Internet, Spotify | featured news

The online music service is allowing third parties to write add-on apps adding functionality to its music player.

Broadband provider Virgin Media offers customers six months of free access to Spotify's premium service.

Pandora shares are trading sharply lower Wednesday after CNBC reported that Facebook plans to unveil plans for a rival online music service at the upcoming F8 developers conference on September 22. My colleague Nicole Perlroth notes this morning that Facebook is expected to unveil integration partnerships with the online music services Spotify, MOG and RDIO. ...

Spotify, the European transplant that made a big debut splash in the United States last month, has reportedly hit 1.4 million U.S. customers in just under a month. Citing a “source familiar with the company’s operations, All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka reported the numbers, along with the tidbit that the site reportedly has 175,000 paying customers since its July 14 debut.

With the U.S. launch of Spotify, the long wait for a better web music service is over, and a new era of on-demand music streaming is about to begin. Here's how you can join in the fun.