• LimeWire file-sharing shut down by US court
• Apple accused of copyright infringement in China

Swedish music service Spotify, legally offering instant access to millions of tracks, firmly denies speculations that the company is in acquisition talks with Apple.

The rumor was started Tuesday night after American tech blog TechCrunch revealed that the two companies were in talks, based on an anonymous tip.

"Apple and Spotify are in on-again, off-again discussions about an acquisition, but at best it's very early in the process," TechCrunch wrote. "No firm price has been offered, no term sheet tabled. Still, it's interesting that the two are talking."

The blog also said that Spotify was nearly sold to Google last year for one billion dollar.

However, Spotify's spokesman Jim Butcher told Cnet that such discussions have never taken place.

"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," he said.

The music service currently has some 7 million members across Europe and is expected to be launched in the US and China.

US high-tech giant Apple has been accused in China of copyright infringement, with a computer screen maker saying it owns the rights to the iPad name in the country