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According to the latest IFPI report out of Norway, music piracy has been eliminated in the nation in just 5 short years.

In the countrywide survey, only 4 percent of Norwegians under the age of 30 said they use illegal file-sharing platforms to get their music, down from 80 percent in 2009. Only 1 percent of Norwegians admitted that unauthorized file sharing was their main or only source of acquiring music.

So what changed? Legal options. 75 percent of Norway's music industry income comes from streaming, including Spotify and Tidal, and 80 percent of those surveyed claim streaming is their main source of music now.

IFPI Norge MD Marte Thorsby noted: "We are now offering services that are both better and more user-friendly than illegal platforms... In [the past] five years, we have virtually eliminated illegal file sharing in the music industry."

"We have managed to reintroduce a healthy economy in music industry. We must simultaneously not forget that we are only in streaming's infancy, and that we will probably see major changes in the coming years. Younger audiences are using streaming services to the greatest extent. When older audiences [start] embracing these services we will probably see a somewhat different distribution of revenues. Hopefully this will also involve a better economy for several Norwegian artists and record companies."

Tidal, the high-quality music streaming service recently acquired by rapper Jay Z, is already planning a major expansion.

The service will expand to 22 new countries in the Q1 2015, including Austria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, South Africa and Turkey.

Currently, Tidal is only available in the US, UK, Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands yet still parent company Aspiro says Tidal and their other streaming service Wimp have 500,000 paying subscribers.

Tidal CEO Andy Chen added: "We continue to accelerate our expansion, as demand for our product keeps rising. Besides directly from consumers, we are also seeing a very strong growth from new home audio partners. We now have 37 confirmed partners to offer Tidal across the broadest selection of home audio systems."

"After just three months live with Tidal in the US, we are already seeing 18% of streams coming from home audio systems, increasing steadily month by month, as new integrations get up and running. Experiencing Tidal on high-quality home audio systems and headphones proves just how good high-quality music streaming can sound. 2015 will be the year a lot of people discover that."

Amazon has unveiled "Kindle Convert" today, a tool that will allow you to turn your physical books into e-books.

The app, for Windows 7 and 8, costs $19 and and let's the books move into the digital age including adjustable fonts, dictionary lookup and Amazon's own Whispersync.

You will need to scan the pages of the books with a home scanner "capable of producing .jpeg, .tiff or .pdf files with 300-600 DPI, 24-bit depth for color and 8-bit depth for greyscale or black and white."

So far, reviews for the tool are pretty brutal, with many claiming that the quality is just not there yet, but for the price it might be worth a shot for those with rare books or books from their children, etc. that need to be preserved.

On Friday, the WSJ had a very interesting piece for gamers, claiming that Netflix is working on a live-action television show based on the hit "Legend of Zelda' series.

The show would be about a young boy named Link who must rescue a princess named Zelda in the fantasy word of Hyrule. Netflix even allegedly suggested the show was "Game of Thrones" but for a family audience.

Netflix is actively working with Nintendo but is still seeking writers for the show. The first 'Zelda' game was released by Nintendo in 1987 for the NES and there have been nearly 20 other since. It remains one of Nintendo's most popular franchises.

Neither company would confirm or deny the rumor, but it has certainly gotten the gamer community excited.

Thanks to a new report from Ernst & Young in conjunction with French record label trade group SNEP, we can see that artists and songwriters continue to get screwed by the major record labels.

The report broke down where the money that consumers are paying towards Deezer and Spotify really goes; and it's not going into the artist's pockets.

Of the 9.99 euros that are paid for a premium subscription to either service, 46 percent goes to the labels, 21 percent goes to the actual platform (making sure Spotify stays up and running for example), 17 percent goes to tax, 10 percent goes to the songwriters and publishers and just 7 percent goes to the artists. For those keeping track, that's 70 cents going to the artists for every $10 that is brought in.

If you do not include taxes or platform costs, the chart looks even more embarrassing, with the labels taking 73 percent, songwriters taking 16 percent and artists getting 11. Pretty stark. These figures are not including the other fees and import royalties that many artists have built into their contracts even though digital music does not have returns or breakages.

Judging from this report it is very clear why artists like Taylor Swift have pulled their music from streaming services: it's just not worth it when the label is taking all of their money.

After nearly two years of development, Canonical has confirmed that the first Ubuntu smartphone is scheduled to go on sale in Europe starting next week.

In conjunction with OEM partner BQ, the BQ Aquarius E4.5 Ubuntu Edition (yikes) will sell via flash sale for €169 (near $190 USD). The time and date will be revealed via the BQ and Ubuntu Twitter and Facebook accounts, meaning if you are interested you better start following.

The device has a 4.5-inch display, a quad-core 1.36GHz MediaTek processor, 1GB RAM, dual-SIM suport and a microSD slot to expand on the 8GB of internal storage.

Twitter, eBay, Amazon and Yelp among others will have Ubuntu native apps at launch, and Spotify and Dropbox are supported via third-party apps. Despite the long development time, the first version of Ubuntu is expected to need some polish and refinement.

Source:
TNW

According to Microsoft's Gabriel Aul, the first upcoming Windows 10 Technical Preview will support Windows Phone devices that only have 512MB of RAM.

Aul is Microsoft's Engineering General Manager and had been responding to support questions on Twitter.

Keep in mind that Aul only confirmed the first Technical Preview would support the older less powerful devices, so it is unclear whether subsequent releases will have the same support.

Microsoft has not fully confirmed its supported Windows Phones for Windows 10 Technical Preview, but we should know more in the coming weeks.

Google has started offering Chromecast owners $6 in Google Play credit.

The search giant is marketing the credit as a Valentine's Day gift so you can rent a romantic movie and stay in. Of course, you can get whatever you want with the credit and it does not appear to have an expiration date.

To take advantage, you must be logged into the same Wi-Fi network as your Chromecast and then click here. You will see all your current offers (I had 5) and you just have to confirm your Chromecast serial with Google to accept the credit. You can also use the mobile app if you prefer on iOS and Android.

Don't forget to hit "Redeem."

Adobe has released security updates for their Flash Player across platforms, addressing critical vulnerabilities as it had rated as "Priority 1."

The updates, for Windows, Mac and Linux, will patch "vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system." The bug is "actively being exploited in the wild via drive-by-download attacks against systems running Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows 8.1 and below."

Adobe recommends all desktop, Chrome, IE and Firefox users update to the latest version of their software.

The updates will "resolve memory corruption vulnerabilities that could lead to code execution," "type confusion vulnerabilities that could lead to code execution," "resolve heap buffer overflow vulnerabilities that could lead to code execution," "resolve a buffer overflow vulnerability that could lead to code execution," and "resolve null pointer dereference issues."

Source:
Adobe

Earlier this week, electronics retailer RadioShack officially filed for bankruptcy, with plans to sell around 2000 of its stores to its largest shareholder and closing the rest permanently.

As part of the bankruptcy plan, major carrier Sprint will open up "mini-shops" in up to 1750 of the remaining stores, doubling their brick-and-mortar presence in the U.S.

Sprint would occupy about a third of the retail space in each store, and Sprint would sell devices, accessories and monthly plans. In addition, Sprint would be the main brand in marketing materials and on storefronts.

RadioShack has not been profitable since 2011, and has seen declining sales since at least 2008. The company will look to keep paying its employees while it restructures in bankruptcy, and the company is also looking to sell all of its international assets.

Toy maker Mattel and search giant Google have sent out press invites for an event on February 13th in which the two companies are expected to unveil a new device or service.

The companies are inviting the media to "view what's possible" and the invite itself is an homage to the View-Master toy.

It is unclear what the companies are planning but the reference to View-Master suggests a toy with potentially some Google Glass functionality built in. Potentially, the View-Master could be making a comeback.

Check the invite here:

Thanks to a plethora of embarrassing emails leaked in December by hackers, Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal has stepped down from her role at the company.

"I have spent almost my entire professional life at Sony Pictures and I am energized to be starting this new chapter based at the company I call home," she said in a statement. "I have always wanted to be a producer. [Sony Entertainment CEO] Michael [Lynton] and I have been talking about this transition for quite some time, and I am grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to pursue my long-held dream and for providing unparalleled support. As the slate for the next two years has come together, it felt like the right time to transition into this new role. I am so grateful to my team, some of whom I have worked with for the last 20 years and others who have joined more recently. I am leaving the studio in great hands. I am so proud of what we have all done together and I look forward to a whole lot more."

Pascal was the executive who green-lit 'The Interview' and many of the emails leaked showed Pascal's thoughts about celebrities and directors in the industry, none of which were kind so she was an easy figure to place blame on.

Following a campaign from some of the biggest directors in the game, Kodak has signed a new deal to keep movie film stock in use for the major Hollywood studios.

"Film has long been – and will remain – a vital part of our culture," said Jeff Clarke, Kodak chief executive office, in a statement. "With the support of the studios, we will continue to provide motion picture film, with its unparalleled richness and unique textures, to enable filmmakers to tell their stories and demonstrate their art."

Many new and upcoming films used actual film, including "Boyhood," "The Grand Budapest Hotel," "Interstellar," "Foxcatcher" and the coming "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens," "Batman v. Superman - Dawn of Justice" and "Ant-Man."

Directors such as JJ Abrams, Judd Apatow and Quentin Tarantino all campaigned to make sure film stayed alive in an age that is quickly moving completely to all-digital. Apatow says digital and film "are valid choices, but it would be a tragedy if suddenly directors didn't have the opportunity to shoot on film. There's a magic to the grain and the color quality that you get with film."

Yelp has just announced their Q4 2014 earnings and full-year results, showing strong growth year-over-year.

The business review site brought in $377.5 million in revenue for the year, up 62 percent year-over-year. Most importantly, Yelp was profitable for the first time ever, totaling $36.5 million for the year.

Overall, the total reviews on the site grew to 71 million, up 35 percent YoY, from 72 million unique mobile users and a total of 135 million monthly unique users. Desktop usership has peaked, and remained flat.

Yelp also announced nearly 100,000 active local business accounts and 84,000 local advertisers. Nearly one-third of the advertisers are paying between $300-$500 per month.

The company says its goal is monetize the international markets now, as only 3 percent of revenue has come from outside the U.S.

Source:
Forbes

Popular watch maker Swatch is preparing a smartwatch for release in the coming 2-3 months, looking to take a piece of the burgeoning industry.

Notably, the device will not have to be charged, will be able to make mobile payments via NFC, and will work with both Windows and Android.

Chief Executive Officer Nick Hayek, who previously said the company would not race to be first in the race to develop a smartwatch due to ongoing consumer resistance, says the time is right (or possibly necessary) now.

Hayek noted that in the future, a few of their latest patented tech will be used the smartwatch, such as a battery that has double the life of previous models: "We'll implement all of those into new products. Some of them, such as the battery, will take a few years though, and are also destined for other industries, like the automotive industry."

Swatch would not be the first Swiss watchmaker to try a smartwatch. Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) and their TAG Heuer brand have announced a smartwatch with GPS and fitness tracking for later this year.