Music sales via Apple’s iTunes Store have dropped about 14 percent since the start of the year. Meanwhile, streaming services now supply one-third of the recorded music revenue in the U.S. The total number of streams reported for services such as Spotify and Pandora have increased 46 percent this year over 2013. This shift may be one reason behind Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics. The company is reportedly planning to relaunch Beats next year as a part of iTunes. Continue reading Streaming Services Grow While iTunes Music Sales Decline

Video game-centric website Twitch, recently acquired by Amazon for close to $1 billion, now has a global audience of 60 million users. The audience is passionate, consuming 16 billion minutes of video per month. The site seems to be an ideal way for advertisers to reach the young male demographic, between ages 18 and 30. However, televised sports content remains a viable method for reaching this audience, and advertisers have not yet shifted in preference from TV to online gaming. Continue reading Advertisers Still Favor Televised Sports Over Online Gaming

Facebook, which reaches around 1.3 billion people monthly, currently makes up 20 percent of traffic to news sites. The social media platform provides around 30 percent of U.S. adults with news, acting as the leading news source for many consumers. Facebook, which sees itself as a personalized newspaper, is hoping to lead the change in how readers consume journalism. The company, along with other social media sites, could potentially control the future of certain news sites. Continue reading Social Trend: Facebook Changing the Direction of Journalism?

Pandora’s Artist Marketing Platform will now offer listener data to the artists whose music is featured on the Internet radio service. This data will include number of plays and thumbs up for each song, how many fans have created stations for the artist, along with the listeners’ geographic and demographic breakdowns. Co-founder Tim Westergren uses his experience as a musician to detail how the service will eliminate guesswork and allow musicians to more effectively target their audience. Continue reading Pandora Introduces AMP, Brings Listener Data to its Musicians

According to a new study, prank-based viral videos have recently become the most-shared forms of movie content. In the study, social video advertising platform Unruly analyzed the most-shared movie promos from September 2013 to September 2014. In that time, the six major movie studios generated 3.4 billion views of promotional content. Through the study, Unruly determined that the studios that went beyond the simple trailer were more successful in promoting movies. Continue reading Study Shows Prankverts Currently Most-Shared Movie Content

Facebook recently announced Safety Check, an easy way to check on others when disasters strike. The service will first allow users to let others know they are safe during a disaster. It will also allow users to check in on others and mark friends as safe. Only friends will have access to these updates. The tool is designed for users to remain connected to those they care about. Safety Check will be available on Android, iOS, feature phones and desktops globally. Continue reading Facebook Introduces Safety Check for Users During Disasters

Kris Sanchez, one of the top 100 influencers on Twitter, makes $500,000 a year from sponsored links alone. Social Reactor, a company that matches social influencers like Sanchez with advertisers, supplies galleries and sites that Sanchez links to in his tweets. With this model, he is paid per click that those pages receive. Branded deals with companies such as Ford and Paramount have been very lucrative for the 23-year old. He also makes money through mobile apps. Continue reading Social Influencer Makes More Than $500K a Year via Twitter

Twitter has traditionally relied upon other apps to help make its service more accessible. However, after it largely cut third-party access to the Twitter API, many developers were put off. Today the social media company is hosting its first developer conference in four years. Twitter is expected to announce Fabric, a suite of tools aimed at making programming easier. Rather than focusing on apps that build on Twitter, executives will speak more generally about app development.

Continue reading Fabric: Twitter to Introduce New Suite of Development Tools

Google Express has added three new cities: Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C. This means that seven million people can now use same-day delivery across all of the cities involved. Meanwhile, 12 million people can access next-day service in Northern California. In addition, Google has added 16 new merchants over the past few months. Shoppers that become Google Express members can now receive free same-day or overnight delivery on orders over $15. Continue reading Google Express Includes More Merchants During Expansion

Google claims that it has taken additional measures to make search results more resistant to piracy. According to a new white paper, Google has changed its search-engine algorithms so the sites with a large number of takedown notices appear lower in search results rankings. The company has also enhanced autocomplete and related search, preventing the inclusion of terms associated with piracy. New advertising products will also promote copyright-friendliness.  Continue reading Google Report Explains Enhancement of Anti-Piracy Efforts

Musician and tech entrepreneur will.i.am has introduced the PULS smartwatch in order to fill what he perceives as a void in a wearable market that does not adequately take fashion into account. At Dreamforce 2014, he presented PULS as a wearable that does not need to be tethered to a phone since it has its own SIM card. The device looks more like a cuff, and has speakers and a touchscreen display. PULS connects via Wi-Fi and has carrier partners for 3G — AT&T in the U.S. and O2 in the U.K.  Continue reading Will.i.am Unveils New Smartwatch with Streaming Music Service

Before Wednesday, social media startup Reddit, which has 174 million regular monthly users, did not offer a mobile app. Instead, the online message board worked with a variety of third-party, unofficial programs. However, in the wake of a large round of venture funding, Reddit announced that it has purchased the most popular of these third-party programs, Alien Blue. The app will now become the official Reddit app, available for download via Apple’s App Store. Continue reading Reddit Acquires Alien Blue, Now the Official Reddit Mobile App

YouTube personalities are venturing into the world of books as publishers continue to seek the next popular authors. These content creators explain that they do not make much from YouTube, which takes 45 percent of advertising revenue, and see publishing as a new market to earn income. For instance, U.K. video blogger Alfie Deyes released “The Pointless Book” in Britain last month, and it rapidly became a bestseller. Meanwhile, others are looking into television shows, radio gigs, and even movie deals. Continue reading YouTube Personalities Try Out New Markets, Including Books

After Yahoo purchased Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013, CEO and founder David Karp was promised that the site would remain an independent property. Tumblr would use Yahoo’s advertising technology while Yahoo would use Tumblr’s publishing tools. Now, Yahoo executives see Tumblr as their version of YouTube. Tumblr would solve YouTube content creators’ complaints that they do not make enough money, and the poached YouTube stars would set up their new channels on Tumblr.  Continue reading Yahoo Now Envisions Tumblr as Its Own Version of YouTube

Members of anonymous online messaging forum 4chan claim to have access to as many as 200,000 Snapchat photos through a third-party app called Snapsaved. The smartphone tool allows creators to store photos from their Snapchat accounts. Anonymous members have said that a link will be posted, allowing users to download the photos. It is not clear who created Snapsaved, and the app’s site is no longer working. Meanwhile, Snapchat claims that its servers have not been compromised.

Continue reading Third Party Site May Have Stored 200,000 Snapchat Images