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Subscription services like Rdio, Mog, Rhapsody and Spotify promise to restore stronger growth to the music industry. The model’s best hope, Spotify, has four million paying subscribers. But what are the real prospects for the sector? Music industry analyst Mark Mulligan, presenting at Future Music Forum in Barcelona, sounded a note of caution:
“There is a natural ceiling of adoption of the people who are willing to pay $9.99 a month for music they don’t own. If you look at growth from launch, Spotify is – at best – on par with where we should be. The likes of imeem were the future of the music industry once, too. The most Vodafone (UK) got to was about 600,000 customers – Spotify’s (UK) paying subscriber count is about 600,000 to 800,000. This market should be much more dynamic than where we are now. It’s a niche proposition. The majority of mass-market consumers are still not interested in that pricepoint.”

Gen. Mark Welsh, the U.S. Air Force's brand new chief of staff, revealed that he is worried that investing in cyber without truly understanding the military's requirements could be a resource "black hole."

"I'm a believer, I'm just not sure we know exactly what we're doing in it yet, and until we do, I'm concerned that it's a black hole," said Welsh during a speech at an Air Force Association-sponsored conference just outside of Washington. "I'm going to be going a little slow on the operational side of cyber until we know what we're doing." One of the biggest problems is that he does not know exactly what is expected from the Air Force in terms of cyber. Until he has a feel for that, he said, he is hesitant to commit to resources to cyber at a time of declining defense spending. "I don't know of a really stated requirement from the joint world, through U.S. Cyber Command in particular, as to what exact kind of expertise they need us to train to and to what numbers to support them and the combatant commanders," said Welsh in response to Killer Apps' questions during a press conference after his speech. The general went on to say he thinks that up to 90 percent of Air Force cyber personnel are simply responsible for operating and defending Air Force IT systems. "They're not what NSA would call a cyber warrior for example," said the four-star, meaning that a very small percentage of Air Force cyber operators specialize in offensive operations. "That's confusing to the rest of the Air Force because the rest of the Air Force doesn't understand, they don't really know what we're doing [in cyber]."

It may sound far-fetched, but Congress suspects other nations of plotting to shackle the free Internet with taxes and censorship. And it's fighting the conspiracy with legislation.

The Senate adopted a resolution denouncing efforts by foreign nations to give control over key Internet functions to the United Nations-backed International Telecommunications Union. The House adopted a resolution last month. U.S. lawmakers don’t actually have say in the process that will unfold at the World Conference on International Telecommunications in December, but insiders say it’s a critical step to help build support for the United States’ position. “The Senate resolution will be important,” said Ambassador. David Gross, a telecommunications lawyer and former U.S. coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the State Department. “The world watches very carefully what our Congress does on these types of matters” and “the fact that Republicans and Democrats are so unified on this issue is noticed and important globally.” The United States will be represented by Ambassador Terry Kramer, a telecommunications executive tapped for this mission, and a delegation likely to be comprised of some State Department and NTIA officials. Kramer and others closely involved with the process say the challenge is much more nuanced than a direct Internet coup.

DirecTV CEO Michael White kept the ember of this long-standing idea burning this morning at the Goldman Sachs Annual Communicopia Conference. “Consolidation could be pro-consumer, perhaps,” he told investors, citing, among other things, the soaring programming costs for DirecTV and other pay TV providers.

White says that outlays for popular channels are growing “at an unsustainable rate for consumers.” This would be an awkward time to pursue a deal. Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen has been amassing rights for wireless spectrum and “we have to see what he has in mind to do with it,” White says. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile already are well established in the wireless phone business. “It’s hard for us to see why we’d ever want to go in and compete in that space.” DirecTV would like to offer broadband services, but White says it probably makes more sense to partner with a provider.