Pandora is going public today, an IPO that executives at the music streaming service are palpably excited about. And today will show if investor excitement is on the same level.

Yesterday, Pandora priced its IPO at $16 per share, which would effectively value the company at $2.6 billion – higher than the company’s initial price range of $7 to $9 per share ($1.3 billion valuation).

Taking a page from LinkedIn’s IPO playbook, last week Pandora once again gave its price range a boost, this time up to $12 per share ($1.9 billion valuation).

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According to reports surfacing over the weekend, online music service Spotify may be as close as it’s ever been to launching in the US and doing head-to-head battle with the likes of Apple’s iTunes.

Spotify is currently available in the U.K., Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Spain.

Despite rumors of a US launch that have lingered for months, the reason for newfound hope in the prospective North American expansion of the service is a new distribution agreement with Universal Music Group – a deal Spotify is reportedly close to reaching if it hasn’t already.

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A showdown is looming between Apple’s iTunes and Google’s freshly unveiled streaming music service.

On Tuesday at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, California, Google lifted the curtain on its new cloud-based music player presently dubbed Music Beta.

For now, the streaming product will remain free during its beta existence, but the service isn’t yet available to all. Google presently requires an “invite” to test out the service, similar to the way the company first introduced Gmail.

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Google has gobbled up another one.

This week, Google announced the acquisition of yet another firm, this one a Canadian mobile music startup called PushLife.

Published reports place the value of the acquisition at an estimated $25 million.

For Google, it’s a relatively small price to pay as the Internet giant preps its forthcoming Android music service, which will rival other prominent entities in digital music, not the least of which is Apple’s iTunes.

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On Tuesday, Amazon.com announced the arrival of three new cloud-based services: Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Cloud Player for Web, and Amazon Cloud Player for Android.

Collectively, the new services allow customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac or PC, wherever they are. Customers can upload their music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and can save any new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to their Amazon Cloud Drive at no charge.

“We’re excited to take this leap forward in the digital experience,” said Bill Carr, vice president of Movies and Music at Amazon. “The launch of Cloud Drive, Cloud Player for Web and Cloud Player for Android eliminates the need for constant software updates as well as the use of thumb drives and cables to move and manage music.”

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Internet search giant Google is taking a major step forward in its expected bid to rival Apple’s iTunes.

Google is believed to be actively testing “Google Music” internally, a clear indication to tech and music industry analysts that a new service announcement is imminent.

Tips from employees inside Google confirm that a new service is actively being “tinkered with.”

The latest buzz seems to confirm the validity of what CNET calls a major accidental discovery earlier this month.

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Customizable ESPN audio content is coming, say the people at Slacker, the world’s first “personal radio company.”

This week, Slacker announced that ESPN audio content will soon be available on Slacker Personal Radio, providing listeners with customizable content from the country’s largest sports radio network.

“Slacker listeners will have access to an interactive dedicated station covering all facets of sports entertainment, with the option to include ESPN SportsCenter headlines for hourly updates on any Slacker music station, and the ability to create custom sports stations with ESPN Radio programming,” the company says.

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