Music Industry News: Italian Industry Slumps, MySpace, LimeWire, Spotify Sceptics & More

• Report: Italian industry slumped by 9% in 2009. (MusicAlly)
• Barnes and Noble Rip Out Music Section. (MP3News)
• Myspace Accused Of Ripping Off Stealth Startup Pinterest. (TechCrunch)
• Dozens of alternatives to LimeWire. (TorrentFreak)
• CitiGroup's Wormsley denies on the witness stand giving EMI bid details to Rerra Firma's Guy Hands. (Guardian) 
• Hey, Spotify Sceptics – International Is Hard To Do. (PaidContent)
• France to start Carte Musique digital music subsidy plan. (DW) 
• Napster app for Android now offers offline play for subscribers.

 More Music Industry News & Commentary: 

• Myspace concedes to Facebook, changes focus. (ars, hypebot) Vote and tell us what you think of the new MySpace.
• Universal Music Group Promotes Rob Wells To President Of Global Digital Business.
• Vevo CEO on MTV, Jersey Shore, Google TV, Music Videos. (Fast Company)
• From one big hit to countless hits on the web. (Financial Times)
• The 9 Best College Radio Stations. (Huffington Post)
• How Lady Gaga's One Billion YouTube Views Changes the Music Industry. (FC)
• Top 5 things I dislike about Windows Phone 7. (cnet)
• "If Justin Bieber Can Get Famous, Why Can't I?" Asks YouTube Guitar Hero Graham Stookey. (CBS)
• LimeWire's demise: We revisit six peer-to-peer file sharing services. (PCWorld) 
• Introducing Gen C – The Connected Collective Consumer. (Neilson) 
• Simplify Music 2.0 Does What iTunes and iPhone Should Do Natively. (NYT)