I won’t say that I didn’t see this coming, but I have been dreading it. Pandora may be near shutting down.

Last year, an obscure federal panel ordered a doubling of the per-song performance royalty that Web radio stations pay to performers and record companies.

[Pandora's] royalty fees this year will amount to 70 percent of its projected revenue of $25 million, [Tim] Westergren said, a level that could doom it and other Web radio outfits.

Some of the stations I listen to, have breaks for ads, and some of the sites have banner ads and the like, but I think that people have been enjoying the freedom in both choice and cost for too long to see any viable way to make money from internet radio. I’d be very sad to see Pandora go away. On those days when I’m not streaming music from my home server, Pandora is a great way to find out about new artists and also laugh at the “similar to…” recommendations they serve up*.

I don’t have a car, so don’t listen to the radio on a regular basis aside from NPR and I rarely catch All Songs Considered anymore. Oddly enough, one of the ways I hear a lot of new music is from ads on tv. The iPod ads aside, I couldn’t tell you what the product is, but I wouldn’t have sought out “Remind Me,” “Love Song,” “5 Years Time,” or “Let the Drummer Kick” if it hadn’t been for ads on the tube.

Between SoundExchange and the RIAA**, the message seems to be that music is a commodity, the fact that it entertains and/or moves you is merely a side-effect. Perhaps next up they’ll be sending around teams of imposing looking lawyers to shake down buskers on street corners and outside metro stations.

* Have you also noticed that if you start diligently rating songs on any station, they all start to become the same station?

** Who just shut down Muxtape.

Just reading a cyberscare, “won’t someone think of the children” article about binaural beats, called “idozers/idosers”:

We all know that music can alter your mood. Sad songs can make you cry. Upbeat songs may give you an energy boost. But can music create the same effects as illegal drugs?

This seems like a ridiculous question. But websites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs. These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects.

All your child needs is a music player and headphones.

First off, that opener sounds like the lead-in to a Fox News story and secondly this reminds me of an episode of the remake of The Outer Limits titled “Music of the Spheres” where kids were getting hooked on a form of music that gave euphoric effects, but that adults didn’t seem to be able to hear at all.

The article goes on to say that there’s no proof that these audio files actually do what they claim and I suspect it’s just another internet scam since the companies themselves say some people may be immune to the beats… yeah, right. I invite comments from the audio/bio geeks out there, but I’ll continue thinking that it’s a sign of alien life trying to communicate with our youth–and make a pretty penny in the process!

Ok, I admit it, I have a problem. I heard a catchy tune while out drinking and it’s now stuck in my head. I’m not really ashamed by this… really! But it is a song by the Pussycat Dolls, “When I Grow Up” so it’s hard not to feel just a bit like a pop culture tool for enjoying it.

However that was also the evening when I hoped the barely-clad male dancer on the bar would just walk on by before he saw me giggling. He didn’t and said, “Hey don’t laugh! I worked hard to grow this!” Needless to say, that did not quell my laughter.

My music issues could be worse however, at least it’s not “Damaged“.