Episode 74 – Music Streaming, Are Gadgets Dead?

Our News Roundup this week covers three topics. First, T-Mobile's announcement of Digits, a service which will allow customers to use their single number on multiple devices, or multiple numbers on a single device. Second, we discuss two news items relating to Apple and AI: the announcement that its researchers will now be able to publish their research, and second the slides from its talk this week at an AI conference. Third, Amazon's announcement of Amazon Go, a sort of grocery store of the future. Our Question of the Week is "How is streaming changing the music industry?" Jan talks about the size and composition of the music industry and its revenues, and the rise of streaming. We discuss the differences between ad-supported and paid streaming, and what's happening with each. And we talk about where the industry will go from here. Our third segment is a conversation about Farhad Manjoo's article this week in the New York Times about the increasingly tough landscape for hardware vendors, and whether we agree with his conclusions. We wrap up with our Weekly Pick, which this week is a holiday gift guide recommended by Aaron. As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast on the website at podcast.beyonddevic.es.