. Bush commuting his sentence and thinking that it wasn't right for someone to not pay their dues because of their celebrity.   I was wrong.  Taught me a lesson of not judging without knowing the facts.  There is no doubt about his guild however he's certainly contributing a lot more to society outside of prison than locked up.  I hope he continues to make great music.

I recently spoke to someone looking into starting an online content venture.  He has an idea for a video/podcast series that would fulfill a gap in the market.  He comes from a 'traditional media' and production background and had questions on the monetization front.  To boil it down, he has 3 options:

1. Charge users: Given the type of content, this is unrealistic although there could be incremental revenue to be had via mobile and download distribution.  But it would be incremental at best.
2. Get sponsors to underwrite it: It's a concept that would do well in a sponsorship format.  The trick here is to get the sponsor.  It is tough to do so if one has no relationships, no audience (remember, this is in concept phase) and no track record in getting an audience.  He is very credible on the content front so advertisers would have no doubt on the quality of the content, but how would a sponsor know how much and what kind of audience they would reach?  Some sites sell content sponsorships on spec but these tend to have established relationships and a track record established their credibility.
3. Sell/license concept to distributor:  Like most production companies, he could bring in a distributor – everyone from a tv broadcaster to a portal like myspace or aol – to fund the production and, depending on the terms, license it outright or share risk/upside. 

Realistically, #2 will only work if he can somehow bootstrap his concept into life and prove the ability to attract traffic – no easy proposition.  So #3 may be the more feasible option for him, especially if he can retain control over brand, drive traffic to his site and share upside.  The good news is that, unlike 4 or 5 years ago, production costs have plummeted and technology is no longer a barrier to distribution.  But, in some ways, that makes it harder to build a business and be heard through the noise.  Companies/sites like Break, FunnorDie, NextNew and others are starting to figure it out.  I think companies that produce great content will continue to get rewarded but the dynamic will be different, which may be fodder for another post.