I used Pandora continuously for several years, and I think it's fundamental value proposition is that it lets you discover new music. If you know what you want to listen to already, Pandora is an extraordinarily poor option because it gives you little latitude to listen to those specific tracks. I see it as entirely incomparable to purchasing an indefinite license to play a song or album.
In many ways it is identical to radio, including solving the same problem - "give me a kind of music that I can enjoy". Instead of listening to something vague and poorly defined like a Metal channel on the radio, you're listening to a genre as defined by Pandora's much more nuanced song trait maps. Like radio, the service limits the amount that a single artist is played - you're unlikely to hear more than 1-3 songs by the same artist. You also have no ability to rewind and listen again.
As a discovery tool like radio, Pandora also has positive externalities that are not demonstrated by simple royalty payments. Ff you enjoy an artist enough, you're likely to purchase their music (or just find it on Youtube) either because you want to hear more of their music, or simply because you want direct control over when you listen to that song.
In many ways it is identical to radio, including solving the same problem - "give me a kind of music that I can enjoy". Instead of listening to something vague and poorly defined like a Metal channel on the radio, you're listening to a genre as defined by Pandora's much more nuanced song trait maps. Like radio, the service limits the amount that a single artist is played - you're unlikely to hear more than 1-3 songs by the same artist. You also have no ability to rewind and listen again.
As a discovery tool like radio, Pandora also has positive externalities that are not demonstrated by simple royalty payments. Ff you enjoy an artist enough, you're likely to purchase their music (or just find it on Youtube) either because you want to hear more of their music, or simply because you want direct control over when you listen to that song.