SPOTIFY LAUNCHES iTUNES COMPETITOR

Companies like Apple and Google are doing their best to put together music products that compete directly with Spotify’s Web-based music streaming product. While reports suggest record labels are making the process as difficult as possible for these giants, Spotify just took the fight to their home turf. The company on Wednesday launched a new music download service that attempts to make Spotify “the only music player you’ll ever need.”

Spotify users can now purchase and download full playlists comprised of any songs from the company’s 9 million-track catalog for as low as £0.50 per song. And as an extra little slap, Spotify’s new feature allows playlists to be synchronized with the iPod classic, iPod nano or iPod shuffle right from within the Spotify desktop app.

Spotify still isn’t available in the U.S., but rumors suggest the company is closer than ever to striking deals with record companies that will allow it to launch its popular service stateside.

ONLIVE UNVEILS $9.99 FLAT RATE GAMING PLAN

Remote gaming service OnLive on Thursday unveiled a flat-rate monthly plan for $9.99, which will allow users unlimited access to OnLive's gaming library. OnLive likened the service to a video game version of Netflix or iTunes.

Users who already have the OnLive Game Service can access the unlimited offering, dubbed OnLive PlayPack, starting today. Other OnLive members can start using it on January 15.

At this point, OnLive PlayPack has at least a dozen games, including Ubisoft's "Prince of Persia" and Warner Bros.'s "Lego Batman." OnLive promised to ramp up to more than 40 games by the January launch date. PlayPack games will play instantly on TVs, via the OnLive Game System, or on a PC or Mac after a browser download.

OnLive offers gaming via free trials, 3- and 5-day rentals, and a la carte PlayPass options for specific new-release games. It also sells the OnLive Game System (OGS) for $99, which includes a MicroConsole and controller for OnLive game access via HDTVs. OnLive said it started shipping the OGS today.

"People love flat-rate plans for instant-play media, so it's exciting to introduce this offering to the video game market for the first time. With PlayPass games priced from $3.99 to $49.99, along with the new $9.99/mo PlayPack plan, OnLive's growing library of games will suit any budget and any type of gamer, from casual to hardcore," Steve Perlman, founder and CEO of OnLive, said in a statement.

PlayBack does not require a contract and can be cancelled at any time. [PC Mag]

IS COMCAST EXTORTING SERVICE PROVIDERS WHO DELIVER VIDEO?

Level 3, who recently signed a deal to become the primary provider for streaming Netflix content, was pressured by Comcast to pay a "recurring fee" "to transmit Internet online movies and other content to Comcast's customers who request such content." After a few days of negotiating, Level 3 paid the fee, ensuring uninterrupted service for Netflix subscribers.

Thomas Stortz, Level 3's chief legal officer, said this in a statement earlier today:

Level 3 believes Comcast's current position violates the spirit and letter of the FCC's proposed Internet Policy principles and other regulations and statutes, as well as Comcast's previous public statements about favoring an open Internet. While the network neutrality debate in Washington has focused on what actions a broadband access provider might take to filter, prioritize or manage content requested by its subscribers, Comcast's decision goes well beyond this. With this action, Comcast is preventing competing content from ever being delivered to Comcast's subscribers at all, unless Comcast's unilaterally-determined toll is paid - even though Comcast's subscribers requested the content. With this action, Comcast demonstrates the risk of a ‘closed' Internet, where a retail broadband Internet access provider decides whether and how their subscribers interact with content.

Comcast claims that their "toll" has nothing to do with Netflix or video traffic in general but rather with the amount of traffic Level 3 is pushing off onto Comcast's intertubes. In a statement tonight the company said:

We are happy to maintain a balanced, no-cost traffic exchange with Level 3. However, when one provider exploits this type of relationship by pushing the burden of massive traffic growth onto the other provider and its customers, we believe this is not fair.

Indeed, recent reports suggest that Netflix is responsible for a fairly absurd amount of bandwidth, and as Wired points out, the contracts that dictate who is responsible for carrying what traffic are largely left undisclosed to the public. Comcast's statements (unsurprisingly) shift the debate from one of net neutrality to the esoteric and largely uninteresting business of service providers negotiations.

Regardless, Level 3 says they'll be taking the matter to government regulators soon—hopefully there will be sufficient outrage at some point in the process to get Comcast to back down. [Gizmodo]

REDBOX ANNOUNCES STREAMING PLANS

Coinstar, the parent company of Redbox, CEO Paul Davis stated on the recent earnings call that Redbox is in "detailed negotiations with a number of highly interested parties" to launch a "Redbox-branded" streaming service sometime next year. While Davis was light on details, his statement leads many to believe Redbox will partner with an already established streaming service rather than trying to roll their own from scratch. Makes sense to us. It will be interesting to see how they fair against the NetFlix juggernaut. [Engadget]

BROADCAST NETWORKS BLOCK GOOGLE TV

ABC, NBC and CBS have blocked Google TV from accessing online content of their shows.  According to the Wall Street Journal all 3 networks have confirmed the ban and Fox hasn't reached a decision yet.  Google says "ultimately the content owners' choice to restrict their fans from accessing their content on the platform," but Reuters is now reporting the Google is in active negotiations with the networks to get access back.

Google TV can be found in select Sony televisions and also in a Logitech set-top box.  It allows users to view live television as well as the internet at the same time. [Engadget]

ONLIVE DROPS MONTHLY CHARGE

OnLive, the online gaming platform, has dropped it's monthly charge.  Starting immediately the streaming game service will only charge for online game play with no monthly fee.  OnLive also announced better video quality and game pad controllers before Christmas. [Gizmodo]

RUMOR: STUDIOS IN TALKS TO OFFER STREAMING MOVIES

Bloomberg is reporting that Disney, Warner Bros. and Sony are in talks with In Demand to offer movies "soon after their theater runs" via a streaming option.  They will offer the movies for $30.  Disney is looking to stream movies through the Xbox 360 and Playstation3 as well.

This is not the first time a studio has tested this method.  Sony tried it twice before with Hancock and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  They charged $25 for those movies. Would anyone pay that kind of money to watch a movie early? [Gizmodo]

YOUTUBE BEGINS TESTING LIVE STREAMING

Today and tomorrow, YouTube will be testing their live streaming capabilities.  The testing is only for a limited number of YouTube partners, but there will be as "Live Comments" section for each channel so you can interact with the broadcaster.

YouTube blog states "Based on the results of this initial test, we’ll evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to our partners worldwide."  Unfortunately, according to that statement, Live Streaming will only be available to their partners and not to regular submitters of YouTube. [YouTube Blog]