CBS Launch of Radio.com

Radio.com is combining the power of 600+ “real” radio stations along with Last.fm’s scrobbling in an attempt to become the online source of radio. Google shows 3,350,000 searches per month for “radio”, meaning CBS now has one of the most valuable domains on the web. But, Radio.com will have a lot of competition to deal with (Pandora and Grooveshark). What can CBS offer that is different?

The slick user interface, sections for news and sports, along with links to AOL & Yahoo stations are the main selling points of Radio.com. It seems as if they’re trying to give terrestrial radio a live-podcast feel. My first encounters with the service were basically nonstop advertisements for 3 minutes. Fortunately, mute still works.

But once the ads are over, a nice cover-flow appearance of what you’re listening to is displayed above relevant information to the station you’re listening to *sometimes. Sometimes means it doesn’t always update when the song changes, for no reason that I can see. But when it does work, an indicator displays if the artist is on tour, along with the ability to buy ring-tones that are based on similar artists.

It doesn’t require a sign-up, so go try Radio.com and see if it fits for you.