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BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
Pandora, a VC-funded Internet radio property that garnered huge amounts of media and popular attention in 2006 with its unique personalization and recommendation engine, is now coming under fire from fans who aren't pleased with the service's recent addition of in-stream audio ads.

The nine second audio ads, which according to Pandora CTO Tom Conrad, are being heard by "10%" of Pandora's audience, are being met by many bloggers with an overwhelmingly negative response. [Read previous RAIN coverage here.]

The Geeklimit blog argues that the McDonald's Value Menu audio ads that many Pandora users report hearing is detrimental both to Pandora and to the advertiser. "I now know exactly who is keeping me from hearing my music, both visually and via audio," the blogger writes.

Other posts have echoed the sentiment, pinpointing everything from the choice of advertiser to the fact that Pandora has seemingly broken some type of covenant with its users by introducing audio ads at all.

Wired Online's "Monkey Bites" blog writes: "For instance the tag line on the main site reads: 'We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you.' I guess I didn’t know that conversation would include product peddling... Perhaps if the ads applied the same intelligence as Pandora’s recommendations features they would be less annoying. For instance why not stream ads from music-relevant services?... "

A blogger at Mashable! writes: "Pandora users are pretty passionate about the product, and are quick to respond when they notice something they don’t like. Nobody makes these complaints about Yahoo Music, because, frankly, nobody cares  about Yahoo Music."

Still, most posts do point out the difficulty of balancing a high-traffic site offering free music with the necessity of monetizing the product to ensure the survival of the site (an argument that Conrad himself makes in the comment section of one blog).

A blogger at GeekLimit goes so far as to suggest alternate monetization methods for Pandora, such as "leveraging user accounts for sales" and exploring the booming mobile music market for ways to tie the Pandora service into devices and other mobile services.

...

... The musician-slash-techhead community is a demanding and fickle one! As noted in Dan's article above, they're vociferously objecting to the presence of a single nine-second-long audio spot per day! And if Pandora's venture capitalists are ever going to recover the more than $20 million they've sunk into the venture to date, Pandora is going to have to run a lot more advertising than that. (Or be more succesful with subscriptions than other webcasters have been.)--KH ...

From the Wall Street Journal: "In a glitzy presentation [Tuesday] at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, CBS Corp. tried to send a strong message to the technology industry: We get it.

"Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves... announced a burst of digital media deals in a carefully orchestrated show, surrounded  by a cadre of Internet impresarios including YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley...

"[T]he deals move the old-line broadcaster closer to its stated goal of being one of the TV industry's leading innovators on the Web...

"He emphasized that CBS wants to collaborate with Internet companies on emerging technologies to put TV on the Web — particularly because it will help CBS learn more about the demographics and tastes of its audience...

"CBS's strategy: Getting in on the ground floor with rising Internet companies will open the way to inking important deals in the long term. In other words, cozy up to the tech crowd early, and the money will come later.

"Among the Internet initiatives Mr. Moonves announced at the Las Vegas presentation were partnerships with YouTube, the popular video-sharing site owned by Google; Second Life, a virtual online community that has about one million users; and Sling Media Inc., a closely held company that markets the Slingbox (pictured), a device that lets consumers send content from their TVs over the Internet to desktop personal computers, laptop PCs or cellphones."

Subscribers can read the story at the Wall Street Journal online.

From SiliconValley.com: "A new online music service lets people share music stored on their PCs with other computer users or those with Web-enabled mobile phones.

"Using the free Avvenu Music Player launching this week, users can select tracks they wish to share and send links to friends via e-mail. Recipients click on the link to listen to the songs for up to five days on standard Web browsers...

"Music files are sent to Avvenu and streamed from its servers when the sharer's computer is off. Otherwise, audio files are streamed directly from users' computers or phones.

"Avvenu officials insist their service is legal because recipients don't retain copies of songs — the streams only work when there's an Internet connection, and only for five days. The Recording Industry Association of America had no comment...

"Avvenu plans to release a revised version of the service within  three months... The company plans to ultimately offer a subscription service with a free basic offering."

Read the entire article at SiliconValley.com.