Internet Radio

* E-Review spins the dial on Sonicbox's iM Remote Tuner, a device that enables listeners to tune into Internet radio stations on their home stereo. * Your Internet Guide lists recommended Web sites and upcoming Internet happenings.

I appreciated "The Undertones of the City" (June 16) on Internet radio station Dublab (Dublab.com). I'm a junior at Santa Monica High School, and I'm happy to see more non-mainstream news published in the L.A. Times. Articles on underground radio are definitely a way to reach out to future readers. Thanks. Roby Behrens Venice

Pandora, one of the most notable apps that was missing from Windows Phone devices, is now downloadable for smartphones running the latest version of Microsoft's mobile operating system. The Internet radio company released the Pandora Windows Phone 8 app Thursday, and as a bonus, Pandora also said the service will remain ad-free on Windows Phone 8 for the rest of the year.  The app functions the same as it does on other devices, but Pandora for Windows Phone 8 is visually very different from the iOS and Android versions of the service.

Pandora Media Inc. showed that investors' appetite for new Internet-related stocks remained rabid as the company priced its initial public offering at $16 a share, far above expectations. The online radio service and its private investors raised $235 million Tuesday as they rode the latest wave of interest in Internet-related businesses, particularly those focused on digital entertainment and social networks. The excitement for Pandora's offering may stoke investors' hunger for even bigger players that either have filed to go public, such as online daily-deal service Groupon Inc., or are expected to do so in the next 12 months, such as Zynga Inc., Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. Pandora's IPO price was about double the level expected in April when the firm initially forecast a price range of $7 to $9 a share.

When John Boydston got an e-mail from SoundExchange saying he had several thousand dollars in unclaimed royalties, he did what most sensible people would do. He ignored it. To the rock musician from Atlanta, "money for nothing" meant a song by Dire Straits, not a stranger contacting him out of the blue promising to cut him big checks. But then he got the message again six months later. Curious, he called SoundExchange. "Sure enough, they had a sizable amount of money for me," said Boydston, 51, whose band Daddy a Go Go includes his two teenage sons.

A federal appeals panel has declined to delay a substantial increase in royalties that Internet radio stations must pay for playing music, clearing the way for the rates to take effect Sunday. Webcasters had sought an emergency stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing that the higher rates would drive many of them out of business.

The songs remained the same on Internet radio Monday, as most stations continued to stream music while their representatives negotiated to lower a controversial royalty hike that took effect over the weekend. With talks progressing, SoundExchange, the organization that collects royalties for musicians and record companies, indicated to webcasters that it wouldn't seek immediate payment of the higher rates.

Internet radio broadcasters were dealt a setback Monday when a panel of copyright judges threw out requests to reconsider a ruling that hiked the royalties they must pay to record companies and artists. A broad group of public and private broadcasters, including radio stations, small start-up companies, National Public Radio and major online sites like Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'

With all the recent hoopla over Howard Stern's announcement that he will take his shock-jock act to satellite radio, you'd think satellite is the biggest thing in radio since the transistor. Lost in all the "What does this mean for traditional radio?" analysis is that the satellite network competitors Sirius and XM are dwarfed by the quiet phenomenon of Internet radio.

Yahoo Inc., which runs a group of Internet sites used by 213 million people a month, said it settled a lawsuit with Sony Music Entertainment Inc. over its Internet radio service. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo said it would pay a one-time fee to Sony for prior use of the company's recordings on its Launchcast service. The companies also inked a licensing agreement. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Yahoo's Santa Monica-based Launch Media Inc.