For at least the last five years, whenever my father-in-law and I start talking about computers and-or music, he always comes around to a statement something like this: why isn't there a service where I can pick any song I want and have them make a CD for me? If you are willing to make the CD yourself, of course, this can be easily accomplished through file sharing. But if you don't want to be bothered with the time and effort of burning your own CDs, or you are troubled by the ethical and/or legal ramifications of such activity then you are out of luck. Why? The licensing nightmare.

There now appears to be a break in that logjam:

Sony Pictures Television and a CD duplication company plan to introduce a Web site today that will allow fans of the television show "Dawson's Creek" to create and buy customized CD's of songs featured on the program.

Users of the site, www.dawsonscreekcds.com, will be able to select up to 14 tracks for their CD's from an initial pool of about 75. The discs, priced at $11.95, will be made by Mixonic, a CD customization and duplication company in San Francisco.

....Those involved with the project said that because the artists involved were eager for the exposure on "Dawson's Creek," the service managed to avoid much of the squabbling over music rights that doomed mix-CD start-ups like MusicMaker.com. But the site's introduction was still delayed by rights issues. Plans to include a song by Aimee Mann, perhaps the best-known artist on an early list of participants (Lori Carson and Vanessa Daou are among the others), were dropped because the rights had not yet been cleared, Mixonic said.

Josh Rouse, a singer and guitarist based in Nashville whose song "Miracle" will be available through the site, said he was happy to have another outlet for his music. "I'm not really on the radio that much, so this is some kind of exposure somewhere," he said.

For prospective customers who find the amount of choice to be overwhelming, the site will offer seven ready-made lists of songs associated with specific characters. The site explains when each song was heard on the show, using descriptions like "Episode 207: Song plays while Jen and Chris are in the hot tub."