Pandora's Back

The history of Internet radio has been a series of unfulfilled promises and near-death experiences. Everyone can see the appeal of streaming music online, but the industry has long seemed precarious. That's partly because the business model has never been obvious, and in recent years it looked as if copyright crackdowns would make the business financially impossible. But two weeks ago, large webcasters and the record industry reached a compromise that seems as if it will provide the Internet radio industry with enough breathing room to survive. Does this mean that Pandora-the largest of the independent webcasters-will now triumph? As you probably know, Pandora streams personalized Internet radio to desktops and smartphones alike. Its biggest competitors include Last.fm-which provides comparable "find music like the music you like" services and is safe in the hands of old-media CBS-and Yahoo's (YHOO) Launchcast (also now run by CBS), which isn't as customizable. In part because it never hooked up with a big company, Pandora's decade-long struggle to survive has been the most apt symbol of the ups and downs of Internet radio.