Spotify

This doesn't get them into the States, but it gets them a lot closer: music service Spotify has finally signed with Sony for a U.S. distribution deal. Multiple sources tell me the deal, which has been very close since last fall, is now closed.

I'm told the terms call for a U.S. service that more or less mirrors the one Spotify offers in Europe: A certain number of hours per month of free streaming music, with the ability to pay for an ad-free version, or a more popular one that lets users listen on mobile devices … Read more

Will Courtney Love's lawyers argue that Twitter is just so fun and awesome that she can't be held responsible for defamatory crazy talk she types on it? If so, we're about to go crazy on Twitter. Also, Apple and News Corp may have pushed back their launch date for the Daily, BBC says no to Smart TV fragmentation, and why can't Samsung just give us our dang Froyo already? --Molly

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Spotify and Shazam team up to help you find and purchase music

Sony may be announcing a new PSP soon

Facebook teams up with the Amber Alert system

Google will start selling ads on music videos in mobile YouTube

Google launches Google Places for iPhone

Microsoft launches a Web and app building site called WebMatrix

A new report in the Journal of Cosmology discusses the specifics of mating in space

The Wikileaks war is escalating and it's threatening to go all "War Games" on us. 4Chan's forces, the Anonymous group, are DDoS-ing the heck out of sites like PayPayl, MasterCard, and anyone who bows to "government pressure." Meanwhile, secret forces of, uh, governments, are DDoS-ing Anonymous right back. And who's caught in the middle? The poor, innocent routers. Also, SpaceX successfully takes off, and scientists tee off on NASA's arsenic microbe. Ouch. --Molly

commentary Daniel Ek says he can't commit to a launch date for Spotify USA.

Too late. Ek, Spotify's founder and CEO, did commit. Maybe he forgot that he and his underlings have repeatedly said the launch of a U.S. version of Spotify, a popular European music service that offers free streaming songs in addition to a subscription offering, would open in the United States before the end of the year.

What Ek knows and isn't saying is that Spotify will miss that deadline, just as it has missed other launch dates.

As of last week, Spotify … Read more

On today's show, we're totally hoping the music industry will finally catch up to reality, or at least the year 2010. Or the "tensies," as we're now calling them. Forever. Spotify is under pressure to just launch, already, but this time it's from their investors. Also, is "Farmville" on the decline because Facebook users are just narcissistic quiz-takers? --Molly

For anyone following the attempts by European music service Spotify to launch in the United States, it should be plain that the company and supporters are trying hard to rally support among music aficionados.

All the headlines about Spotify have teased a potential American audience for months. The latest example came yesterday when the blog Music Ally reported that Spotify, which is attempting to obtain the music licenses and launch a U.S. service, has paid about 40 million euros, or the equivalent of $55 million, to music rights holders since launching there two years ago. The blog also wrote … Read more

The four major record labels are warming up to Spotify, the popular European streaming music service trying to launch in the United States.

Spotify is still without signed contracts to license music from any top label and there are still numerous points to be negotiated, but the company has never been closer to finalizing deals than now, said multiple sources with knowledge of the talks.

One of the ways that Spotify has stirred the labels is by offering big money advances, the sources said. The amount could not be verified. Spokespeople for Spotify and the labels either were not immediately … Read more

Contrary to a published report, Apple has not talked with Spotify about acquiring the European digital music service, a Spotify spokesman said today.

TechCrunch reported it had received an anonymous tip that Apple had approached Spotify about a possible acquisition. TechCrunch said that it had "dug into" the information and it had checked out.

"Apple and Spotify are in on-again, off-again discussions about an acquisition, but at best it's very early in the process," TechCrunch wrote. "No firm price has been offered, no term sheet tabled. Still, it's interesting that the two are … Read more