Las Vegas - Pandora, a service that lets users create personalized Internet radio stations based on their preferences, plans to close its U.K. service next week in light of high music royalty payments.

"Both the PPL and the MCPS/PRS Alliance have demanded per-track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate," Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren said in an e-mail to users.

"We have been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable."

Pandora had already closed all of its other non-U.S. services last summer.

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