Word was out just a couple of weeks ago that Best Buy and Pandora inked a deal to deliver Best Buy ads on the Pandora streaming radio service. Today I loaded up my handy Pandora app on the iPhone 3G, looking for some new tunes to get the afternoon going.

After quickly setting up a new station to get the job done, I looked at the iPhone screen to see a little ad showing up just above the control bar toward the bottom of the Now Playing screen with the text, “Brought to you by Best Buy Mobile”. I thought, “weird. where did that come from?” and clicked on the link. Pandora opened up a Best Buy web page without kicking me out to the Safari browser, allowing me to keep listening to my music while seeing what Best Buy had to offer.

Well, at least for a couple seconds. Shortly before the web page completed loading, the Pandora app crashed, and I was taken back to the iPhone icons screen, with neither Best Buy nor music to distract me. Grr. So I gave up on Best Buy’s marketing bit and went back to my music, which has been playing just fine ever since. Even though the ad reappeared after reopening the app (you can close it my tapping the little X in the corner), I’m not trying that one again.

If Pandora wants to make $$$ off of ads, they may want to think about doing so without crashes. I won’t be clicking on any more ads any time soon.