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. Filed under: Internet Comments Via: CNET Source: RIAA
Read the original:
Streaming music sales in the US beat CDs for the first time
If you need more than ten fingers to count the number of times you’ve burned yourself while trying to light a candle at the bottom of a tall glass container, the Illume ArcLighter will probably seem like the greatest invention since the wheel. Instead of a flame, it produces a glowing electric arc that can light everything from candles, to gas burners, to even kindling. Read more… 
itwbennett writes The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has fined Verizon $3.4 million over its failure to notify police and fire departments during a 911 service outage last year. Under the commission’s rules, Verizon and other carriers were required to notify emergency call centers of a six-hour outage that occurred in April. The outage involved multiple carriers and affected over 11 million people in seven states. Read more of this story at Slashdot.