Apple to Crush Pandora After Occupying Wall Street

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Pandora (P) bearishness, like so many unfortunate Internet memes, continues to take on a life of its own.

Each day, multiple times, the same article gets written.

They tend to follow a series of simplistic, chewed up, not properly digested and spit out themes that focus on barriers to entry, competition, profitability and royalty rates in the Internet radio space.

Often, authors of these stories fail to get their facts straight.

We all make factual errors from time to time. That's expected. It comes with the territory, and is totally human. But there's just some stuff that's unacceptable.

Consider this Seeking Alpha article written by somebody named "Henry Stokman."

In Can Apple Revolutionize The Music Industry Again?, Stokman writes: "All of this iPhone hype has overshadowed a press release that Apple made two weeks ago stating that the company intends to set up a music streaming site similar to that of Pandora."

Later, Stokman refers to Apple's "announcement" as "really" having "said very little."

It said "very little" because no press release or announcement from Apple (AAPL) actually exists on the matter. A report in The Wall Street Journal stoked a rumor that Apple is in talks with music industry representatives and might start a Pandora-like service.

Stokman's phantom press release reference comes on the heels of other bearish takes with titles ranging from Pandora Facing Potential Apple Competition to Buying Pandora is a Big Mistake to my favorite, Pandora to Get Destroyed By Apple Radio.

The reports of Pandora's death have been greatly exaggerated.

Channeling more Mark Twain, here's one for Stokman: Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

Bearishness, even blatant inaccuracies, all of this noise, whether from professional analysts such as Richard Greenfield at BTIG Media or elsewhere, has provided Pandora bulls with ample buying opportunities under $10 per share. So, in that respect, it's all good.

At some point, however, somebody has to call the perps out for their inanity.

Consider the notion of Apple "revolutionizing" the music industry.

I have as much respect for Apple, if not more, as the next guy, but, copying Pandora hardly qualifies as revolutionary.

As I pointed out in the above-cited article, the biggest threat Pandora faces is removal from Apple's iPhone. In that piece, however, I discuss obvious reasons why it's highly unlikely that Apple would banish Pandora or any other streaming music service from its platform.

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