On April 22nd 2017, music legend, Neil Young announced that he will be starting a new music streaming service called, Xstream. The move comes as a result of the shut down of his of his Pono Music store in the summer of 2016. Pono is the high resolution music player that Mr Young introduced to the world in 2015. Mr. Young's goal is to create a streaming service that will deliver 24bit 192kHz sound quality at what he calls, "a normal price."
Mr. Young says that Xstream will not be like most of the other streaming music services. Xtream won't use a single low resolution file. Instead, Xstream will stream the highest quality sound based on your internet connection. The file that is streamed will also adapt to any changes in your network. This is done by using a single high resolution, bit perfect file that is compressed as it is needed so that it will never stop playing.
The adaptive stream technology was created by Orastream, a small tech company in Singapore that Mr. Young worked with to conceptualize Xstream. Xstream will not be compatible with the existing Pono players because they don't have a Wi-Fi adapter and only play downloads. Currently, Mr. Young is in talks with the major record companies, so only his music is being listed as available for streaming. No launch date has been given at this time.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
NASA Probes Find Elements For Life
On April 13th 2017, NASA announced that two of its space science missions had detected needed elements for the creation of life. Using the Cassini Spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA has determined that Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus are both ocean worlds. Cassini's mission to Enceladus has detected hydrogen gas, which could be a chemical energy source for life, while Hubble has detected more evidence of possible plumes of water vapor spewing from Europa.
The hydrogen gas on Enceladus was discovered in 2015 when the Cassini Spacecraft made its deepest dive through a plume of gas and icy material, that was rising from the moon's surface. Scientists back on Earth were later able to determine that the plume contained 98% water and 1% hydrogen. The other 1% contained a mixture of carbon dioxide, ammonia, and methane. While this is not proof of life it self, it is, however, evidence that the necessary ingredients for life exists on Saturn's moon.
The possible plume of water spewing from Jupiter's moon Europa was discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope in early 2016. It was measured at 62 miles high. An earlier plume candidate was detected in March of 2014. That particular siting was measured at 30 miles high. While the suspected plumes appear to be coming from a warm region of Europa, where there are cracks in its icy surface, NASA is still not ready to say that these are actual plumes just yet.
The hydrogen gas on Enceladus was discovered in 2015 when the Cassini Spacecraft made its deepest dive through a plume of gas and icy material, that was rising from the moon's surface. Scientists back on Earth were later able to determine that the plume contained 98% water and 1% hydrogen. The other 1% contained a mixture of carbon dioxide, ammonia, and methane. While this is not proof of life it self, it is, however, evidence that the necessary ingredients for life exists on Saturn's moon.
The possible plume of water spewing from Jupiter's moon Europa was discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope in early 2016. It was measured at 62 miles high. An earlier plume candidate was detected in March of 2014. That particular siting was measured at 30 miles high. While the suspected plumes appear to be coming from a warm region of Europa, where there are cracks in its icy surface, NASA is still not ready to say that these are actual plumes just yet.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Streaming Becomes Music Industry's Number One Delivery System
On March 30th 2016, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that streaming music platforms have become the music industry's number one source for revenue. The news came as the RIAA released its annual report that stated that music sales were up by 11.4% in 2016 to $7.7 billion. The report further stated that streaming led the charge by accounting for more than half, or 51.4% of all reported revenue.
Music industry revenue had been hovering around $7 billion a year, without showing much in the way of growth since 2010. But, that has now changed, due to the rise of on demand streaming services such as YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, and TIDAL. Online radio streaming services such as Pandora and iHeartRadio followed as the second source of revenue, showing a 10% increase in growth of $883.9 million.
Sales of music downloads were down in 2016 by 21.6% bringing in about $1.6 billion. But, while the sale of both single tracks and albums was down, the report found that more people who chose to buy downloads are now buying full albums more than ever before. In fact, albums made up 49% of all music downloads. Meanwhile, CD sales have fallen sharply. Only 99.4 million full length CDs were sold in 2016, marking the first time since 1986 that fewer than 100 million were sold.
Music industry revenue had been hovering around $7 billion a year, without showing much in the way of growth since 2010. But, that has now changed, due to the rise of on demand streaming services such as YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, and TIDAL. Online radio streaming services such as Pandora and iHeartRadio followed as the second source of revenue, showing a 10% increase in growth of $883.9 million.
Sales of music downloads were down in 2016 by 21.6% bringing in about $1.6 billion. But, while the sale of both single tracks and albums was down, the report found that more people who chose to buy downloads are now buying full albums more than ever before. In fact, albums made up 49% of all music downloads. Meanwhile, CD sales have fallen sharply. Only 99.4 million full length CDs were sold in 2016, marking the first time since 1986 that fewer than 100 million were sold.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
SpaceX Relaunches And Lands Falcon 9
On March 30th 2017, SpaceX made history by successfully launching the world's first reused rocket booster, with the lift off of its Falcon 9. The launch took place at 6:27pm EDT, and was this booster's second flight since launching in April of 2016, and the second SpaceX launch within a two week period. With a new upper stage, a half an hour later, the Falcon 9 successfully placed it's SES 10 Communications payload into orbit.
After making history, the rocket booster was then successfully returned from space to make a perfect landing at sea on one of SpaceX's drone ships. While the turn around time took about a year, the successful relaunch and the landing is a solid proof of concept for the reusable rocket approach for future space flight missions. The rocket that flew the historic flight was the second Falcon 9 that was ever recovered, and was first used to on a cargo resupply mission to the ISS.
The Falcon 9 first stage which houses the main engine and contains most of the fuel needed for lift off, represents 70% of the cost of a single mission. The ability to refly their rockets would serve as a cost saving measure for SpaceX. It took four months to get this historic booster ready for relaunch. SpaceX is looking forward to meeting the challenge of getting the inspection and refurbishing time down to 24 hours.
After making history, the rocket booster was then successfully returned from space to make a perfect landing at sea on one of SpaceX's drone ships. While the turn around time took about a year, the successful relaunch and the landing is a solid proof of concept for the reusable rocket approach for future space flight missions. The rocket that flew the historic flight was the second Falcon 9 that was ever recovered, and was first used to on a cargo resupply mission to the ISS.
The Falcon 9 first stage which houses the main engine and contains most of the fuel needed for lift off, represents 70% of the cost of a single mission. The ability to refly their rockets would serve as a cost saving measure for SpaceX. It took four months to get this historic booster ready for relaunch. SpaceX is looking forward to meeting the challenge of getting the inspection and refurbishing time down to 24 hours.
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