Over the last few months, we have discouraged the use of Pandora and other similar custom playlist music sites in the classroom since streaming music in the classroom/cafeteria/office is considered a "public performance" and violates copyright and most terms of service for free accounts.
At the September Tech/Media Meeting and Principal's Meeting, the district shared a letter we received from Pandora in August that states (bolded words added for emphasis):
" Unfortunately, the copyright code does not make a distinction between commercial businesses and non-profit businesses. Any enterprise outside of personal, individual use requires a type of license that Pandora can only provide through its partner, DMX.
This means, your employees can sit at their desks and listen to Pandora One through their individual accounts on their computers or mobile devices; however, if you are playing a single stream over speakers in a work place, even a non-profit, you need to subscribe to the DMX service."
Since this information was shared in September, we have continued to observe use of Pandora streaming in the classroom and therefore we have blocked Pandora to prevent further copyright infringement.
Public Radio is an excellent source of copyright free music. National Public Radio (NPR) has a collection of radio stream channels in multiple genres. We encourage the carefully screened use of public radio within classrooms to enrich instruction and the educational environment.
If a teacher is interested in purchasing a performance license from DMX to stream Pandora, please direct them to this website to learn more about the for fee ($24.95 per month) service.