IFA 2010: premium customers can use music streaming service through home music service from end of this month. Meanwhile Sonos is replacing a number of faulty controllers for its systems.

Internet music service Spotify has joined forces with Sonos, adding to the multi-room player's roster of web-based music partnerships as part of an industry-wide drive to get more people to pay for music.

Spotify's 500,000 paying customers - those on its £10-per-month "premium" service - will now be able to stream their digital library through a Sonos home entertainment system, provided they live in Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden or the UK. Because Spotify is still not available in the US, due to licensing issues with record labels there, Sonos customers there - one of its biggest markets won't be able to get it yet.

Sonos already has similar tieups with the international music service Napster, as well as Last.fm, Audble.com and Deezer.

John MacFarlane, chief executive of the California-based company, says the latest move is a "complete reinvention of the home stereo system", adding that "Spotify on Sonos has been the number one request from our European customers and we're thrilled to deliver it."

"It's great that people will be able to listen to Spotify whenever they want, wherever they want in their home," said Daniel Ek, Founder and CEO Spotify.

Sonos and Spotify customers with a ZonePlayer, Sonos S5 music player and a Sonos Controller – available either as a separate controller, or as a free iPhone app and soon-to-be-launched iPad app – will be able to use the service from late September.

"No money changes hands in this deal," MacFarlane told the Guardian. "We have a very good business in all areas Spotify sells in so it makes sense for both companies to make each other better. Spotify do a nice job on focusing on user experience and it streams really well."

He added: "The labels are putting more and more pressure on Spotify to move members to a paying service so that made more sense from their perspective. What's happening in the digital music landscape...the traditional players are now starting to embrace it and part of that is users paying for music. That's a trend that's only going to increase."

Spotify has garnered momentum in Europe, despite still not launching in the US after four years. Although it has forged licensing deals with labels including Sony and EMI, some songwriters still appear disenchanted with the service's ability to generate income for artists.

Patrick Rackow, chairman of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, told the BBC earlier this year: "At the moment, the amounts of money that are actually being received are tiny. That might be because there is no money there."

The streaming space is looking increasingly complicated. Sony yesterday announced its own move into the music streaming space with a subscription-based service centred around its Playstation 3 console.

Speaking at Berlin's IFA fair, the electronics manufacturer said the new "cloud-based" service would allow customers to download songs and HD movies over the internet and watch them on other web-enabled Sony devices, including TVs, laptops and music players.

• Sonos is offering a free replacement to owners of its newer CR200 touch-screen controllers affected by manufacturing defects. Some owners of the CR200 have found that parts of the screen become unresponsive. The CR200 uses a capacitive touchscreen.

In an email sent to owners, Sonos says:

"We have recently discovered a potential issue with a small number of Sonos Controller 200s (CR200) manufactured within a specific period. As a registered owner of one of these controllers, we wanted to let you know right away and inform you of our decision to extend your warranty."

"Specifically, a single area or areas of the touch screen may be unresponsive to normal touch usage. The reported failure rate, while low, does not meet Sonos quality standards. Therefore, Sonos is extending the product warranty for your Sonos Controller 200 for an additional year at no cost, in the event it fails in this manner."

Customers who have had problems with the CR200 should contact Sonos's support pages to organise the replacement.

Apple is expected to announce "social streaming" for iTunes, an update on iPods and (possibly) more on AppleTV. Stay with us from 6pm.

7.16pm: Looks like we're all wrapped up here. Let's have a run through of what Apple has announced today:

• Ping, a social network for music, is built inside iTunes. Available on iTunes 10 desktop app and iOS apps, users can follow their favourite artists and other 'Pingers', view their stream and converse around music. Available immediately.

• AppleTV cut in physical stature and price, to $99. Available later this month, AppleTV will no longer store your media – it will be based on renting content and streaming media from connected devices. Fox and ABC are on board from launch with more to be announced in the future; renting a HD TV show will set you back 99 cents, $4.99 for a first-run HD movie.

• A whole new range of iPods, including an iPod Touch with front and rear-facing cameras and FaceTime. The rear-facing camera will be be able to record HD video content.

• iOS4.1 available from next week for iPhone and iPod Touch, including a new Games Centre and many a bug fix.

Thanks for joining us, keep the discussion flowing.

7.13pm: Martin takes to the piano for a closing rendition of Yellow. His little girl's called Apple, remember. All clicking into place now.

7.10pm: Jobs: "We started doing music stuff for a really simple reason: we love music. And even though we're more successful now than when we started, that hasn't changed one bit." Jobs introduces Coldplay's Chris Martin (!!!!) on stage to perform, Mr Johnson has been royally ditched by the polo-necked one.

7.08pm: "Strongest line-up of iPods ever," Jobs sums. "Ping is going to be really popular, very fast, because 160m people can turn on as soon as they want, starting today."

7.06pm: Price of AppleTV was $299 – users said they wanted something more affordable, now lowered to $99. Available later this month, pre-order today.

7.02pm: Jobs now giving a whistlestop tour through the new AppleTV interface.

On "AirPlay", coming in November with iOS4.2: can stream content from an iOS device to an AppleTV.

6.58pm: Rotten Tomatoes review site also integrated with AppleTV. Can also stream music, photos and video from own computer via the AppleTV box set.

6.56pm: ABC and Fox on-board from launch, other broadcasters should follow, Jobs hopes. You can also stream Netflix and YouTube content through your AppleTV.

6.55pm: Here's the news on AppleTV content: $4.99 to rent first-run HD movies, day and date they come out on DVD. Get cheaper as time goes on. To rent HD TV shows: 99 cents.

6.52pm: AppleTV customers also don't want to manage storage, Jobs says, or syncing to their computer.

So here's the announcement on 2ndGen AppleTV: One-fourth the size of previous iteration, palm-sized, HDMI connector, wifi and ethernet connector. All HD when available, all rentals (no purchases) – that's the new model. No storage because of rentals.

6.50pm: "One more thing..." time: AppleTV.

Introduced four years ago, "never been a huge hit, nor has any other competitive product." But the people who have them love them, Jobs says.

So what's new to AppleTV? They want HD, they want Hollywood movies and TV shows, they want to pay lower prices for content, they don't want a computer on their TV.

6.47pm: All activity based around artists and performance can be seen by your followers, whom you can automatically accept as followers or moderate case-by-case.

Ping is also available on iPhone, iPod Touch (there's a new button in middle of iTunes app). "Social network for music, created by Apple, built into iTunes."

And it's available today...

6.46pm: Ping has an interface very similar to Facebook's, with the lingo of Twitter. But all is based around music artists.

6.44pm: "Be as private or as public as you want. The privacy is super easy to set up," says Jobs. Over 17,000 concert listings; Ping is available for sign-up to more than 160m iTunes users.

6.41pm: To reiterate, Apple has launched a social network for music, dubbed Ping.

You can "follow" updates from your favourite artists. "Social music discovery," says Jobs. "Follow and be followed" – you (seemingly) opt-in to being followed by other people and "set up a circle of friends."

6.39pm: Announces iTunes 10: a new logo (ditched the CD), "more elegant and simple". The iTunes store's biggest focus is discovery: what are my friends listening to? Favourite artists up to? Concerts? Email? There must be a better way.

Ping – social network for music. "Facebook and Twitter for music" – social network all about music built into iTunes.

6.37pm: Here's the iTunes news: people downloaded 11.7bn songs from iTunes, over 4.3m TV episode, 100m movies, 35m books, and over 160m accounts with credit cards and one-click shopping.

6.35pm: So a new array of iPods so far. Has Jobs got anything else up his sleeve? (Currently running through the new iPod adverts).

6.33pm: Edit videos on the iPod Touch with iMovie app. Can make FaceTime calls between iPhone 4s and new iPod Touch. 8GB for $229, 32GB for 299, 64GB for $399. All available next week, pre-order today.

6.31pm: New iPod Touch is thinner, retina display (4x pixels, 326 ppi, 24bit colour, LED), Apple A4 chip (powers the iPhone), 3-axis Gyro, iOS4.1, front-facing camera with FaceTime. And a rear camera with HD video recorder.

6.30pm: 8GB iPod Nano for $149.

iPod Touch news: most popular iPod, as of the past 12 months. Number one portable game player in the world. Outsells Nintendo and Sony portable game players combined, 50%+ market share in US and worldwide.

6.26pm: Rotatable screen on the new iPod Nano, introduced to a solitary "whoo!" from the California crowd. That went better in rehearsal, clearly.

6.25pm: Almost half as small, almost half as light as its fifth generation predecessor – the new iPod Nano with 24hour battery life.

6.23pm: Fifteen hours of music on the 5thGen Shuffle: $49, available in five different colours.

On the Nano 6thGen: smaller, no clip wheel, touchscreen, "multi-touch" screen.

6.21pm: Bringing back the buttons to iPod Shuffle 4thGen, even smaller than 2ndGen: has voiceover and playlists, too. And a clip, importantly.

6.19pm: Here's the biggie: iPods.

How many sold? 275m. Secret to its success: never rested on our laurels, says Jobs. "This year we've gone wild."

New design for every single model of iPod. "Biggest change in iPod lineup ever".

6.19pm: iOS4.2 comes out in November, free update for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

6.17pm: Jobs demo's printing: looks very smooth.

Bit of a biggie: AirPlay is AirTunes, allowing you to stream audio and video over wifi devices.

6.15pm: Next week iOS4.1 will be available.

Sneak peek at 4.2 (which will come later this year for iPad). Multitasking, folders, games centre, wireless printing, "AirPlay".

6.14pm: New game out later this year from Epic Games. Invites on stage the president, Mike Capps to introduce.

MC: codename for this new game is Project Sword, social integration. "Project Sword is a gorgeous action packed RPG adventure. Everything you see is in realtime."

6.09pm: Games centre new and built in with iOS 4.1: APIs for developers. "All about multiplayer games," challenge friends, compare scores, discover new games. Apple moves into mobile social gaming.

6.08pm: 250,000 apps on App Store, 25,000 iPad apps.

First big(ish) announcement:

iOS 4.1 to include: Proximity sensor bugs fix, bluetooth bugs fix. Adds high dynamic range photos, HD video upload over wifi, TV show rentals and a game centre.

6.06pm: New iOS activations per day: 230,000 per day (new activations). If we counted upgrades (hints at Android) that would be a lot higher.

Over 6.5bn apps in App Store. 200 apps downloaded every second.

6.05pm: How many iOS devices shipped? 120m since launch.

6.05pm: iOS news: "a revolution in touch and apps," says Jobs.

6.04pm: Over a million people are visiting in some stores around the world.

6.04pm: Really cool stuff to show us, says Jobs. Update on new retail stores first off: Paris, Shanghai and London.

London store update: "beautiful, restored old building. Lot of restoration required." Not so much a retail update then, Steve.

Covent Garden was the 300th Apple store in the world, in 10 countries. Soon to open first store in Spain.

6.00pm: Jack Johnson fades to mute and we begin. Steve Jobs enters stage right to whoops and hollers.

5.58pm: "Switch your phones to silent, please," asks a mystery voice from behind the black curtain. On the projector comes the scene from California, lots of happy-looking folk sharing jokes and listening to Jack Johnson.

5.54pm: 99-cent rentals of movies through iTunes? According to "people familiar with the matter" cited by Wall Street Journal. Fox and ABC are said to be the companies on board:

"Some of these people said Fox agreed to participate in 99-cent rentals for a short period of time, and agreed to the lower-cost price only for broadcast shows it both produces and airs, such as "Glee," "Bones" and "Lie to Me." The Apple proposal won't affect cable shows such as FX's "Justified," or Fox network shows, including "American Idol," for which Fox doesn't control the digital rights.

"According to the people familiar with the matter, part of the calculus for Fox is that News Corp. wants Apple's help with other digital projects, including the iPad version of The Wall Street Journal and a digital news offering known inside News Corp. as the "Daily Planet," the name of the fictional paper in Superman comics."

Five minutes to go...

5.49pm: Would you believe it? Sony has moved to trump the Cupertino company's announcement(s) from its temporary hovel at Berlin's IFA fair.

Sony will offer a cloud-based media streaming service on Playstation 3s, Bravia TVs, Blu-Ray players and Sony's personal computers. Initially it will stream movies, with music to be added by the end of this year, reports the BBC.

Any more before Apple takes the stage in 10 minutes?

(In other news: it's filling up here at the UK press screening in Barbican. Not as many MacBooks as you might expect. Friendly-looking, yellow-shirted staffers saunter round with purple placards, directing media and guests to their seats. Free water and free wifi await. How's it looking from the comfort of home?)

5.40pm: To cover all bases, The Inquirer is hedging its bets on Apple announcing an update to AppleTV (not before time, I hear you grumble):

"[...] Amazon has made an announcement that would appear to be a spoiler for Jobs' dreams. It will be offering a subscription service that will deliver TV shows and movies over the Internet, which sounds jolly similar to the rumours and speculations we've been hearing about Apple's ITV plans.

"The Internet retailer has pitched a web-based subscription service to several major media companies, including NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp and Viacom. Amazon's video content subscription push is a challenge to rivals such as Netflix, Google's Youtube, and if Jobs announces it, Apple."

5.36pm: With 20ish minutes until kick off (6pm UK time), speculation is mounting.

The Financial Times cites sources inside the media industry when it says Apple will increase the amount of time customers can sample singles in the iTunes store from 30 seconds to 90 seconds. Users will also be able to make purchases direct from web pages, rather than opening the iTunes application, the FT predicts.

Hello and welcome. Web stream or no web stream, sit back and enjoy our minute-by-minute coverage live from (the UK screening of) Apple's California press conference.

Speculation about what Apple could announce ramped up a gear last night, with the company announcing it will *stream* the announcements online – but only to devices running its own operating systems. Is "social streaming" now almost certain to be visited on iTunes?

Here's our own Charles Arthur:

"This looks very likely, given Apple's $85m purchase last year of Lala.com, which it closed in May. Why purchase it to close it? Lala would stream music to users' PCs, for a price. And for years people have been talking about the likelihood of iPods getting streaming, or some sort of Napster-style subscription service. But while selling iPods was a good business, subscriptions weren't (witnessed by the failure of so many companies that tried to offer it).

"It's only now, as those other streaming services have started to make it into a viable business - one enabled by apps on phones and computers - that Apple seems interested. After all, at present the money paid to those services goes to Spotify or we7; why, you can see the Apple execs reasoning, shouldn't Apple get a slice?"

Apple could also announce a price cut to AppleTV – Steve Jobs's "hobby" – which has underwhelmed the market since launch.

The Financial Times predicts an update to iTunes will allow 90-second streaming of singles in the iTunes store, as opposed to the 30-second clips it currently allows.

Gizmodo pontificates about the possible launch of an iPod Touch with front-facing and rear-facing cameras, saying such a device would be a "ninja assassin squad against a whole range of other middling gadgets".

Let the predictions begin. Leave yours in the comments below...

Plus some more detail on why the music business needs iTunes – and the iPods/iPhones – to get streaming to help revenues build

First, very quickly, let's revisit what's going on with iPods, iPhones, and digital revenues.

As I pointed out in this article, the music business isn't seeing the rapid takeoff of digital download sales that it might have hoped for. The fact is that iPod sales (that is, devices Apple classes as "iPods", which includes the iPod Touch but excludes the iPhone and iPad) are falling both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. And the iTunes Store is the biggest single retailer of music in the US. (That doesn't mean it's the majority, but it has a significant influence.)

Plus, the numbers show that digital download sales follow the sales of iPods + iPhone rather closely. On this basis, people have therefore been saying "so what's the problem? iPod sales might slow down, but iPhone sales are going great! iPhone play music too! So no problem!"

Two problems actually. One is about the "installed base" of iPods. The other is about the alternative ways in which people can get music. Either or both point to problems for the industry. (Here's the table of data, so you can see why. Sales figures for the iPod/iPhone are given in thousands; revenues for the music business in billions of dollars.)

First: installed base. Steve Jobs said in a presentation recently that 50% of iPod buyers are new to them. Obviously, that means that 50% are replacements in some way. That means the installed base of functioning iPods is bigger than just the headline per-quarter sales figures. Yet it doesn't matter what sort of replacement cycle you choose for iPods + iPhones (two years in which half of the old ones get thrown away, for example), you still find that the digital downloads follows iPod sales very closely... but tails off latterly.

"Pah!" some people say. "iTunes isn't the download business. You're ignoring all the services such as Comes With Music and Amazon and all the other ways in which people can download music."

Perhaps. But if that's the case, then things are even worse for the music business, because it's got all these new ways of getting revenues, but it still isn't growing faster than the total number of iPods + iPhones out there. And if iPod sales slow (given that iPods, optimised for playing music, despite some incursions into video, were for some years the ideal repository for downloaded tracks) then the music industry has to find other outlets.

Yes, "performance" revenues (from streaming services such as we7, Pandora and Spotify) are growing rather well, up to $800m worldwide last year. They don't - indeed can't - work with iPods, except for "iOS" devices such as the iPod Touch. Happily for those services, that's where the growth is for Apple - selling iOS devices, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

And so we come to the rumours about what's coming up tomorrow. John Gruber of Daring Fireball is quite sure the iPod Touch is in for a major revision:

"I expect a new iPhone 4-caliber iPod Touch (retina display, dual FaceTime-ready cameras), new iTunes TV show rentals, and a new iOS-based Apple TV. The wildcard is whether there's going to be an App Store for the Apple TV.

"Readers are asking about iOS 4.1. I expect that, too, along with the official debut of Game Center, which is part of 4.1 and will help reinforce the image of the iPod Touch as a mobile gaming device (and the App Store as a gaming platform) going into the holidays. Look for a bunch of Game Center demos during the event."

Other suggestions we've seen all over the place:
• "Classic" iPods (shuffle, nano, "Classic") won't receive any sort of update at all. Personally don't think that's likely - they'd get a tweak on storage or price, surely.

• New "iPod Touch mini" with a 3" screen on the way. Again, can't see that that's likely: imagine trying to type anything on it. An iPod with a touch-only interface is just about conceivable if you had loads of playlists already set up, but it would be no good at all for apps. Can just about imagine an iPod nano with a touch interface, but it's hard to think it would be much of an improvement on the scroll wheel.

• "Social streaming" coming to iTunes. This looks very likely, given Apple's $85m purchase last year of Lala.com, which it closed in May. Why purchase it to close it? Lala would stream music to users' PCs, for a price. And for years people have been talking about the likelihood of iPods getting streaming, or some sort of Napster-style subscription service. But while selling iPods was a good business, subscriptions weren't (witnessed by the failure of so many companies that tried to offer it). It's only now, as those other streaming services have started to make it into a viable business - one enabled by apps on phones and computers - that Apple seems interested. After all, at present the money paid to those services goes to Spotify or we7; why, you can see the Apple execs reasoning, shouldn't Apple get a slice?

• Revised AppleTV running iOS. This is quite likely because Apple is now going to have to think about how it competes with Google TV and similar "app"-based models for getting TV to you. The existing AppleTV is a bit pointless, so it would make sense to have an in-between device. Here's the problem, though: iOS is a touch-based OS. How do you set up a remote so that you can control a screen that was designed for touch? That is the only fly in the soothing ointment for those wishing that Apple would "fix" TV (I'm not one, to be honest - and don't really think that Google TV sounds like it has the answer either).

But if – big, though promising if – you get a new generation of iPods which are suddenly enabled to stream music from Lala (or whatever Apple calls it) then the music industry might be able to feel that at least the "performance" slice of its income is going to grow nicely... even if the "digital" one isn't.

And what are you expecting, if anything, from the announcement?

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