ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) reported having its best year to date in 2014. The not-for-profit performance-rights organization, which collects royalties on behalf of over 500,000 musical artists and more than 10 million songs, collected a little over $1 billion in revenue for 2014. ASCAP said that it had improved its efforts in identifying songs being played via streaming services and in return created opportunities to pay more artists for their work. Continue reading ASCAP Turns to Streaming Services for Collection of Royalties

In an attempt to improve its understanding of e-sports enthusiasts, Eventbrite conducted a survey of those that used its site to purchase tickets for live multiplayer video game competitions. The company discovered that e-sports fans are generally male, between the ages of 18 and 34, as well as active gamers themselves. E-sports are typically held in large arenas and draw thousands of fans who typically attend as an opportunity to be part of the larger gaming community. Continue reading Eventbrite Study Provides Breakdown of E-Sports Demographics

Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and Nickelodeon are competing more than ever for a younger audience by offering on demand children’s programming. Netflix plans to add as many as five new original kids shows next year to go hand in hand with its exclusive library of Disney and DreamWorks content. Amazon has ordered second seasons of its kids programming and Nickelodeon recently launched a streaming service for kids ages 2-6. Even YouTube has developed a kid-friendly app for preschoolers.  Continue reading Streaming Competition Ramps Up for Children’s Programming

Apple is in talks with HBO to become a launch partner for the HBO Now streaming service. Apple TV may join Roku, Xbox, PlayStation, and Amazon in distributing streaming content from HBO’s catalog of television series and movies. HBO Now is set to debut in April, just in time for the season premiere of its popular series “Game of Thrones.” The streaming service will mark the first time that viewers will be able to subscribe directly to HBO, instead of through a pay TV service. Continue reading HBO Negotiating to Launch its Streaming Service on Apple TV

Nvidia, a company best known for its graphics chips, has plans to launch a new set-top box with significant processing power and Ultra HD resolution. The $199 console, known as the Nvidia Shield, runs on the powerful new Tegra X1 processor and Android software. The Shield was designed to deliver streaming video games through Grid, described as a “Netflix of videogames.” Consumers will also be able to stream 4K video from Netflix, YouTube, and the Android TV version of Google Play. Continue reading Nvidia Unveils Set-Top for 4K Movie and Video Game Streaming

BitTorrent has developed a data sharing service called Sync that lets users share and sync files between devices without having to store any information on remote servers. Powered by BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, Sync reportedly transmits data between devices 16 times faster than today’s cloud services. Because there is no cloud, there are no user accounts or passwords either. Free and paid versions of Sync are now available on Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Windows Phone.  Continue reading BitTorrent Launches Sync as New Alternative to Cloud Services

The wide consumer release of virtual reality headsets from companies such as Oculus VR has been stalled by ongoing development and additional upgrades. Some VR makers have attributed the delay to motion sickness experienced by some users. While Oculus and other companies have promised to have their products ready by the end of this year or early 2016, game developer Valve says it has already developed a solution to the discomfort caused by VR headsets. Continue reading Valve May Have Solved Motion Sickness Problems Related to VR

In 2011, Google launched Google+, an ambitious social media endeavor to rival Facebook and other emerging social media sites and apps. Under Google+, the company premiered Google Photos and Google Hangouts, two products that despite the social network’s shortcomings, have been well received by the public. In an attempt to further develop these and other Google+ products, the company plans to launch these products into separate services with new management in place to oversee their development. Continue reading Google+ Compartmentalized to Push Growth of Popular Products

NBCUniversal hopes to reach the under-35-year-olds with its new comedy subscription service. The streaming service would likely include episodes of NBC shows such as “The Tonight Show” starring Jimmy Fallon and “Saturday Night Live,” in addition to exclusive original content. NBCUniversal is developing this new product to regain some of its cord-cutting viewers who have abandoned pay TV for online streaming. Currently, some of the company’s content is available on YouTube. Continue reading NBCUniversal is Developing Comedy Video Subscription Service

The 2015 South by Southwest (SXSW) Music, Film and Interactive Festival — which runs March 13-22 in Austin, Texas — plans to employ the latest beacon technology to help attendees navigate the sprawling event this time around. SXSW has partnered with Eventbase to install 1,000 Apple iBeacons that will deliver location-based information about who else is nearby and what acts are performing nearby. These Bluetooth-enabled devices send the information to the 2015 SXSW Go app. Continue reading SXSW Will Use Beacon Technology to Push Festival Information

A recent study by market research firm J.D. Power revealed that automobile owners are seemingly unsatisfied with the communication systems in their vehicles. Technologies that have been included in cars to assist drivers, such as Bluetooth and voice recognition systems, have become the cause of many car owners’ greatest frustrations. With communication systems becoming more prevalent, J.D. Power is paying close attention to the types of problems drivers are experiencing with technology in their cars. Continue reading J.D. Power: Drivers Want More Car Tech, Frustrated by Problems

Banks are scrambling to tighten security measures as Apple’s mobile payments service experiences a growing incidence of fraud. Criminals are lifting credit card numbers and stealing identities through Apple Pay by reportedly exploiting vulnerabilities in the verification process. Some banks may make it too easy for customers to authenticate numbers when adding cards. According to one expert, fraud may account for about 6 percent of Apple Pay transactions, compare to only 0.1 percent of credit card-swiping transactions. Continue reading Apple Pay Mobile Payments Service Experiences Growth in Fraud

After several months of discussions, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has officially declared Fridays as the release day for all new music albums. In today’s digital era, music listeners want to have access to albums the moment they are available anywhere in the world. Rather than staggering the releases on different days in different countries, the universal release approach aims to combat piracy. There is no word yet on when this new distribution model will take effect. Continue reading Global Trade Group Proposes Universal Release Day for Albums

A recent study by Hunter Qualitative Research, commissioned by Defy Media, determined that millennials prefer video available via YouTube and other digital venues as compared to traditional television because they find the content to be more relevant and enjoyable. Digital content also feels more real to them. The study, conducted in the fall of 2014, found that consumers 13-24 years of age spend 11.3 hours watching free online video in a typical week. The same group watches a weekly average of 8.3 hours of regularly scheduled TV. Continue reading Younger Consumers Find Digital Video More Relevant Than TV

At this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Sony announced that its PlayStation-powered Project Morpheus VR headset has some new specs. The screen resolution has been improved to 1,920 x RGB x 1,080 and its refresh rate has been doubled to 120Hz. Project Morpheus now features a new 5.7-inch screen with nearly 100-degree field of view, and touts lower latency, at under 18 milliseconds. While no price has been revealed, the company says it plans to launch the device by the first half of next year. Continue reading Project Morpheus Gets Bigger Screen and Impressive New Specs