Music on the Web: Google, Facebook and Apple set to battle for your ears

Silicon Valley is poised to upend the music industry -- again.

From Napster to Pandora, from the iPod to the iPhone, technology innovation has made music easier to find and cheaper to buy than ever before. At the same time, it has destabilized the music business and left artists -- at least those not named Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift -- fearing for their livelihoods.

In this latest music revolution, companies like Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL) and Facebook are eyeing the streaming and on-demand music business now dominated by smaller niche companies such as Pandora and Spotify. When they do -- and most analysts agree it's really just a matter of time -- they could give nearly everyone the ability to listen to whatever they want, whenever they want -- and mostly for free.

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