If you've been waiting with bated breath for Google to launch their iTunes competitor, take a breath. No, it's not happening, we just don't want you to pass out during the wait. A report from All Things D indicates that Google's talks with the recording industry have broken down. The situation is so bad apparently, that Google is reconsidering their entire approach to Google Music.
Spotify, the popular European music streaming service that's still trying to figure out how to break into the United States, is making some changes that will hit current users of its free service like a gut punch. Announced today in a blog post, the total listening time for free users has been cut in half from 20 hours a month to just 10 hours. Ooph. And starting May 1st, any user who signed up to the free service on or before November 1, 2010 will only be able to listen to individual tracks five times per month (if you signed up after, there's a 6 month grace period).
Google hasn’t officially announced that it’s entering the music game yet, but with yesterday’s acquisition of Canadian based music startup Pushlife for a cool 
The music app on Android has been an embarrassment since the platform launched back in 2008. But thanks to a recent leak, we're getting a gander at Google's new music app for phones complete with cloud syncing. A developer version of the Android Market app miraculously showed up on a handful of phones, and allowed access to the new app. You can grab a copy, but it will overwrite your current Music app and may not work, so be warned.
Back in 2009, a site by the name of BlueBeat thought it was being super-clever selling digital Beatles songs without a label deal. The site claimed the files were not recordings, but "psycho-acoustic simulations". The rights holders didn't buy it, and easily got the site shut down. Now the legal battle has finally wound down and BlueBeat has agreed to pay nearly $1 million in damages.
Amazon has taken a big step and beaten both Apple and Google to the punch with their new Cloud Player service. Users will be able up upload music to their free 5GB Cloud Drive, and stream it to most web browsers and Android devices. There is also a tie-in with music purchased from Amazon's MP3 store, which can be loaded directly into the Cloud Drive.
The much anticipated Google Music service is said to have been delayed due to Google's demand for cloud music rights for songs purchased through its service. But as it now turns out, Google is not the only company interested in cloud rights for media content. According to a Cnet report, Amazon is also holding similar discussions with content owners from both the film and music industries. Meanwhile, a separate report claims that Apple too is working on a cloud-based digital locker service of its own.
After quite a lot of waiting, there are signs that Google Music could finally be preparing to launch. Cnet is reporting that the music streaming service is undergoing internal testing at Google. But insiders say that the service is still missing one essential component: the music.
Our apologies if you just sprayed your monitor with Starbucks and spit. That was our reaction too, once we learned that this wasn't an April Fool's prank, but an actual number record labels came up with when asked to estimate the damages Limewire should be held liable for. Their answer was $400 billion on the conservative side, and as much as $75 trillion on the high end. What did Manhattan federal district court judge Kimba Wood have to say about these numbers?
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