According to Tom Foremski, Spotify's advertising chief and head of European operations, Jonathan Forster, made the statement at a conference in London earlier this week. Forster said that the remaining licensing deals are currently being signed, though the service will not launch here "before July 5th."

A U.S. debut has been talked about for , but has failed to materialize due to . Now with that issue resolved, it appears the only thing holding up Spotify from launching here is the company itself.

The company had earlier announced that to integrate the streaming music service into the site. The functionality was limited to the five European countries where Spotify currently had service, but was thought to be a possible route for the service into the US market.

It is not clear if that deal may have given reluctant labels more incentive to hammer out deals with Spotify, but I did suggest earlier that the fact that the company had no major partner here could have been a reason for the delay. Before such a partnership the labels had no reason to move quickly to strike a deal, and so we were forced to wait.

Regardless, this is certainly the most positive news that we've heard from the company in quite awhile regarding a launch here. Let's hope the next time we hear anything from Spotify, it's the announcement of its official U.S. launch.