• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, September 7, 2012

Taking on Pandora and other ad-supported music streaming services, Apple is reportedly in talks to license music for a radio service of its own.

“Several online music services … have recently added Pandora-like custom radio features,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “But Apple's outsize presence in online-music sales and massive installed base … could make it a much more serious threat.”

Also, while most such services operate under limited licenses that restrict what they can do with the music, “Apple is seeking direct licenses with record labels that would give the company more flexibility in using music,” reports The New York Times.

“If such a feature were to be implemented, the alleged service would have a leg up on rivals that charge users a subscription fee in return for unlimited skips,” AppleInsider writes.

“If Apple is really serious about launching a Pandora killer, therefore, maybe it should just buy Pandora,” Business Insider quips.

“Apple’s service is likely to take the form of a preinstalled app on Apple’s devices like iPhones and iPads and might be able to connect to users’ iTunes account to judge their tastes,” The New York Times’ Bits blog notes.

And, things had been going so well for Pandora. Just last week, Reuters reports, the publically trade company reported “stronger-than expected quarterly results on higher advertising revenue as more people listened to music on their mobile devices, and the company raised its full-year revenue outlook.”

“The bigger question is why Apple would want to launch a streaming music service -- particularly an ad-supported one,” writes AllThingsD. “That’s because ad-supported streaming music is a pretty lousy business.”