For those cubicle creatures stuck in front of a computer all day – a la Office Space – online radio has become a buffer between the worker and monotony, even insanity. 

One of the most popular streaming music sites is the bandwidth baron Pandora.com, which allows users to build custom playlists by first entering an artist or favorite song.  Unfortunately, music lovers outside of the United States may soon be stiff-armed service, as Pandora crumbles under the massive weight being placed on it by record labels.

First used two years ago, Pandora asks visitors to enter their favorite artist or song, and then feeds that music fan a series of tunes the database deems similar to the original entry. 

Enter “Foo Fighters”, and you’re sure to get Nirvana, Bush, and a host of new bands you’ve never heard (both good, and bad).  Users can give the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to each song, which allows Pandora to better shape individual tastes.  It’s all part of founder Tim Westergren’s “Music Genome Project”.

In the past, Pandora has asked visitors to enter an American postal code, but users – like yours truly – could always enter “90210” and simply proceed with the music experience.  Now, with Westergren blaming record label pressure, Pandora will begin axing IP addresses located outside of the United States.

For the most part, the problem stems from Digital Millennium Copyright Act mandates, which demand services like Pandora secure licenses to stream music to non-U.S. listeners.  Although Pandora has come close to doing so in the United Kingdom (hope for a future agreement exists), there’s no word on any progress in Canada, Mexico, or the many other nations of online music fanatics.

Connecting from Guelph, ON at 8:20am, I discovered Pandora still allowed me to listen to its music.  Pandora plans on terminating this sometime today, although clearly the beavers have not yet finished the dam.