Mediagazer: Music Streaming Eats Downloads With On-Demand Up 42% Over 2013, Digital Sales Down 12% (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

10:05 AM ET, July 4, 2014

Top News:

Google reverses decision, restores several links to Guardian stories after publisher protests — Google reverses decision to delete British newspaper links — (Reuters) - Google Inc GOOGL.O GOOG.O on Thursday reversed its decision to remove several links to stories in Britain's Guardian newspaper …

Discussion: Search Engine Land, VentureBeat, RT, Softpedia News, @diodesign, @dannysullivan, @mathewi, @adrianweckler, @jledbetter, @xor, @dannysullivan, BGR, Quartz, Guardian, BBC News, The Age, Guardian, Gigaom and Engadget

Jodie Ginsberg / Index on Censorship:

Right to be forgotten: A poor ruling, clumsily implemented — When Europe's highest court ruled in May that individuals had a ‘right to be forgotten’ many were quick to hail this as a victory for privacy. ‘Private’ individuals would now be able to ask search engines to remove links …

Discussion: BBC News, Guardian, Wired and The Next Web

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

The EU's “right to be forgotten” is a bad idea, and Google is handling it exactly the right way — This week, Google has begun notifying British media outlets that some of their news articles may not be available to UK audiences as a result of a European Union court decision enshrining the …

Discussion: Softpedia News, @shanedingman, TIME, Guardian, @ksablan, @anglobeat, @gigaom, filmindustrynetwork.biz, PandoDaily, Businessweek, Mashable and Truthdig

Lauren Tara Lacapra / Reuters:
Ex-Merrill CEO says he has ‘no knowledge’ of Google search wipe

Discussion: Marketing Land

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Andy Coulson jailed for 18 months for conspiracy to hack phones — Sentencing of former News of the World executives over phone hacking shows no one is above the law, says David Cameron — The disgraced former No 10 spin doctor Andy Coulson has been jailed for 18 months for plotting …

Discussion: BBC, @davidleigh3, @michaelwhite, @courtnewsuk, Mirror.co.uk, The Independent, Hollywood Reporter, Daily Express, Telegraph, The Independent, New York Times, Daily Mail, Latest, DW.DE and UK - The Huffington Post

Press Gazette:

Mr Justice Saunders' phone-hacking trial sentencing remarks in full — Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was jailed today alongside two former colleagues for his involvement in phone-hacking. — Coulson received an 18-month prison term, former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck …

Discussion: @pressgazette, Wall Street Journal, London Evening Standard, The Drum, International Business Times, MarketWatch, ABC, Agence France-Presse, NDTV News, expressandstar.com and Global News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Music Streaming Eats Downloads With On-Demand Up 42% Over 2013, Digital Sales Down 12% — Nielsen's U.S. music report on the first half of 2014 shows digital music consumption rapidly shifting from downloads to streaming. On-demand streaming was up 42% over the first half of 2013, racking up 70 billion play in the first half of 2014.

Discussion: Cybergrass Bluegrass …, 9to5Mac and New York Times

Randy Lewis / Los Angeles Times:
Music streaming up, sales down in first half of 2014 — SoundScan

Discussion: Variety

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

How The Weather Channel hunts for innovation — The Weather Channel has found an unlikely new application for its weather data — fitness. — OutSider, the company's new “biometeorological” app, lets runners measure and track how the weather affects their outdoor workouts …

Leila Fadel / Columbia Journalism Review:

Why women are leading coverage of the war-torn Middle East — Why women are leading coverage of the war-torn Middle East — (Staff Sgt. Mark Fayloga / Marine Corps) — Liz Sly, the Beirut bureau chief of The Washington Post, was sitting in the lobby of a Damascus hotel a couple of years ago …

Lawrence J. Aragon / PE Hub Blog:

Investors show little interest in Glenn Beck's The Blaze — Fundraising is going slowly for The Blaze, a news and opinion website founded by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck. — The company said in an SEC filing today that it has raised just $6.4 million of a planned $40 million since …

Discussion: @pkedrosky

John McCarthy / The Drum:

Virtual Local Radio scheme launches with BBC Radio Northampton — The BBC is attempting to reduce costs with the Virtual Local Radio (ViLoR) scheme which will see audio stored and streamed from a centralised location, starting with BBC Radio Northampton. — Editorial teams will still …

Discussion: bbc.co.uk, cloudpro.co.uk, broadcastnow.co.uk, Prolific North, Digital TV Europe, Geeky Gadgets and The Next Web

Patrick Frater / Variety:

Netflix Seems Headed for Australia, But Company Won't Say When — Content availability, piracy, and other priorities may be delaying the ‘Down Under’ debut — HONG KONG — It doesn't quite have the pop culture ring of “I Want My MTV,” but plenty of Australians are clamouring for Netflix to launch ‘Down Under.’

Discussion: afr.com, CNET and ZDNet

Dan Pearson / GamesIndustry International:

Twitch, the social video site for gamers, grows to 45 million unique viewers per month, 1 million broadcasters, 106 minutes watched per day by average user — Twitch - 1 million channels and rising — The Big Event: E3 — “We had to prove that this is more than just watching people, that it's really about engagement”

Discussion: TheBitbag, Softpedia News and Digital Spy