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For the world’s biggest music label, the days of revenue decline are over — and soon, it will be surviving mostly on digital money. Universal Music Group -- home to Lady Gaga and U2 -- reported that revenue for the last nine months had risen 2.1 percent over the last year.

Sales from CDs dipped again by 14.2 percent to €1.02 billion ($1.29 billion) while digital grew another 8.6 percent to €916 million ($1.16 billion) — poised to overtake physical sales soon. UMG is not the first label to reach this tipping point. Warner Music Group has seen the same pattern as digital music sales grow and CD sales shrink ever more. In truth, however, Universal is breathing fumes on the way to the milestone. Which is to say, revenue is only up 2.1 percent thanks to currency fluctuations. Had currencies remained constant, company sales would have dipped by 3.4 percent. The other story is that, regardless of format, recorded music revenue continues to shrink because digital downloads are cheaper than discs. The growth is being picked up by licensing to other services. Even so, it remains true to say that the worse days of the music business are bottoming out.

Nine chief executives of major technology companies wrote to President Barack Obama and members of Congress, urging them to avoid the "fiscal cliff" — a combination of spending cuts and expiring tax breaks set to take effect on Jan. 1.

The CEOs said that because of the cliff, the country faces "one of the most avoidable economic crises" in U.S. history. They warned that allowing tax rates to increase while cutting spending would "reduce economic growth and hinder employment." The letter was signed by the CEOs of Dell, Motorola Solutions, Xerox, Micron, Qualcomm, Intel, IBM, Applied Materials and EMC. They expressed concern that some policymakers believe that inaction would be acceptable.

A separate white paper released by CompTIA, the trade association for the IT industry, found that the fiscal cliff would cause "major trauma" to IT companies.

In remarks delivered at a policy conference in Washington (DC), Federal Communications Commission member Jessica Rosenworcel set out her perspectives on several of today’s top spectrum debates, including guiding principles for incentive auctions, a new approach for federal spectrum, a way forward using model rules for facility siting, and the need for a comprehensive look at network reliability.

1) Her guiding principles for incentive auctions are: Simplicity, Fairness, Balance, Public safety and Expedition.
2) Concerning federal spectrum she said traditional clearing as well as sharing proposals can maximize access to the spectrum in the long run. Commissioner Rosenworcel added that federal users need incentives such as proceeds from spectrum auctions, especially in light of upcoming budget cuts.
3) She addresses network reliability in the “wireless and digital age” saying it is a time for honest conversation that includes ways to keep consumer equipment powered up during a disaster as well as access to fuel, priority under the Stafford Act, maintaining backhaul, and harmonization of laws at all levels of government.

Pandora founder Tim Westergren pushed back against claims that an Internet royalty bill pending in Congress would take money away from musicians and recording artists.

Westergren is a vocal proponent of the Internet Radio Fairness Act, which proposes to put Internet radio services on the same royalty-setting standard as satellite and cable radio stations. The Pandora founder has argued that Internet radio stations unfairly pay higher royalty fees than other digital radio services because they're placed under a different standard. Critics of the bill, such as musicFIRST, have said that Pandora is more interested in its bottom line than fairly compensating artists. Speaking at the Future of Music Summit, Westergren said those charges are false and emphasized that the bill does not set royalty rates for Internet radio services. "That's a huge misnomer. It's really important for artists to try to parse the rhetoric around this. That is not true," Westergren said. "What this legislation proposes to do is to provide us with the same rate-setting standards so when the Copyright Royalty Board considers our situation, they get to consider that evidence under the same sort of rubric," he said. "It doesn't set a rate. It's been unpredictable in the past. It wouldn't even bet on what the outcome would be. It allows us to operate on a level playing field." However, Westergren said the hope is that the bill would lead to lower royalty fees for Internet radio services like Pandora.