The problem: you want to listen to Pandora.com Internet radio on your Windows Mobile phone, but it doesn’t have a headphone jack (3.5mm). The phone only has Bluetooth.

The proposed solution: buy an adapter for the mini-USB jack on the bottom of the phone that allows for a 3.5mm plug, which can be routed to my car’s stereo.

The product: the iTrek mini USB to 3.5mm adapter, purchased from Semsons & Co., Inc via Amazon.com for $5 shipped.

The verdict: it works … sort of.
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I love, love, love Pandora Radio, which suggests music for you based on the types of music you like. One of the things I’ve always wanted is a way to listen to Pandora in my car. I was jealous when iPhone users got to listen to Pandora on the go, and I hoped for a Windows Mobile version. Time passed, and passed, and passed, and finally you can listen to your favorite Pandora station on your Windows Mobile device.

Sort of.

The catch is that it only works with two phones right now, the HTC Touch (Verizon xv6900) and the Motorola Q9C. Luckily (for me, at least), I have an HTC Touch. The mobile version of Pandora.com works great. I had a problem copy and pasting my username/password into the application and had to peck out my password via the phone’s virtual keyboard. That took FOREVER, as I have strong password with all sorts of randomly-generated letters, numbers, and symbols. After I got past that, though, everything ran well.

I am a little surprised to see that you can’t buy music directly from the mobile version of Pandora. I have purchased a half-dozen albums from Amazon through Pandora. I am not sure if the iPhone version has this, but it’s a definite “nice to have.”

My next task is connecting my phone to my MazdaSpeed3′s stereo. The stock head unit has a 3.5mm standard headset jack, but my Touch does not have a headset connector. I will have to buy a mini-USB to 3.5mm adapter cable, and most of the ones I have found online are from dubious places I’ve never heard of. On eBay, every single adapter I found is sold out of Hong Kong. I’d rather not pay $15 in shipping for a $5 cable, but if that’s what I have to do to have Pandora in my car, then that’s what I have to do.

Here’s my favorite Pandora station, “Relaxed.” I used to listen to it while working from home. It is seeded with songs by Juno Reactor, Lamb, Mocean Worker, Mr. Scruff, Truby Trio and Weekend Players.

I’ve written about how royalties have threatened Internet radio in the past. According to this Ars Technica article, it seems like the Sound Exchange is trying to drive nails in the coffins of my favorite Internet radio stations. Ars Technica discusses the awesome-o Pandora in particular, but the disproportionally high royalty fees will affect all of the Internet radio stations I listen to, including SomaFM and Frisky Radio.
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From Ars Technica: Internet radio royalty rates are not going to go up as expected — at least, not yet anyway. This announcement was made during a Congressional discussion. SoundExchange, the entity responsible for collecting the increased fees, announced that they would attempt to negotiate something more reasonable with Webcasters.

The royalty increase has been a big issue to me. Not only do I listen to Internet radio for most of the day while I work from home, but one of my good friends BushPutin is employed over at Pandora. BushPutin said that Pandora did not have plans to fold up immediately on the 15th, and was still hiring and maintained their operating budgets. He was still concerned about the impact of the fee increase, and believed that Pandora would hit the proposed rate cap of 2500 stations due to Pandora’s “create-your-own” station format.

In preparation of losing some of my favorite Internet radio stations, I have been recording Frisky Radio’s stream for the last twenty six hours. Thanks to this announcement, it looks like I can give my hard drive a rest.

Gibberish reader Stomper sent this along to me in an email, and I think it’s important enough to warrant its own post.

This was mentioned in my intial post about the proposed increase to Internet radio royalties, but the email below has a direct link to a petition/feedback form for your area Congressperson. The feedback form is faxed over the wire; it only takes a few moments and is free. I’ve bolded the link below.

Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora,

I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends – the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I’m no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster’s business potential.

I hope you’ll take just a few minutes to sign our petition – it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)