Spotify will launch in the U.S. sometime this year, Daniel Ek, CEO of the digital music service, said in an interview on May 27, the first day of the Music Matters conference in Hong Kong. Ek said that Spotify has paid out 20 million euros ($24.6 million) in royalties so far, explaining that royalties do not go directly to artists but instead to labels, collections societies and publishers. Ek said his current swing through Asia will include a stop in Japan, whose a la carte mobile-download market he described as “extremely strong.”

Just over 3% of Chinese telcos’ music-related revenues go to international labels -- the same level as a year ago -- according to data presented by William Bao Bean (partner, SoftBank China and India Holdings) during the Business Matters session on the morning of May 27. Bean noted that a China Mobile executive, whom reports have named as Li Xiangdong, went missing earlier this year after allegedly absconding with several hundred million yuan. (Li was detained by Chinese police at the beginning of April.) “Now you know where your money is going,” quipped Bean.

The end of the music industry’s steady decline could be near, said Marcel Fenez, global entertainment and media industry leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, during the same session. “By 2011, we could be seeing the end of the overall decline,” Fenez said, predicting 1% annual compound growth over the next five years. He added that by 2014 roughly 40% of total global music spending will be in Asia. Music sales will decline in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan in the next five years, Fenez said, while predicting that South Korea will show some “interesting developments.” To keep things in perspective, Fenez noted the music industry is currently one-third the size of the video-games business. “The age demographic of gamers has increased significantly,” he pointed out.

One key player in today’s music industry is the Grim Reaper, according to Fenez. “When artists die, it’s a great way to monetize a library,” he said, with (one hopes) a slight dash of irony. “Artists do really well when they’re not around.”

The controversial “three strikes” policy works, said IFPI chairman/CEO John Kennedy during the “Three Strikes and Collective Licensing: The ISP Debate” session on the morning of the 27th. “People respond to the threat of having their Internet comnection or their broadband cut off,” Kennedy said. “This is something that does not result in suspension; it results in a change of behavior. Doing nothing is not an option.”