http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/11/spotify-financial-results-streaming-music-profitable
Its 15m paying subscribers helped Spotify to more than €1bn of revenues in 2014, but its losses are still growing faster than its income. The company’s financial results, published in Luxembourg and seen by the Guardian, reveal that its revenues increased from €746.9m (£537.87m) in 2013 to €1.08bn (£777m) in 2014 – year-on-year growth of 45%. However, Spotify recorded an operating loss of €165.1m (£119m) in 2014 compared to €91.2m (£65.7m) in 2013, while its net loss nearly trebled from €55.9m (£40.3m) in 2013 to €162.3m (£117m) in 2014.
This shows the business plan is working and could be very successful in the future. I think Spotify can expand into a online video service.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/11/windows-10-last-version-microsoft
Microsoft to move to smaller, more frequent updates – meaning the all-important version number will remain the same from now on. The future will be one of “Windows as a service”, with the final release of Windows 10 being updated as necessary, rather than holding features back for the next major paid-for update.
I cannot believe this as we still have many years of technology developments and I think there will be a windows update in the future and this isnt the end of microsoft as we will see a new windows
why and with what success are traditional media institutions adopting to the challenge posed by new digital media.
The development with new/digital media means that traditional media institutions have to change their strategies to cope with the competition which is being provided by online institutions. in the current digital era new and digital media has revolutionised the world, along with the internet being “the most important medium of the twentieth century” (Briggs and Burke). Some major institutions of the past haven't been able to keep up with the developments.
Newspapers are the traditional sources which have been the most affected by new/digital media because newspapers are available on line free of charge. News giant Rupert Murdoch stated that the world is changing and newspapers have to adapt. However he has developed with the development of new digital media as he has introduce a pay wall to his newspapers which are the times and the sun and you have to pay to view their news. However other competitors have not done this which are daily mail etc. and they make their money by advertising. Daily mail have been the most successful with the development with new digital media as they get the most viewers which means they will get the most advertising money.
A Marxist will believe that major players like sky are using the development to keep control and maintain their power and all the major players are all on line and are the ones who have the largest following base which shows they still have the post power and really backs a Marxist perspective. In the western world power is very important and most major players have the most power and this way they can still use the hypodermic needle theory as they inject their values and ideologies in their audience and a Marxist will just say that new digital media has allowed them to do this.
However a Pluralist would believe that the power has swung into the hands of the audience and new digital media has helped them gain more power. You could agree with this because institutions have given the opportunity to audiences to get involved and share their opinion and the institution which uses their audience the most is sky sports as they allow their watchers to have a say in major debates. They read out opinions on their shows and they would argue that audience now have a say.
News institutions have started to use more user generated content more often because they know that they cannot be everywhere and film all the affairs in the world happening. The way they have tackled this problem is by using the users as people are everywhere and most of them have smartphones and when something is happening major someone is likely to be recoding it and this is where institutions can cover the news with back up which is most likely to be UGC.
In conclusion, the development of new digital media has made major institutions to make major changes to cope with the development. and I believe all the successful ones have gone to social media to cope with the development to keep up. However My opinion is that institutions like mail and sky have coped very well because they are expanding with digital media.
