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While Spotify CEO Daniel Ek didn't say much about his company's timeline for launching in the U.S. during his SXSW keynote interview, it definitely looks like the popular streaming music services is putting all the pieces for a U.S. launch together. In an interview with Bloomberg earlier today, Spotify's senior vice president Paul Brown noted that the company is "buying server space in random parts of the states and there are licensing discussions too." According to Bloomberg, Spotify its planning to launch in Q3 2010. Sponsor Judging from the fact that Spotify is starting to set up an infrastructure for its U.S. launch, it looks like the company has cleared most of the hurdles for a U.S. launch or at least feels very confident that the last roadblocks for the U.S. launch can be cleared out of the way easily. Spotify, which currently has about 7 million users in Europe, allows anybody to stream the company's music library for free (with ads) to their desktops. During his SXSW keynote interview, Daniel Ek noted that the U.S. launch would coincide with the release of an updated version of the Spotify desktop client. We assume to hear more about this in the coming weeks. According to most industry pundits , a launch date somewhere between Q3 2010 and early 2011 seems reasonable. Too Little, Too Late? As our own Mike Melanson noted after Ek's SXSW keynote, Spotify faces strong competition in the United States. Companies like MOG , Napster and others are starting to gain traction in the U.S. while Spotify is still trying to put all its deals with the record labels in place. According to Spotify's Paul Brown, the company's negotiations in the U.S. "are going fine because we're in a long-term partnership with the labels and publishers." Spotify currently has about 325,000 paying subscribers in Europe. Subscribers get access to an ad-free version of Spotify, as well as access to the company's iPhone, Android and mobile apps . Discuss
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Spotify is Getting Ready for U.S. Launch in Q3
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It's Monday and that means that the Interactive portion of SXSW is drawing closer and closer to its close tomorrow after a weekend of great talks, panels, parties and overall hoopla. While some of the most fun parts of SXSW may be behind us, there are still a lot of great things to go see in Austin, especially for those in the startup and entrepreneurship communities. So if you're looking for some interesting panels to attend before you catch your flight home later this week, here's a run down of some of the remaining startup-related talks and events. Sponsor This afternoon, a keynote interview with Twitter's Evan Williams will surely provide any striving entrepreneur with some intriguing insights into his tactics for success. Williams will be joined in Exhibit Hall 1 by Umair Haque of Havas Media Lab at 2pm. Later on in the afternoon, author Clara Shih, whose book The Facebook Era was one of our Weekend Reading suggestions, will be signing copies of her book at the South by Bookstore. The signing starts at 3:20, so get their early and on time because 10 minutes later there is a trio of interesting panels to choose from. At 3:30 in the Radisson Travis, Jason Oberfest of ngmoco and Eroc Eldon of Inside Network will be presenting on how online games can take advantage of social media. We've seen a lot of interesting developments in web-based gaming lately, especially with the success of Zynga on Facebook. New technologies are making in-browser games much more powerful than anything we've seen before, and the opportunities to tie social networking into the experience make the possibilities for startups in this genre very promising. If gaming isn't your cup of tea, head on over to the Courtyard Rio Grande A to see Elizabeth Hallmark and Drew Scherz of Texas Comptroller speak on " Building Happy and High Performing Teams ." This is similar to a topic discussed by David Russo in his book 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent , which we also profiled in our Weekend Reading series. But stealing the 3:30 time-slot might be a discussion of the future of incubators with some startup super-stars. Naval Ravikant of Venture Hacks, David Cohen of TechStars and Paul Graham of Y Combinator will join a few others to discuss what they call the "Seed Combinator," but really startups and entrepreneurs could glean value from anything these guys chose to talk about, so don't miss it. After those panels, pick up and walk over to the Hilton at 5pm for what should be a fascinating discussion about customer service in the world of today's social networks . This five-member panel including Jeremiah Owyang, CNET 's Caroline McCarthy, and executives from Microsoft, HP and Comcast should shed some light on how customer support has evolved "in a 140 character world." Tomorrow morning, as the Interactive portion closes out, entrepreneurs may want to stop by Ballroom A at 9:30 for a discussion on protyping web applications . Are wire-frames and mock-ups going the way of the Dodo? Darren Delave and Michael Leggett of Google think so, and will present on ways "make and present prototypes to improve all stages of the design and development cycle." But the real issue every startup and entrepreneur wants to know about is how to get money from investors. At 3:30 tomorrow in Hilton A/B, don't miss legendary investor Reid Hoffman and Justin Fishner-Wolfson of Founders Fund present on "Getting Your Company Funded ." The talk promises to debunk the myths and questions behind VC funding, term sheets, options, liquidation, "much much more." And finally, a good way to close out the festivities is to check out day 2 of the Microsoft BizSpark Accellerator competition at the Hilton. You can stop by and check out the companies which present throughout the day, but come back at 6pm to see which of the 12 finalists will be crowned this year's winners. And if you aren't in Austin, you can still watch for free online at the Accellerator homepage (granted you have Silverlight installed, of course). Also, remember that everyone at SXSW is tweeting like crazy at all of these events and discussions, so use Twitter search to find out more information if you can't make it to each event. Each event's description on the SXSW homepage also includes the official hashtag for the event so you can easily see what people are saying about it on Twitter. If you have any other suggestions for startups and entrepreneurs at SXSW, let us know in the comments. Photos by Flickr users toprankonlinemarketing , and magerleague . Discuss
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What's Left For Startups At SXSW?
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For anyone in this business who isn't at SXSW in Austin, Texas this week, pretty much every social media channel feels like sitting next to a high school clique loudly talking about a party you weren't invited to. If SXSW doesn't interest you, or if you're able to rise above it all, then my hat's off to you and your Zen-like transcendence. Sponsor For those of us who still have some lingering envy or a fear that we're missing out on... well, we're not quite sure what, but something really cool... there's actually some soothing relief this year. Check out the Twitter discussion on the #fakesxsw hashtag: if it doesn't bring a grin to your face, well, maybe you don't deserve to be at SXSW. And if that doesn't help, well, there's always the Sally Struthers approach. More Noise to Signal. Discuss
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Cartoon: Can't Go to SXSW? We Feel Your Pain
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Fascinated by the cloud and what it means for the future of Web apps, social gaming, open-source and the after life? Then you have plenty to keep you busy if you are heading to SXSW this year. This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn't your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon! Sponsor Can You Run a 'Serverless' Business? This discussion looks like one of the better cloud panels at SXSW. It features panelists such as Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, who is there to discuss how cloud computing platforms have evolved so that it is possible to run a ''serverless'' business with confidence. Accessibility: What It Is For and Where It is Going How does the cloud affect accessibility? Will cloud-computing allow for a metaphorical curb cut out, allowing access to rich Internet applications? Ahhh - another example of how cloud computing is affecting all aspects of our word. From the SXSW guide: "Could a Software as a Service (SaaS) model deliver assistive technologies as a cloud-based service? The National Public Inclusive Infrastructure (NPII) is trying to do just that. As a facilitator for more rapid deployment of assistive technologies and a means to prototype new business models for emerging assistive technologies, AT could become part of an extensive infrastructure of readily available, electronic curb cuts that allow for seeamless access for a broader range of users than have been included to date." Drupal in the Cloud! Pantheon is an open-source cloud hosting initiative for the Drupal development community. Josh Koenig will examine "The Cloud" as a concept, look at the marketplace for cloud services, and dig into what it takes to build an application on a cloud-based platform. Our Interactive Culture Clouds Were not sure about this one. Looks like it's made for SXSW with its discussions about how business and love meet. We're uncertain how the cloud plays into this one but just about everything does these days, doesn't it? Next! You Developed the Content -- Now Build The Hardware The cloud is sending developers back to the labs to rethink and build new hardware that fits the wave of cloud-based applications in the market. Cool! From the SXSW Guide: "This presentation discusses how software/content developers can use open-source hardware to build devices that integrate tightly with their applications." Become Immortal: Understanding the Digital After Life Now talk about ghosts in the machine. Just think, when we die our identities will float in cloud networks all over the world. This may be the most philosophical discussion around cloud computing that we see at SXSW. It's time to explore the digital beyond! Finally, can one man be a cloud? The cloud is just about anything at SXSW so a man on a bike with a wifi hotspot in his backpack must qualify. Look for "The Jason Cloud," as you walk the streets of Austin. Considering AT&T's service, you may want to hire a bike taxi and follow Jason around for a few days. Discuss
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SXSW 2010 for Cloud Lovers
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Plancast , the plan-sharing startup with big-name angel investors and " future as platform " aspirations, has just had its iPhone app accepted into the iTunes store. The app was built by contracted star developer Leah Culver. It's simple, functional, attractive and useful. It's going to be very good for SXSW and probably beyond, if the service continues to stick with users as it has so far. Here's the iTunes link and below you can see some screenshots. Sponsor I'm posting my plans at Plancast.com/marshallk . You can see who's coming to our SXSW party Sunday night with NPR, PBS and more here on Plancast . See also: Hot Potato also has a new iPhone app just released today ( iTunes link ) which may come in handy for discussing the events that you attend via Plancast and otherwise. Discuss
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Plancast iPhone App is Live & It is Good
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