Music Industry News: iTunes Goes 90, Stern Stays, Ditto Scores, Spotify, RevernNation Places & More

• Apple's iTunes is finally, slowly increasing the size of its song samples to 90 seconds. (MM) 1) Yawn. 2) Why hasn't Amazon done it too?
• Howard Stern is sticking with Sirius XM for 5 more years. (pr)
• P2P user says $1.5M award should be zeroed out. (ARS)
• Irish ISP offers free music, "four strikes" to subscribers. (ars) An experiment worth watching.

More Music Industry News & Commentary:

• Artists services platform Ditto Music has placed heir 10th unsigned artist on the UK Top 40 Singles Chart. (Top 40) Now if we could on do this in the US….
• Spotify boss reveals it has 750k paying subscribers. (ME)
• ReverbNation's recent song licensing partnership for indie and d.i.y. artists with APM Music is already netting impressive results including placements the film Mean Girls 2, KMart, the Canadian version of "So You Can Dance" and Major League Baseball.
• $50,000 Music Industry Business Model Competition: Berklee and Harvard Business School seek proposals that provide new ways to encourage and monetize creativity in the music industry. . Finalists will present their plans at Rethink Music. Submissions prior to 2/1/11. Rethink Music, The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard and Harvard Law School’s Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law  are also seeking papers that suggest changes in intellectual property laws. Submissions prioe to 1/24/11. More info here. Seems to be shaping up to be quite a gathering.
• Truly Decentralized BitTorrent Downloading Has Finally Arrived. (TF) 
• Facebook Director Of Platform: Spotify "Is" Facebook Music. (TC)
• Deadline Today for SXSW Accelerator Showcase for Music Startups is today. More info @ http://ht.ly/3m9TT and sign up @ http://ht.ly/3m9TT
• 5 Things I Think About Every Day as a Professional Musician. (MW)
• Publicists Dish on Their Preferences… Print vs. Online. (PM)
• With mega-success of Arcade Fire and Feist, can term 'indie' be retired in 2011? (WFP) 
• Rob Stringer, Rick Rubin and the Real Story at Columbia Records/ (TMV)