GOOGLE MAKES GOOGLE MUSIC OFFICIAL

Called "Music Beta by Google" at this point, it's a simple presentation with artists, albums, and easy playlist creation. You can manually create them, or there's a feature called "Instant Mix" that will make you a playlist based on any single song. It'll automagically pick 25 different tracks to build a "truly ingenious mix." You know, kind of like another, similarly intelligent service. All of this syncs to the cloud, which means no wires needed to download anything.

But, more importantly, songs can be cached locally. You can pick any song, album, or playlist to download onto storage, at an unknown quality. It's the same pinning idea that's in the new movies feature. That and more is demonstrated in the video below.

The service is launching in beta today, allowing 20,000 songs, and it'll be free -- "at least while it's in beta." Also, the updated music app is available now, which will work with any music on your phone and any phone running Android 2.2 or above.

APPLE SIGNS WARNER MUSIC TO STREAMING SERVICE

Need another sign that iTunes will soon be floating your library up to the cloud? Look no further than confirmation of Apple signing Warner Music, a deal that should see the label's music available in its upcoming streaming iTunes service. This is in addition to last week's confirmation that two major labels signed on, though its unclear whether Warner is part of the pair or is, indeed, a third. That might leave only one of the major labels left unsigned -- or maybe Apple's already locked down all four but doesn't want to kiss and tell.

GOOGLE MUSIC SERVICE BEING TESTED INTERNALLLY

Google is said to be testing its new Google Music service internally, according to sources speaking to CNET. Google had originally planned to make an announcement during the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas earlier this month, but it apparently still needs to iron out some of the details with the four major record labels. It is expected that Google Music will be a cloud-based system where users can stream, buy, and store music online for access from their Android smartphones or tablets, as well as from their computers. It’s still unclear what the pricing structure will be.

RUMOR: GOOGLE MUSIC LAUNCHING WITH HONEYCOMB AND XOOM

Google may finally launch its long-rumored music service side-by-side with Honeycomb, Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha has hinted. Jha was speaking at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona when he said that Android would be getting a music service sooner than later, and that it would likely launch on the upcoming Motorola Xoom tablet.

"If you look at Google Mobile services today, there's a video service, there's a music service," Jha was quoted saying in The Guardian. "That is, there will be a music service." Later on, Jha spoke about the Xoom—which will be the first to launch with the tablet-friendly Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)—and added that the OS "adds video services and music services."

Rumors about Google's music service go back to last year. The service has long been expected to be heavily based on streaming music from the cloud—liberating users from the typical computer-syncing model that iTunes users have come to know and loathe. More recent rumors, however, have pinned Google's offering as a combination of digital track downloads plus a "digital locker" streaming service.

Insiders said in September that Google was hoping to offer the streaming service to user for $25 per year, which would give them online access to their music library via desktops and mobile devices. Users would also be able to create playlists to share with others—friends would be able to listen to each track all the way through one time, then would be limited to 30-second previews after that until they buy the song(s) themselves. [Ars Technica]

SONY LAUNCHES MUSIC UNLIMITED IN US, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Sony has finally officially launched its poorly kept secret Music Unlimited. The service features six million tracks from Sony Music Entertainment, Universal, EMI, and Warner and is available on Sony's own devices including the PS3, Blu-ray disc players, Bravia televisions, and VAIO PCs. It'll also be available on Android smartphones soon with an iOS app coming later this year.

A basic membership provides an interactive radio experience for $3.99 per month while a premium $9.99 per month service gives subscribers on-demand access to the Music Unlimited library with the ability to manage your music through playlists and the like. Sony also provides a useful service that scans your local library and playlists to "jump start" the organization of your Music Unlimited collection.

SPOTIFY SIGNS FIRST US DEAL WITH SONY

MediaMemo is reporting Spotify, a music streaming service popular in Europe, has signed its first music deal in the US with Sony. The terms of the deal are said to be very similar to Spotify’s European deals, which would give U.S. users access to ad-supported streaming to a computer for free or ad-free streaming to a variety of devices for a monthly fee. The deal does not mean that a U.S. launch of the Spotify service is imminent, however. The company still needs to get additional labels on board, and it has had a great deal of trouble wooing U.S. labels thus far. Theories as to why labels are so reluctant include fear of further cannibalization of CD sales and fear of upsetting Apple, the top music retailer in the country.

LIMWIRE SHUTTING DOWN

A new report Thursday suggests that legendary piracy pioneer LimeWire may soon call it quits. LimeWire was hardly the first network of its kind, but along with services like Kazaa, LimeWire played a major role in bringing file-sharing to the masses. This past October, LimeWire was forced to shutter its file-sharing service following a court order. Now, the company’s recent attempts to jump from seedy to sanctioned appear to be for naught. According to an alleged email to vendors obtained by All Things Digital, LimeWire will soon cease its attempts to run a legitimate online music store. The site also stopped accepting payments for its current offering according to a note on its homepage. LimeWire has supposedly been working on a new legal music service for the better part of 2010, but those plans are nixed as well. From the look of things, LimeWire will be no more as of January 1st, 2011. [BGR]

GROOVESHARK TO TRIPLE VIP PRICING TODAY

Grooveshark is a grey market music streaming service.  Like Pandora they offer a music streaming service, however unlike Pandora they do not pay royalties on the music they offer.

Grooveshark offers a free stream supported by advertising and an ad-free VIP tier.  The VIP tier currently priced at $3 per month. Starting today, December 1st, the price will triple to $9 per month.

Grooveshark VIP will become Grooveshark Anywhere and its benefits will remain the same (no ads, streaming to desktop and mobile apps, etc.), and a new option dubbed Grooveshark Plus will emerge that brings all of Anywhere’s benefits minus the mobile streaming. So, if paying for music without being certain that your favorite artists are being supported floats your boat, definitely jump on board before tomorrow and you’ll be grandfathered into the $3 rate until you stop paying — or until Grooveshark goes under. [BGR]