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CD sales rose for the first time in 17 years
The music industry made almost as much from CDs as digital downloads in 2021.
Streaming represented nearly 80 percent of US music revenue in 2019
Streaming is even more vital to the music industry than it was a year ago. The RIAA has reported that streaming represented 79 percent ($8.8 billion) of American music revenue in 2019, compared to 75 percent the year before. And crucially, more of those were paid subscribers. There were 60.4 million paying customers for services like Apple Music and Spotify, representing 61 percent ($6.8 billion) of the entire industry's revenue -- a big step up from 46.9 million subscribers and 55 percent in 2018.
CDs and vinyl are outselling digital music downloads
Digital music downloads began to outsell physical media since 2012. It took four more years for digital music revenue to surpass those from physical media as well. Then streaming happened, and last year generated more money in the US than all the other formats. Now, digital downloads are coming in dead last, with fewer sales than CDs, vinyl or other physical media, according to the latest annual report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Recommended Reading: The dark past of Jessica Jones
The creator of 'Jessica Jones' serves up a dark mirror for our moment Joy Press, The New York Times Jessica Jones returns to Netflix in less than a week, and thanks to a couple of trailers, we know it's going to be dark and angry. The New York Times sat down with the creator of the show, Melissa Rosenberg, who has also penned the doom and gloom for Dexter and Twilight. Rosenberg opens up about how her own past helped her craft the show's protagonist.
Recommended Reading: Yves Béhar on design in age of AI
10 Principles For Design In The Age Of AI Katharine Schwab, Fast Company In an age when artificial intelligence is becoming a bigger part of our lives, it's important to have some guidelines to keep innovation focused. Designer Yves Béhar sat down with Fast Company to discuss just that, laying out 10 design principles that AI product makers should keep in mind.
How a file format brought an industry to its knees
MP3. It's the format that revolutionized the way music's been consumed since the late '90s. When Karlheinz Brandenburg, a German acoustics engineer, discovered that an audio file could be compressed down to one-twelfth of its original size without distortion, he created the file-shrinking technology. Stephen Witt's debut book, How Music Got Free, traces all digital music piracy back to the invention of that format, which inadvertently made it possible for people to download and share music illegally. The book details the science and struggle behind the widely used audio technology. And his investigation uncovers the politics and the manipulative men who kept MP3 files from seeing the light of computer screens for years.
High Court sides with UK music industry in challenge to CD copying law
A group of organisations representing the UK music industry has today succeeded in challenging recent copyright legislation that legalised the duplication of music for personal use. You see, before October last year, it was actually illegal to copy media, even for private consumption -- and yes, we're talking about stuff you'd legitimately bought. Ever ripped a CD so you could listen to the album on your phone? Well, that was technically an offense, or at least before October 1st 2014 it was. On that date, the government addressed the outdated legislation and added a private copying exception to copyright law, making ripping CDs and the like for personal use legal. The music industry wasn't best pleased. Not because of the private copying exception itself, but because the government didn't include any "copyright levy" as part of the revised legislation.
Streaming music sales in the US beat CDs for the first time
Sorry, Taylor Swift, but streaming music isn't going anywhere. In fact, revenues from streaming services like Spotify and Rdio overtook CD sales last year -- a first for the music industry -- according to data from the RIAA. Streaming sales hit $1.87 billion last year, a 29 percent jump from 2013, while CD revenues fell 12.7 percent reaching $1.85 billion. Naturally, digital downloads still rule the music realm -- accounting for 37 percent of the total market and $2.57 billion in sales -- but it's also worth noting they dipped a bit last year. At this point, it's not a matter of if streaming music will overtake digital downloads, it's simply a matter of when. The big problem for artists, though, is that they don't make as much from streaming services as they do from downloads or CDs (that's basically Swift's entire beef). Don't be surprised if you end up paying more for your Spotify subscription at some point soon, as those services rush to ramp up their pay outs.
Encrypted Text: Readiness gone, Preparation next?
As part of the pre-Mists patch 5.0.4, in August 2012, hunters were given Readiness as a baseline ability. Readiness is a carbon copy of Preparation, which has been a rogue workhorse for years. While I am typically hesitant to give hunters any more ink, there's something interesting for them in the patch 5.4 PTR notes. Readiness is being removed from hunters entirely, and their cooldowns are being rebalanced to compensate. An ability that was considered so crucial that it was made baseline is being pulled completely just a year later. Cooldown management has been an integral part of the rogue class since day one. Preparation has been our go-to PvP ability since its inception. The entire World of Roguecraft video series was predicated by how amazing Preparation is. A rogue with full cooldowns is a deity, a rogue without cooldowns is a pushover. When Preparation was made baseline in patch 5.2 (January 2013), I was certain that the once-optional ability would be a permanent part of our arsenal. Now, I'm wondering if Preparation's next on Blizzard's chopping block.
In Amazon dispute, EU Court of Justice rules that levies on blank CDs can be collected 'in some cases'
Amazon's spent quite a bit of time in court as of late; in addition to a recently settled trademark dispute with Apple, a row with an Austrian copyright collection agency is keeping the e-tailer busy. Today, the European Court of Justice ruled that, in some cases, EU countries can collect a levy on blank recording media to ensure that musicians are compensated for their work. The key phrase here is "in some cases," since establishing whether CDs, memory cards, cassette tapes and other media have been used for public consumption isn't exactly easy -- and it's not yet clear whether Amazon will have to pay the 1.9 million euros in question. The next step will be for the Austrian supreme court to decide whether it can even be determined whether Amazon customers used such blank media for anything other than home videos and mix tapes. After all, some would argue that burning a French-electro mix to torment your coworkers on a nine-hour drive is hardly a crime.
Encrypted Text: Learning the rogue calculus
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. You don't have to be good at math to play a rogue. Anyone can log into WoW and create a rogue. You can get all the way to level 90 and into raids without ever having to do any addition or long division. You can do dailies and dungeons simply by using the highest ilvl gear available and ignoring everything else. Rogues are played with a keyboard and mouse, not a pen and paper. However, if you want to wring every last drop of DPS out of the class, you're going to have to get your hands dirty with numbers. I love when a class' design forces the player to make tough choices. The choices that we make as rogues, when you think about it, are really just math problems. The secret to making good choices is to do the math ahead of time. You don't want to be faced with an unexpected set of fractions in the middle of a tough raid encounter.
Encrypted Text: The 4 unspoken laws of rogue duels
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. I used to read a rogue blog called World of Ming, where a rogue named Ming would explore our class' capabilities in the world of high-end PvP. My favorite posts were his deep-dives into dueling. Ming had the belief that the rogue class should be able to defeat any other class in a series of duels. If you wanted to fight Ming, you just needed to log onto the PTR servers to find him dueling outside of a major city. Blizzard has often claimed that WoW simply isn't balanced around 1v1 combat. In fact, even the 2v2 Arenas are considered to be a lower tier of competition -- complete with lower compensation. The 3v3 and 5v5 Arenas are heralded as the truly balanced PvP platforms. In spite of Blizzard's disclaimer, the fact is that many people consider duels to be the ultimate form of PvP. The rogue-vs.-rogue duel has long been held as the truest test of skill between two brothers of the shadows. If you ever plan to engage in a rogue duel, you need to know about the sacred code of dueling conduct that every rogue should follow.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: 'Plantscraper' vertical farm, new wave energy and a battery-powered iPhone case
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Groundbreaking green architecture burst into life in Sweden this week as Inhabitat reported that Plantagon began construction on the world's first 'Plantscraper' vertical farm. We also marveled at artist Yayoi Kusama's dazzling Infinity Mirror Room, which shines with the reflections of thousands of LEDs, and we shared the bubbly modular AMPS living wall system. Meanwhile, the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program announced that HWKN's bright blue spiky sea-urchin shaped pavilion will be popping up this summer, PinkCloud.DK unveiled plans to transform oil refineries into giant energy positive communities and the UK granted planning commission for its first amphibious house.We also showcased several amazing applications for LEGO bricks this week: a NYC apartment renovated with 20,000 plastic bricks, a gigantic LEGO-inspired church in the Netherlands and a remarkable fully articulated prosthetic LEGO arm. Speaking of next-gen prosthetics, this week Israeli scientists demoed a real-life "Star Trek" VISOR that enables the blind to see, and Nike took the wraps off a prosthetic running sole for amputee triathlete Sarah Reinertsen.This also marked a heated week for energy news as solar power heavyweight Sunpower sued Solarcity over stolen data, and Aquamarine Power geared up to connect its new wave energy generator to the UK's national grid. We also got ready for rough days ahead with the waterproof, armageddon-ready, solar-charged, battery-powered iPhone case, and we got things cooking with Biolite's brilliant new camping stove, which converts waste heat into electricity for USB gadgets. Last but not least, we were wowed by several amazing new applications for discarded tech: Sean Avery's astounding animal sculptures made from shattered CDs and Paola Mirai's elegant jewelry fashioned out of discarded computer circuits.
Digital music finally outsells physical media, books look on in alarm
That sharp sucking of air you heard at the end of 2010, well, that was the record industry wincing as sales of CDs continued to tumble while digital media sales remained flat. The relieved exhale that you just heard echoing through the atmosphere? That was the collective sigh of executives who just picked up the latest Nielsen report indicating that digital music sales are on the rise again and, for the first time ever, have finally surpassed physical media. Sales as a whole were up, but while CDs were down 5.7 percent, digital track sales were up 8.4 percent and digital albums a stunning 19.5 percent (perhaps most interestingly, though, vinyl was up over 36 percent). CDs still outsell virtual albums by a factor of two, but it's clear the trend toward binary media is back on track. It may be a narrow victory but, with 50.3 percent of the market, audio files are new king of the hill. Check out the full report at the source.
Samsung SE-208BW SmartHub packs DVD writer, we ask why then take it for a spin (video)
Is there any better way to ring in 2012 than to drop 129 bills on a shiny new wireless-enabled DVD burner? Absolutely. But if your New Year's resolution includes archiving smartphone pics to optical media and steaming DVD flicks over WiFi, Samsung is prepared to make those nostalgic dreams a reality, with its SE-208BW SmartHub. The premise here is quite familiar -- little black box takes content from an attached storage device and streams it to connected devices over WiFi, or over the Web. Samsung's twist on the traditional model brings optical media into the equation, however, with a CD/DVD burner enabling music and movie playback, along with remote file archival. You'll need to wait until late January (or perhaps early February) before introducing Samsung's shiny streamer to your wired or wireless network, but we got an early look at the new DLNA-enabled gadget today. If you've used an external DVD burner made in the last decade, you're already familiar with the form-factor employed here -- there's a slim disk tray up front, with full-size and mini USB connectors, Ethernet and a DC input on the rear. This is strictly a streaming device, so there's no HDMI or other AV connectivity -- you'll need to use an Android, iOS or smart TV app, along with Samsung AllShare or an FTP client to access content. We tried steaming 720p video and a few photos using the Android app and the AllShare application included with most recent Samsung devices, and everything worked as expected, with content loading quickly without any hiccups. You can access files on a connected HDD or USB flash drive remotely from the built-in FTP server, but you'll need to use Samsung's apps to stream DVDs and music CDs from that built-in optical drive, or to burn smartphone pics or other remote files to a blank disc. You can view content directly on your smartphone or tablet, or on a connected TV, using the former device to control playback. The hub also serves as an internet bridge, so you won't lose web access when connected directly over WiFi. There's nothing groundbreaking here, unless the absence of an optical drive has been keeping you from adding such a device to your collection, but jump past the break to see it in action.%Gallery-141063%
Samsung outs new Blu-ray and media hub drives: dammit, the ODD still lives
You've seen our musings on the continued relevance of optical drives and it seems Samsung agrees entirely: it's just announced two external spinners to keep pace with our "evolving mobile entertainment demands." Er, great Sammy, but how? First off, there's the USB-powered SE-506AB Blu-ray writer depicted above, which will give that awful Pacific boxset one last chance on your ODD-neutered Mac or netbook. But that's not nearly as interesting as the SE-208BW CD/DVD writer, which doubles as a WiFi media hub to stream music and movies to your smartphone, tablet or PC. It works the other way round too: letting you backup content from your mobile device direct to a disc. It even supports Dynamic DNS and can cooperate with a flash drive or HDD to become a "personal cloud server." Still not impressed? This wonder drive additionally functions as a WiFi extender, or it can create an access point from scratch when cabled up to your network. Man, that's ODD OD. The media hub will arrive at the beginning of 2012, while the new Blu-ray drive should be out any time now. No word on pricing, but check out the PR double-shot after the break for the full specs.
UK set to legalize CD and DVD copying for personal use
The fact that it hasn't technically been legal may not have stopped many folks in the UK from ripping their CDs all these years, but it looks like there may soon be a tad less anarchy involved in that process. Reuters is reporting that the British government will announce tomorrow that it plans to legalize the copying of CDs and DVDs onto computers or portable media players for personal use -- a move that will bring it up to speed with most other European countries (and the US and Canada). Of course, the key words there are "personal use." You still won't be legally allowed to share that music over the internet after you copy it without permission, and it's not yet clear how the new rules will apply to DVDs (or Blu-rays) with copy protection measures -- although the British Video Association unsurprisingly doesn't seem too pleased with the changes regardless, calling them "extremely damaging."
US Military bans removable media again, this time probably for good
The US military has officially solidified its reputation as a flake, by banning the use of all removable media including thumb drives, CDs and DVDs again on its Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRnet) after relaxing the same policy in February. To prove they meant business this time, senior officers in each branch relayed the orders and reaffirmed personnel would risk of court-martial if they failed to comply. This seems silly to us considering Uncle Sam feels comfortable giving some cell phones access to secure data, and we all know how much damage losing one can cause. But then again, if history and Transformers are any indication, sometimes it's these little things that cause bigger breaches than anything Cyber Command focuses on stopping.
TDK develops 1TB optical disc, leaves other optical storage feeling emasculated
We've heard about 1TB-sized optical discs in the past, but TDK has now revealed a 1TB monster of its own at CEATEC. Unlike existing Blu-rays which use four recording layers at most, TDK's creation features 16 layers on both sides of the disc, each capable of storing up to 32GB apiece. If you're keeping track of the optical storage arms race, that's seven more gigabytes per layer than Pioneer's 400GB and 500GB disc achievements made back in 2008. TDK's prototype also has the potential to leverage existing Blu-ray technologies, since it's made from a material already found in BDs and shares the same beam aperture. On the down side, the current version's recording layers measure 260μm -- that's more than twice as thick as its Blu-ray counterpart -- and causes aberrations in today's fat-layer-hating optical lenses. Outside of its Biggest Loser qualifications, though, TDK says "its commercialization depends on disc manufacturers." Considering the company has yet to sell the 10-layer 320GB discs revealed at CEATEC 2009, however, we're doubtful this 1TB improvement will hit stores anytime soon.
Best Buy to expand iPad availability, sales cannibalizing laptops by up to 50%
Here's another report of the iPad stealing attention and money away from more traditional computing. Best Buy's CEO Brian Dunn tells the Wall Street Journal that the iPad has "cannibalized" sales of laptops by up to 50%, meaning that customers in the big box retail store have gone for Apple's tablet rather than a traditional keyboard-and-screen computer. That's pretty astounding, although if you think about the period Best Buy has just been through, with back-to-school students and parents shopping for consumer technology, it's not surprising to think that lots of people would go for a brand-new iPad over a similarly-priced laptop. Best Buy is also expanding its iPad coverage, bringing the Apple product to all of its over 1,000 U.S. stores by the end of this month. The big retailer is in the midst of a transition, moving away from previously huge libraries of DVDs and CDs and towards consumer electronics and end-user entertainment devices. It's still projecting higher revenues, but one analyst says that Best Buy is really aiming for "tablets, e-readers and probably the higher-end digital cameras." That means that it makes a lot of sense for them to get in close to Apple and the iPad. [via MacRumors]
