I am honored to have the pleasure of working with Ericsson on a few of their pretty cool future-oriented activities, including the 2020 ideas project and the PressPausePlay movie. Here is what Ericsson says about the 2020 project: "...Broadband connectivity and mobility are changing the way we live, the way we work, the way markets function, and the way societies operate. At Ericsson, we need to collaborate and get inspiration from people outside our business in order to adapt to these changes - people that take a stand, and that want to share and work together. which I think is just fabulous. In 2020 – Shaping Ideas, we ask 20 thinkers to share their view on the drivers of the future and how connectivity is changing the world. They describe a future where a growing population faces never before seen challenges and opportunities; where digital natives will shape their lives and the enterprises they work for, and where technology could create a global golden age...." This quite snazzy video, below, was just released I believe, and ...

Berlin - Streaming music service Spotify on Thursday announced a partnership with Sonos, to make its service available on the company's wireless multi-room music system. Sonos customers in Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. -- the countries where Spotify is currently available -- will now be able to access Spotify's library of over 8 million streaming songs. read more

Los Angeles - Streaming music service Spotify last month re-started negotiations with records labels, seeking their input "to determine what type of service would be possible to launch before the end of the year," Billboard reported.read more

London - Spotify now counts more than 500,000 subscribers to premium version of its streaming music service, which costs £9.99 ($15.25) per month, CEO Daniel Ek told Music Week. Ek also hinted that the service's U.S. launch -- previously pegged for this summer -- may be pushed into 2011. "Will we launch [in the U.S.] this year? Yes, we think that's possible. But if for whatever reason we cannot launch the service that we envisage, then we will wait," Ek told Music Week. read more

Los Angeles - TuneCore, a provider of digital distribution services for musical artists, said on Wednesday that it has added streaming music service Spotify to its offering. TuneCore and Spotify will host a co-branded landing page linked from TuneCore to Spotify, which counts over 7 million users. TuneCore has in recent months expanded its distribution service for artists to include Zune, Mog, iLike, MySpace Music and Thumbplay. read more