Google is generating no shortage of buzz Wednesday as the Internet search giant is widely expected to unveil its Google-branded online music store later today.

Google is believed to be planning a new online music store that will enable users to purchase and store songs online and then access the songs on multiple associated devices.

“They’re coming into this market rather late in the game, where there are large, established players,” Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner Inc. tells Bloomberg in reference to Google’s music store aspirations. “You can say it’s a saturated market.”

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According to new information presented in a report this morning from Gartner (“Media IAS Online Music Forecast, 2011-2015: Social Media, Subscriptions and the Cloud“), worldwide online music revenue from end-user spending is on pace to total $6.3 billion in 2011.

That’s up from $5.9 billion in 2010.

Despite the runaway growth in digital music consumption, Gartner predicts that online music revenue will reach $6.8 billion in 2012, and grow to $7.7 billion in 2015.

Needless to say, however, where there’s a winner, there’s also usually a loser. And in this case, the loser is physically-packaged music, like CDs.

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Social networking giant Facebook is reportedly gearing up to launch a new social music service of sorts – an offering that is actively being touched up and prepped for introduction in the coming days.

Sources speaking in confidence to Reuters indicate that new features will be imbued on user home pages. The features “deeply integrate music services” from Facebook partners including Spotify, MOG, Rhapsody, Slacker and Rdio.

Present plans call for the music platform to be unveiled at Facebook’s developer conference scheduled to commence on September 22nd.

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There’s palpable excitement in the world of mobile audio, and it’s being driven by a new partnership forged between HTC Corporation and Beats Electronics LLC, the headphone maker launched by legendary recording star Dr. Dre and Interscope Geffen A&M Records chairman Jimmy Iovine.

HTC is purchasing a majority stake (51%) in Beats Electronics for $300 million.

The two fast-growing brands will focus on bringing high performance sound to HTC phones, a joint press release proclaims.

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Once on the cutting edge of cable television programming, today MTV is on the cutting edge of mobile with yet another app release that changes the way users experience live concerts from start to finish.

On Wednesday, MTV released a new location-based concert finder app in partnership with SuperGlued called Live and Local. The app is free for iOS and Android users.

According to MTV, Live and Local is sponsored by Vitamin Water and enables people to find local concerts for the music its users are most passionate about. What’s more, the app lets them schedule, purchase and share those experiences with their social networks.

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And some said it would never happen.

Today marks the arrival of the long-awaited big day – Spotify, the mega-popular European-based online music service, will debut in the United States this morning at 8:00 AM EST.

Spotify, which boasts some ten million users, is currently available in the U.K., Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Spain.

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On June 13th, MMW reported that 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.

Well, it now appears the big day is actually upon us. Spotify has formally announced its imminent arrival in the United States.

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