More Music Industry News: HMV + Mama, Rhapsody Mobile?, Spotify, Imeem Fined $1.7M & More

• HMV is closer to buying Mama after rival suitor abandons bid. – £38.4m offer for Mama group from SMS Finance has lapsed. HMV can count on support of 33% of Mama shareholders. (Guardian)
• Rhapsody in the cloud? RealNetworks has acquried Varia Mobile to beef up their cloud computing and mobile capabilities. (paidContent)
• Spotify-Google iTunes killer lacks licenses. (CNet)
• imeem must pay The Orchard $1.7 million according to a NY judge. (GigaOm)
• Who is Bob Lefsetz and what does he think about 2010? (Daily Swarm)
• Money Expert: Industry Should Compete With Music Piracy – While warning that consumers could get ripped off if they don’t shop around when buying music, an expert on saving money says that if it’s serious about winning over pirates, the music industry must wake up and embrace price competition. (TorrentFreak)
• Real drums, fake band: the Omega GM-1 System walks the line. –
  Have you ever wanted to use real drums while playing your favorite
  rhythm game? Omega Music Technology has a product to get you there, but
  the price of entry is steep, and set-up can be a chore. Ars takes a
  look at making fake music a little more real.(ars)