It’s a shame that a service like Pandora is facing closure because of stupidity. Traditional radio stations pay no royalty fees. Satellite radio pays 1.6 cents per listener, per hour. Internet radio pays $500 per channel of content plus 60 cents per user per month plus 1.4 cents (this year) per song.

A report has surfaced that Pandora — the popular music-mix service for computers and mobile devices such as the iPhone — may have to stop music streaming as royalty fees drain its cash.

In an interview published Saturday by The Washington Post, Pandora founder Tim Westergren said, “We’re reaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision. This is like a last stand for Webcasting.”

The Copyright Royalty Board is driving Internet radio out of business. The record companies are really going to feel the pinch when Internet radio goes silent. Silence sucks, especially when you are sitting in your basement in your home theater seating.

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