Google insists, over and over, that it has no intention of getting into the content business. So how is it finessing its way into the music business? Very carefully.

The search giant is working on a new service that will provide searchers with streaming music, which sounds a whole lot like a content play at first blush. But Google will only be offering limited bits of music, and it will be relying on other companies–Lala.com, MySpace’s iLike and Imeem, sources say–to actually provide the tunes.

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What happens to a start-up whose business never materializes? One option is to try to peddle the company based on the value of its human capital–aka the “acqhire.” Or would-be employers can simply wait for the start-up to flame out, then pick up the people they want on an a-la-carte basis. Did that just happen with Time Warner Cable and former Joost CTO Jason Gaedtke?

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Now that MySpace has finished its acquisition of iLike, what is it going to do with it? Don’t think music, MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta stressed in a press conference today, think about “socialization of content.”

What does that mean? It means the social network has spent $19.5 million on engineering talent to help overhaul its site.

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A year ago, Apple’s iTunes owned about 70 percent of the digital music market, and newcomer Amazon had just five percent. Today, Apple still has 70 percent, but Amazon has…eight percent. In other news: People are buying music from Microsoft’s Zune store!

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The once-buzzy start-up isn’t on life support yet. But it sure could use some help–just like every other Web music player. I can confirm that the company has sought, and received, new terms from some of the big music labels, most notably Universal Music Group. One big label that hasn’t given imeem any concessions yet: Warner Music Group, which owns an equity stake in the company.

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Last summer, iLike.com rolled out a new feature: Visitors to the upstart music site would be able to listen to entire songs from all the big music labels for free, via an arrangement with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody, which already had a license deal with the big guys. But Sony and Warner Music Group have since pulled their songs from iLike.com, say people familiar with the situation. This has implications for those still considering building their own music service. Like, say, Facebook.

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iLike, the Web start-up that made a name for itself by becoming Facebook’s de facto music service, is looking for a buyer, according to multiple sources. I’m told that iLike is actively soliciting a list of buyers that include RealNetworks and Ticketmaster, which already owns 25 percent of the company.

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