Mediagazer: Amazon adds streaming Prime Music to play against Apple's Beats (Joan E. Solsman/CNET)

4:05 AM ET, June 12, 2014

Top News:

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Prime Music service debuts: Ad-free streaming, 90K albums, 1M songs, but few hits — Amazon Turns On Prime Music Streaming, Sans Current Hits — There have been a lot of murmurs that Amazon would turn on its music streaming service this week, and it looks like that's just what it quietly did a little while ago.

Discussion: AppleInsider, Gizmodo, App Advice, The Next Web, The Verge, Pocket-lint, @schukin, Engadget, 9to5Mac, New York Times, BGR and Business Insider

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

Amazon adds streaming Prime Music to play against Apple's Beats — Amazon bets the total Prime package — shipping, e-books, video and now music — will draw new members, even with a limited streaming-music catalog compared to rivals. — Amazon — Amazon launched a streaming-music …

Discussion: The Verge and Re/code

Jason Deans / Guardian:

Kickstarter links with the Guardian to highlight journalism projects — Crowdfunding website to have a dedicated category for the sector, plus a curated page picking out noteworthy new ideas — The Vancouver Observer's Tar Sands Reporting Project was funded through Kickstarter

Discussion: @nicolehe, @znmeb, @digiphile, @ystrickler, @caseynewton, The Kickstarter Blog, @contributoria, @jamesrbuk and Press Association

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

AT&T's Pitch to the Feds: Let Us Buy DirecTV, and Maybe TV Bills Won't Go Up So Much — Remember when AT&T told investors that it could cut its programming bills by 20 percent if it buys DirecTV? — That was last week. This week AT&T is telling regulators why they should let it buy DirecTV, and it's making a similar argument.

Discussion: Multichannel News, CNET and Variety

Steve Henn / NPR:

NPR and Ars Technica team up for security test that tapped Internet while a reporter worked — Project Eavesdrop: An Experiment At Monitoring My Home Office … If someone tapped your Internet connection, what would he find out about you? — It's been just over a year since Edward Snowden became …

Discussion: www.wnyc.org, Ars Technica, @leftcoasthelene and @rhatr

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

Songwriters Are Losing $2.3 Billion A Year Due To Outdated Government Regulations — The National Music Publishers' Association, the lobbying group for songwriters, said the lost revenue is based on what it believes its constituents could collect if government regulations were lifted.

Discussion: Billboard and hypebot

Ted Johnson / Variety:
Music Groups Urge D.C. Lawmakers to Revamp Licensing Laws

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Gawker, Mediaite, Yahoo! News, Latest News & Headlines, FishbowlDC, San Diego Jewish World, Billboard, radioworld.com, Media Nation and The New York Observer

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Digital publishing metrics: What's real? — The ecstasy of digital publishing is that it enables the granular measurement of everything from traffic to ad clicks. The agony is trying to figure out which metrics matter. That's the vexing issue we're going to tackle today, but, first, let's get real:

Discussion: @mccarthyryanj

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

The Sun marks the World Cup by giving away 22m papers to English homes — In a burst of patriotism on behalf of England's World Cup team, The Sun is distributing 22m copies of a special issue to almost every household in England. — The 24-page paper is being delivered over the next two days …

Discussion: mUmBRELLA, The Sun, Variety, Forbes and Guardian

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Q&A: Penelope Muse Abernathy on how community newspapers can face the digital transition — When we talk about disruption in the journalism business, the conversation often centers on the big players. It's easy to focus on a place like The New York Times because its plans for carving out a future in journalism often make headlines.

Discussion: @niemanlab

ScienceDaily:

Internet not responsible for dying newspapers, new study finds — We all know that the Internet has killed the traditional newspaper trade, right? After all, until the general population started interacting with the web in the mid-90s, the newspaper business was thriving — offering readers top notch journalism and pages of ads.

Discussion: @mathewi and @donlday

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Rentrak Makes Inroads in TV Ratings Measurement with Majors — Rentrak is gaining traction with its enhanced TV ratings services thanks to new deals with Fox Television Stations and Sony Pictures TV. — Fox TV Stations on Wednesday said it has signed to Rentrak's local TV ratings service …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Variety and Hollywood Reporter

Alex Kantrowitz / AdAge:

Florida-Based Ad Fraudsters Skim Millions From Advertisers, Then Disappear — Scheme Shows How Easy It Is to Steal Money From the Ad-Tech Ecosystem — FX — Some of the globe's most recognizable brands — including Oreo, GlaxoSmithKline, Burger King and Sprint — were bilked out of millions …

Discussion: AdExchanger, @learmonth and @ericfranchi

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism:

News organisations face second wave of disruption with potentially profound societal implications says new international study — Many traditional news companies are struggling with a second wave of digital innovation that threatens to sweep away the relationships they have enjoyed with readers and viewers for a century or more.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and BBC

Agence France-Presse:

Egypt court extends Jazeera journalist detention 45 days — Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian court extended for a further 45 days Wednesday the detention of an Al-Jazeera journalist who has been on hunger strike for nearly five months, judicial sources said. — Abdullah Elshamy …

Discussion: english.ahram.org.eg

Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

MuckRock sues the CIA for denying Freedom of Information Act requests — Crowdsourced investigation site takes on US spy agency — MuckRock, a website where citizens and journalists can easily submit public information requests to government agencies, just announced it's suing the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act.

Discussion: Muckrock and @propublica

Sydney Morning Herald:

TV networks push for ownership reform as Tony Abbott pays a call on Rupert Murdoch — Commercial television networks have leapt on the release of a Department of Communications research paper into Australian media ownership to renew calls for a relaxation of laws on media mergers and acquisitions.

Discussion: TheAustralian and mUmBRELLA