Friday amidst the fury new iPhone application releases, Pandora released an application for iPhone and iPod touch that allows users to take their personalized radio stations with them. Existing Pandora users can download the free app and instantly have access to all their current radio stations as well as add new ones. If you're not already a Pandora user then the process is slightly more difficult to get started and involves authorizing your mobile device on Pandora's web page.

Pandora for the iPhone offers the same features as traditional Pandora for your PC. Stations can be easily created around a particular artist or song that you enjoy. As you're listening to a song you can give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down to help customize the station to your preferences. Songs can be skipped if you really don't like them, bookmarked if you do, or immediately purchased through the iTunes store if you can't live without them a moment longer. The app also has an information button where you can read about why a particular song was selected to play on your radio station.

We gave the app a little test drive last night. We were really impressed with the app's interface and love that looks a lot like traditional Iphone music player, complete with full screen cover art. If you're still rocking a first gen iPhone and live somewhere where your EDGE data tends to be a little hit or miss, then so is your Pandora. We drove around town and had a few instances where the music would skip, or in some cases stop entirely which is no fun when you're trying to rock out. Most of the issues seemed to happen in-between songs so the app may be designed to work a little ahead of itself to compensate for passing through areas that aren't EDGE friendly.

[via MR MOBILE]

Attention UK Pandora users: as of January 15, 2008, Pandora will stop streaming its Internet radio content. This comes more than six months after Pandora was forced to shut-down service to most non-US users and is the latest in the continually messy battle over licensing Internet radio.

A reader just forwarded us an e-mail from Pandora, explaining the situation. Here are the pertinent bits:

...As you probably know, in July of 2007 we had to block usage of Pandora outside the U.S. because of the lack of a viable license structure for Internet radio streaming in other countries. It was a terrible day. We did however hold out some hope that a solution might exist for the UK, so we left it unblocked as we worked diligently with the rights organizations to negotiate an economically workable license fee...

The message goes on to describe some of the problems Pandora has had trying to work out licensing agreements with UK licensing agencies that were financial suicide. Suffice to say, nothing could be worked out:

...Pandora will stop streaming to the UK as of January 15th, 2008.

Just when we think the music industry might finally be taking steps - small as they may be - to stop fighting against technology, and instead work with technology, something like this happens, and we are reminded once again that this is an industry doing anything and everything in its power not to evolve. Although the RIAA has been the most vocal in its lobbying efforts against the removal of DRM and against fair Internet radio rates, this incident proves that it is not just American record executives; it is the industry as a whole.

Never mind that forcing unfair licensing terms on Internet radio stations and riddling files with DRM hasn't worked (US album sales, even with digital sales tallied, declined by nearly 10 percent in 2007), let's just continue to refuse to face reality while the market and business model quickly disappear and change irrevocably.

Thanks Gordon

Net radio isn't dead yet. SoundExchange, the organization responsible for collecting royalties from online broadcasters has reached an agreement with the Digital Media Association that will allow the music to keep playing, we think.

A quick history less:

Earlier this year, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board voted to raise rates for internet broadcasters. In some cases, the new rates could have cost billions of dollars, driving pretty much every online radio station out of business. After months of contentious debate, SoundExchange agreed last month not to enforce the new rates until some sort of compromise could be reached.

Today's compromise involves a $500 cap per channel, with a $50,000 overall cap per service.

Webcasters will have to provide SoundExchange with a detailed annual list of songs performed and the Digital Media Association will work with SoundExchange to "evaluate the issue of streamripping." Presumably that means the two organizations will try to find ways to prevent users from making permanent copies of streaming audio files.

The new fees could still be a bit steep for small time webcasters. But today's announcement should keep larger companies like Pandora, Yahoo! Launch, and Last.fm piping out plenty cups of steaming hot internet music.

Remember radio? You know, that little box with the knobs and dials on it that lets you listen to music or talk shows? You might still have one in your car. But odds are you listen to radio over the internet when you're at the office. On the go, you might download some radio programs as podcasts.

But what if there's no podcast for your favorite show? That's where RaimaRadio comes in. There are a number of applications that let you save internet radio streams as MP3 files. But RaimaRadio is free. And it includes a handy scheduling utility which is perfect for recording the morning newscast to take with you on the go.

The application really shines when it comes to music streams. It reads the metadata of program streams and attempts to download and display appropriate cover art for the song that's being played. Oh yeah, and since everything's digital, you can record multiple radio streams simultaneously. Try that with your old AM/FM radio's tape cassette deck.

[via gHacks]

Lawmakers have gotten involved, webcasters held a day of silence protest, and SoundExchange has agreed to reduce its fees (although that offer was rejected). But the big day is still just around the corner. On Sunday, the U.S. will levy new royalty rates on internet broadcasters. In some cases, those rates could be high enough to seriously threaten the existence of smaller stations and web sites.

A coalition of webcasters had sought another delay in the implementation of the new rates until some sort of a solution could be found. But a federal appeals court ruled that the group had not met the standards necessary to grant a stay.

Next month internet radio stations will have to begin paying new royalty rates that will be high enough in some cases to put the webcasters out of business. Of course, the implementation date has been pushed back a few times, and Congress is considering legislation that could help out the internet radio stations.

But advocates for independent radio are making their voices heard -- by shutting off their mics. On June 26th, a number of online radio stations, including Live365, AccuRadio, KCRW.com, and Radio Paradise are participating in a day of silence.

There's always a risk associated in this sort of silent protest. On the one hand, you're showing what the world will be like if internet radio is shut down (at least in the US). On the other, what if an internet station goes silent and no one's around to not hear it? Does it not make a sound?

Slacker the internet radio for people who are, uh slackers, or too weary to create playlists for their tunes, has just released a desktop app in beta. You can now manage your entire music library and create playlists. (Gasp!) This goes without saying, but only if you want to. You can still be the slacker you were before you downloaded the desktop app.

Some neat features of the desktop app are a mini-player, large album art and groovy visualizations, and of course the playlist thing ability (no pressure though).

Here are the system requirements:

1. Windows XP + SP2 or Vista
   
2. Flash player 8.0 or higher
3. Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher
4. Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher
5. Broadband Internet connection

Sorry Mac users - Mac is not supported at this time (and we're not happy about it).

When the Slacker portable player becomes available sometime in June, you can use the desktop app to sync your custom Slacker stations and music collection to it.

Here's the link for the Slacker's desktop download.

[via Digg]

Music website Lala plans to launch a new music on demand service soon. While online radio sites like Pandora or Last.fm let provide a stream of audio tailored to your tastes, Lala's service will let you click on an individual song and listen to it. Currently that's only something you can do with subscription services like Rhapsody.

There's just one problem. It costs money to stream audio on demand. A lot more than internet radio stations have to pay to stream music, even if new royalty rates take effect this summer.

In order to offset the costs, Lala hopes to sell CDs through its service. The theory is that visitors to the site will be music fans who are willing to pay for the music they like. But the average user will have to buy one CD per month in order for Lala to break even, that just doesn't seem too likely.

[via TechCrunch]

What do you do if you've got an internet radio station, but the future of online radio is murky? Add video, of course. Because no content owners have ever demanded much of internet companies that offer video.

Last.fm plans to add video to its site this week, allowing users to create custom music video channels much the way they can currently create custom music stations. The music will be encoded at 128kbps, which is twice the bitrate of music videos on YouTube.

The company is partnering with a group of major and independent record labels, so there shouldn't be any lawsuits to worry about. But with the copyright royalty board seeking significantly increased fees from internet radio stations, how long will it be before sites like Last.fm also have to pay exorbitant royalty rates to deliver music videos online?

There are untold fortunes to me made in this world, as long as you live by one cardinal rule: never underestimate the laziness of consumers. This is the guiding logic behind a new "intuitive" mp3 player launched by the Slacker Company. Slacker and their new gadget called... The Slacker (creative, no?) are set to be available in June and cost around $150 for a 2 Gig model, and $400 for 12 Gigs. The real innovation is that the player chooses music automatically, and allows you to decide if you like it or not. If you say you don't, it'll never play the song again. Many internet radio users will be familiar with this format. Mainly because it's taken directly from internet radio. Slacker's internet radio has been operating since March, and has 100 stations which will is where the songs for the mp3 player will be downloaded from.

In a wonderful testament to just how lazy we've become as a society, one of the founders of Slacker was quoted as saying "Most MP3 players are too much work for the average user." Valid point. Many of us lay tired and sore in our beds at night after a long day of handling our Mp3 players. Medical experts have recently reported a high rate of chronic fatigue among young Americans and feel that portable music players are to blame, even going so far as to dub the trend "Ipod Drain". Poor attempts at humor aside, the Slacker does seem like a useful tool. A portable radio with just enough control over the playlist that you can be sure to get something you like, while trimming out that which you don't. And more importantly, now that we don't have to spend so much time and effort slaving away on our old fashioned MP3 players, we as a society can finally get around to getting some work done.

The Copyright Royalty Board has delayed implementation of the new royalty rates on internet broadcasters that had been set to take effect May 15th. The new rates will now be effective on July 15th, giving netcasters a few more months to try to reach a deal to prevent the coming apocalypse.

Basically, internet radio producers say the new rates would be so high that most online radio services would be put out of business.

Internet radio service Pandora is no longer available to most customers outside of the United States and Britain. The network has been unable to reach licensing agreements with most copyright holders in most other countries.

The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires copyright holders to license their content to internet broadcasters, but most countries have no such law.

Founder Tim Westergren says the company has been receiving pressure from record labels and could not hold out any longer. Ironically, the move comes the same day that Pandora and other internet music broadcasters received a two month reprieve from increased royalty fees in the U.S.

Congressman Jay Inslee and eight cosponsors have introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act, designed to combat the recent rate hike implemented by the Copyright Royalty Board.

If no action is taken, royalty rates on internet music broadcasts will jump significantly on May 15th, potentially putting many small netcasters out of business.

Among other things, the new bill would:

• Nullify the Royalty Board decision.
• Change the arbitration process for internet radio rate setting.
• Establish that the minimum annual royalty a netcaster has to pay can be no higher than $500.
• Set a transitional royalty rate that is the same as the rate paid by satellite broadcasters.

The bill gives the save net radio crowd a chance to rally behind a specific action. Up until now, they'd been asking folks to write their local members of Congress to demand action. Now they're asking for people to call legislators and ask them to support the bill.