Oct 27, 2010 15:03 GMT  ·  By

Despite its inability to come to the US, rumors about Spotify continue to pop up. The latest was that it was in talks to be acquired by Apple. There would be some sense to the rumor, Apple is obviously interested in the online music business and Spotify is doing more than OK in Europe.

But the startup has decided to put a stop to all the rumors and has flat out denied that it has any plans to sell in the predictable future.

"We wouldn’t normally comment on this kind of speculation, but we wanted to make it clear that we have absolutely no intention of selling Spotify. We’re working hard to build the best music service we can and are in this for the long haul," Spotify's Jim Butcher, its communications director, told GigaOm.

The rumors said that there were some initial talks between the two companies, indicating that Apple was interested in the startup.

This is even more interesting since a previous rumor said that Apple was part of the reason why Spotify hasn't been made available in the US.

Apparently, Apple had convinced the major record labels that Spotify would jeopardize the digital music sales business in the US, which, uncoincidentally Apple dominates.

The labels have been weary of enabling Spotify to offer its free service in the US and instead are looking for a subscription-only model. Apple adding gas to the fire couldn't have helped.

Along with the latest rumor, another interesting tidbit of information surfaced, apparently, Google wanted to acquire Spotify about a year ago and was willing to shell out $1 billion for it, provided the startup managed to get the major record labels on board.

The Swedish startup lists all four major labels as shareholders, however, its licensing deal is nullified if the company sold. Most music startups have these types of deals set up, making them very hard to sell.

Ultimately, the Google deal never closed and now the startup is saying that it's going at it alone. It's also been saying that it plans to launch in the US by the end of the year, but after one year of delays and several powerful competitors, like Rdio or Mog popping up, Spotify has a lot more work ahead of it. That's if it manages to stick to its latest plans, which it hasn't been able so far.