Just a bit of the excitement buzzing around the corridors of streaming online-radio service Pandora in 2010. Pandora, now ten years old, churned out its first profitable quarter EVER in December of 2009 – with revenues of $50 million. And get this – $30 million of that stack of cash went to artists in the form of royalties! The service is 40 million-subscribers strong, and is seeing 35,000 new iPhone subscribers daily (250,000 on Christmas day 2009 ALONE). Online music services all over the net struggle to stay afloat due to advertising, lack of user-loyalty, and an overall lack of ability to keep labels happy with royalties. What are they doing different? CNNMoney reports just what is keeping Pandora alive, and why the music industry is choosing to embrace it over so many “On-Demand” digital music servers.

V-tech’s IS9181 Wi-Fi radio began shipping in the spring of this year and further blurs the line between the abundance of the internet and the scarcity of terrestrial radio. This radio enables listeners who have a broadband wireless within their home to stream ones own music , 11,o00 internet radio stations around the globe as well as traditional fm radio to one device. The radio has a auxiliary jack for mp3 player connectivity, a pair of three-watt stereo speakers, and a ten-watt subwoofer. There are also outputs to connect to a home theater system and even the ability to check the weather forecast. This radio allows for internet radio stations and fm radio stations to compete on the same level as one another. This allows for a more competitive environment that benefits the customer by allowing many different radio stations to compete with each-other worldwide instead of a monopolistic markets around the US controlled by communication corporations like Citadel and Clear Channel. 

Internet radio has an obvious advantage over terrestrial radio in what they say and what they play. The Federal Communications Act of 1934 and Telecommunications Act of 1996 heavily regulates terrestrial broadcasts like radio through the FCC which is something that Internet radio stations don’t have to deal with as much. As internet radio and sites like Pandora become a household name in the near future expect Congress and the FCC to try to pass laws that regulate these broadband stations but for now its free reign in cyberspace for internet radio.

Heres a video with LA Beatmaker Exile by V-tech-