TechCrunch reports that Sonific, an online music radio service similar to Pandora and last.fm, is shutting down operations on May 1st, saying that they were unable to secure licensing from the record labels in a way that made their business possible. According to a post by Gerd Leonhard, Co-Founder & CEO of Sonific:

"There are countless startups providing access to any and all music streams without any license whatsoever. However, when we approached the major record label decision makers in order to obtain licenses for some of the music in their catalogs we have routinely faced demands for very large cash advances and fixed per-stream minimum payments, pressure to give them 'free' company equity, and requirements of utterly bizarre usage restrictions. It seems that the industry's major stakeholders still prefer this turf to remain unlicensed rather than to allow real-life, workable and market-based solutions to emerge by working with new companies such as Sonific. This is not the way forward.

"We therefore had to realize that a company that wants to provide interactive streaming music services must either a) risk the constant complaints of their users, due to the lack of hit content b) proceed to use any and all music (this is routinely done by allowing users to upload their own MP3s) without the required licenses, and therefore be at the total mercy of the record labels at some point in time, and c) build a huge audience very quickly, based on having the content available - permission or not -, and then very quickly sell themselves to a large company that will take care of placating the labels while the money is plenty and the pockets are deep... Unfortunately we don't like any of these choices."

CNET News reports that over-the-air radio broadcasters (under the guise of Radio Heard Here, a new National Association of Broadcasters alliance) have a plan to stay relevant even as their listeners continue to migrate to the Web. But the popular tech site is doubtful of their chances:

"The plan calls for a public-relations campaign, including video ads on YouTube, and a method to connect players online. But there's little real meat. In reality, it's a response to those skeptical about the industry's chances to survive in the Internet era who have lately given radio plenty of static."

This follows a report by BusinessWeek's Jon Fine entitled "Requiem for Old-Time Radio," which had said that as revenues plunged and listeners disappeared, the Internet made countless users into DJs—ones that weren't restricted by radio's advertiser-driven playlists.

"The explosion in both expression and availability, first on independent labels and now everywhere, thanks to the Internet," Fine wrote, "began overtaking commercial radio stations well over 20 years ago."

Clear Channel has hooked up with Apple in a deal to "tag" the tunes played on its HD digital stations in a way that lets listeners ID and buy the tracks from iTunes, Bloomberg reports. They can also push a button to add songs to their iPod playlists.

The tags have been added to more than 345 of Clear Channel's HD digital stations.

According to the Bloomberg article, listeners need an HD radio with an iPod docking station to take advantage of the service.

CBS Radio and Last.fm announced a partnership to begin sharing Internet radio content, MediaPost is reporting. The deal "will allow the Internet company to stream audio from CBS radio station broadcasts live, while giving listeners from the CBS Radio Internet Network access to Last.fm's library of free online music."

Here's the rundown of what each party gets, quoted from the report:

- Last.fm scores a substantial increase in the number of broadcast partners and breadth of content it can offer—adding CBS Radio's 140 stations to its existing partnerships with Universal, EMI, Warner Music Group and Sony BMG, as well as about 150,000 independent artists and studios. The station list includes top CBS properties like New York's WCBS-FM, Los Angeles' KROQ, Chicago's WXRT and Atlanta's WVEE. Last.fm users will be able to access the content through CBS' new online audio player.

- Meanwhile, CBS will be able to increase its online advertising reach through Last.fm's promotional and distribution platforms—as well as entice more listeners to its own proprietary Web sites with the promise of access to millions of free songs offered on demand by the Last.fm library.

It's a trivial step to make some of this available on mobile, as some Internet radio portal sites have already done—so we'll see if CBS and Last.fm go down the same path.

FlyTunes, a free radio service for the iPhone and iPod touch, has boosted its content up to more than 160 channels, up from 50 when it launched in January.

Listeners can tune in to channels for just about any music genre as well as talk, sports and weather. The new additions include Radio Paradise, SmoothJazz.com, RauteMusik.fm, 53 music channels from 181.fm, NPR, TheScore.com and local weather in the top 15 U.S. markets.

The company describes its service as a "free satellite radio-like listening experience." When not mobile, you can also stream FlyTunes on a PC or Mac.

Mobile music services outfit mSpot has partnered with NAVTEQ's Traffic.com to bring its JamCast audio traffic reports to mSpot radio.

The ad-supported, mobile-optimized version of JamCast will provide live, on-air traffic reports every 10 minutes for more than 30 U.S. cities: Albany, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Washington, D.C.

The traffic reports are mSpot's first foray into ad-supported content. mSpot Radio is available to Alltel, Boost, Sprint and U.S. Cellular subscribers in the U.S.

(Image credit: Clipart.com)

CNNMoney.com is reporting that the U.S. Justice Department approved the merger between satellite radio companies Sirius and XM Monday, more than a year after the two companies first announced their deal.

We've been waiting for the DOJ to determine whether an XM-Sirius merger was anti-competitive, or if other media companies such as Clear Channel, CBS, and even Apple served as genuine alternate options for music and media customers, according to the article.

The FCC must also approve the deal before it's finally a go. "The merger would combine the nation's only two satellite radio companies and create a company with about 14 million subscribers. It would bring together Sirius' most well-known content, including Howard Stern and National Football League games with XM's Major League Baseball as well programming from Oprah Winfrey."

The merger would impact all kinds of devices and services related to the two companies, including Sprint's SIRIUS Music and AT&T's XM Radio Mobile. Cell phone satellite radio has been on the table for three years now; the merger could finally give it a bump in popularity.

LAPTOP magazine confirms that the Slacker Portable will finally ship tomorrow after months of delays. This little device will let Slacker internet radio fans listen to their own playlists on the move, rather than being tethered to a desktop or laptop PC Web browser. So far, it seems, the device scores.

"The best part is that you don't have to be connected to Wi-Fi to listen," LAPTOP said. "The player will cache music from your stations when you are in a hotspot so you can listen to tracks in non-connected environments. The Slacker Portables range in price based on station capacity (the low end 15-station model is priced at $199). Stay tuned for our hands on and full review."

The article goes on to interview a company spokesperson about where Slacker is headed next. Internet radio is beginning to break into mobile, with Pandora releasing a cell phone client, and other vendors murmuring in a similar vein.

Slacker Portable Ships Tomorrow. What's Next? [Laptop]