Pandora is one of several internet radio websites. With Pandora, you can enter your favorite song title or artist into the search box and Pandora will generate music that it thinks you may like based upon your entry. The goal is to build a radio station that you can listen to and enjoy. For example, if you like music from Garth Brooks, you simply type in “Garth Brooks” and you can make a Garth Brooks radio station which will only play tracks from artists that are similar to Garth Brooks.

You may be wondering why you can just make a station that plays only Garth Brooks music. Well there is a reason why Pandora can’t just play your favorite band. Well the simple answer is that it is the law. Pandora radio does business by a government statutory license which is a group of agreements managed by the United States Copyright Royalty Board.

The United States Copyright Board is a United States system that is made up of three judges who set rates as well as terms for copyright statutory licenses in addition to determining how the royalties from the copyright licenses are distributed. These royalties are gathered by the United States Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.

A statutory, or copyright, license gives owners of a patent or copyright license the use of their rights which the owner has to pay for that is either determined by law or by arbitration.

Under the United States Copyright Royalty Board, Pandora is only allowed by law to play up to four songs from a certain artist every three hours of a listening session. Under the same law, Pandora cannot offer a rewind feature either. But it does not seem that this law affects Pandora fans because there are millions of listeners that love Pandora the way it is.