about the FMOD module - will it have the licensing issues of the normal FMOD?
Yes, I think that would be likely. As you stated Audiere would be a wise choice if licensing costs are a problem with Fmod. I'm quite confident that a module will be attempted for the Audiere library too at some stage.
Never could figure out why this wasn't done in Blitz, Blitz3D or BlitzPlus
I recall something about the blitz license only allowed certain functionality. If those products had all of the Fmod features included then the license would have cost BRL (and consequently us) much more money.