TECH BOX

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/AFQIqmoEi2U/story01.htm An app for your phone that recognizes a song playing in the background isn't exactly a new idea. But Rhapsody hopes that instant playback and an ad-free app will nonetheless help to get more people excited about its music subscription service.

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/CO1JcxGeOgs/story01.htm Bargain tablet with your news, guv'nor? News International's customer sales director explains how the publisher aims to drive paid digital subscription bundles by leveraging device proliferation -- and more discounts are coming in 2013.

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/MJEOmpGX8pk/story01.htm A few hours apart, Amazon and Google launched digital bookstores in Brazil. The companies join Kobo in an attempt to gain a piece of the country's emerging ebook market.

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/90-nVK2NhYw/story01.htm The New York Times is changing its children's bestseller lists, first launched in 2004, to make them more relevant in a digital era. The chapter book list will be broken into two categories, "young adult" and "middle grade," and the lists will include ebook sales.

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/MiI1OSY1rdQ/story01.htm A mysterious shell company is suing the New York Times and other major media outlets for patent infringement because they offer mobile apps and a website. The companies now face the unpleasant choice between paying the firm to go away or saddling up for a multi-million dollar legal fight.

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/I2wazLXfGRk/story01.htm Huffington Post has a new CEO who will be tasked with building traffic and revenue and continuing the brand's international expansion. The move comes at a time when parent company AOL appears to have figured out how to manage its media properties.

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/kBSGiMLtxFY/story01.htm How is Spotify shaping up in the U.S. now that it has been stateside for a year? CEO Daniel Ek had some interesting numbers to share Thursday at an event in New York.

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/hetDXUpqpiQ/story01.htm Instead of filing traditional news reports about Syria to traditional outlets like ABC News and Bloomberg, foreign correspondent Lara Setrakian decided to start her own dedicated news site about the conflict in the war-torn country -- part of an ongoing trend towards the unbundling of the media.

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/kjSJ2buuUeI/story01.htm Spotify is a great way to listen to 18 million tracks. Now it has plugged its biggest hole - discovering them. But its solution owes more the expert curators than to Facebook's social graph.

http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/YUso60U_nLY/story01.htm The Washington Post is reportedly planning a paywall in 2013, and the Daily Beast is also contemplating metered access. Gannett announced this week that it is seeing a rise in revenues as a result of its paywalls. A news roundup.