ZDNet conducted an interview with Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, an internet radio service. Pandora allows you to choose any song, artist, or genre as a seed; it will then select other songs based on the characteristics of the song/artist/genre you selected. For instance, a song by a jazz pianist might be tagged with “fast piano lines” or “slow chord progression”; each song has been classified with many such labels.

The result? Pandora often selects an excellent stream of songs, customized to your particular listening desire.

They even have an iPhone application, which lets me get a Pandora stream from the cell phone network connection; essentially a 24/7 radio service custom-tailored to my desires.

The problem, politically speaking, has been that online radio stations currently face disproportionate taxes on the songs that they play, as opposed to traditional broadcast stations. They currently make $23-$24 million in revenue each year, but they pay $17 million in royalty fees, according to ZDNet’s interview. As a result, Tim Westergren had said that the future of Pandora might be bleak; his comments sparked an outpouring of support for the station.

Pandora does provide an excellent service to musicians and listeners; the article goes into more depth, describing how Pandora often brings attention to smaller artists and encourages listeners to buy the artists’ music.

Pandora really is a win-win: Listeners discover music that they’re likely to purchase, and musicians (even less prominent ones) receive exposure and profit. But if the royalty fees are disproportionately high — enough to kill off online radio services like Pandora — both camps will lose.

I hope Pandora succeeds as they work with the music industry to lower the royalty rates to a fairer level. The internet only becomes more prominent in everyday life; it’d be a shame to let bureaucracy get in the way of new services that benefit musicians and audiences alike.