Even though we love Pandora, there was a time when most of us, even Pandora's founder, saw little hope that the startup could survive if Internet royalty rates for music were to rise.

Now, less than one year later, Pandora is seeing sunny skies and reporting that the company should reach profitability in 2010 thanks to their ability to serve highly targeted advertisements.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Pandora's founder, Tim Westergren, said that "Revenue may double this year to about $40 million," and that the site, "has 27 million registered users and is adding members at 50,000 to 60,000 a day, faster than in previous years."

The article also reports that the astronomically popular iPhone app and new BlackBerry app are helping the service attract tons of new users. Westergren attributed Pandora's iPhone app to having 5 million total users, and attracting upwards of 18,000 new users per day. Those are some impressive numbers.

With an ever expanding user base that Pandora can segment and target to advertisers' niche audience needs (based on music listening tastes), Pandora is able to capitalize on its growth, and attributes its financial wellness to desirable advertising verticals.

Even though the outlook is bright for 2010, that pesky matter of Internet royalties has yet to fade away. Westergren did tell Bloomberg that he was optimistic, but negotiations have yet to finalized between the service and the powers that control the purse: recording companies, artists, and copyright holders.

We couldn't be happier for Pandora's success, and hope to see 2010 turn out to be as profitable for them as they anticipate.