Music is important to many people, both current and the variety that brings back memories of youth or life events. While sometimes happy and occasionally tragic, it still raises emotions. Spotify has become one of the top destinations for this, and now it's getting ready for the holiday season.

If you wish to give the gift of music, then cards are available to you for purchase. The cards come in several increments, including $10, $30 and $60, netting the lucky recipient one, three or six months of streaming Spotify Premium music service.

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Pandora, one of the darlings of the music streaming industry, has been around for some time. But the old dog can still learn new tricks, and the service proves that by continuing to improve its offering. It's also one of the best priced services, if you care to get the premium subscription.

The latest update benefits iOS and Android users -- two of its biggest customer bases. "The design of this latest update is part of our ongoing dedication to innovate the UX and UI across platforms, and as a result, provide effortless music discovery and listening for more than 75 million listeners each month", Pandora announces.

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On the heals of Amazon shipping its Fire Stick, a new HDMI dongle that provides similar capabilities to the previously released Fire TV, the market for streaming devices has continued to grow. And it's also getting more competitive, as each company improves its offerings.

A new study published by Parks Associates shows that a record ten percent of US households now own a streaming device. That still seems a small number, but perspective is needed. First, it's growing, and second, some people just aren't going to buy in to this technology -- my parents wouldn't know what a Roku was, nor what to do with it.

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Although BitTorrent’s reputation is as a means to download music and movies illegally, the company is trying to change that by offering original, and legal content.

Two months ago, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke released a new album as a paid BitTorrent Bundle, and now the file sharing firm announces its first original TV series -- Children of the Machine.

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We've reached that time of the year when merchants offer deals and people are hungrily shopping. If you still read a newspaper then today's edition is likely a bit heavy, laden with ads for Black Friday sales, some of which are already underway.

Roku is also getting in on the action, offering some nice discounts on its TV devices, both set-top box and stick. Bringing streaming online media to your living room, the company is offering some good deals and throwing in a bonus to go along with your purchase. And you don't need to leave home and fight angry shoppers for it.

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XBMC, whose name was derived from Xbox and Media Center, is making a change that you may have heard about. Or at least you have if you delve into the HTPC world. The platform will soon be officially known as Kodi, distancing itself from Microsoft, though it continues to work on the company's products, just as it always has.

To go along with this fresh new face, a new logo was also in order. For that, the organization reached out to its community. The result was an amalgam of the feedback received during the process.

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Every month streaming video provider Netflix announces its speed results for the biggest ISPs in the US and other nations. The report is aimed to let customers know why their video may be dodgy and also to praise those that get it right. The order tends to vary each and every time, but there is some relative consistency seen in the results.

This time around, the October report reveals that Verizon Fios remains in the top spot. Comcast also retained its position, though sixth is still not great given the provider is getting paid by Netflix to provide the best service. In between those positions you will find Cablevision, Bright House, Cox and Charter.

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Despite a little spat with Taylor Swift, Spotify seems to be mostly improving all the time, adding updates and content on a regular basis. The latest update aims to marry your computers to your mobile devices via new, and rather unique, remote app.

The company is announcing a new feature for Premium subscribers, allowing users to access Spotify on their computer using remote control from the phone or tablet.

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Three months ago I reached the end of my tether. I'm lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful and unspoilt parts of the UK (it nearly wasn’t part of the UK had the Scottish referendum on independence taken a different turn), but there's one problem: truly awful broadband. There is a 'choice' of one broadband provider who is capable of trickling sub 0.5Mbps connections into houses in the area -- and that's on a good day.

One Twitter rant later, a few emails exchanged with Satellite Internet led to the arrival of two installers to get me set up with a 20Mbps satellite connection. My initial impressions were great. The internet worked as it should for the first time in months. But my fear was that this was just a honeymoon period. So what’s the story nearly three months down the line -- what is it like to live with a satellite internet connection? Were my initial concerns about data usage well-founded?

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Music streaming has become the norm. When did you last buy a CD or, gasp, cassette or album? And we will not even discuss the 8-track tapes. That made yesterday's news cycle a bit baffling. Artists should be falling over themselves for ubiquity, not heading towards obscurity. But some apparently simply don't get it.

It has been revealed that Taylor Swift, a vastly popular singer, has pulled her music from Spotify. The artist seems to be worried about piracy, something that seems of little concern to most musicians today.

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Shakespeare's Globe in London is known for its productions of the bard's plays in an atmosphere close to their original environment.

Now the Globe is going global with the launch of a new online video platform offering full-length HD films of its productions to rent or buy on demand in a world first for a theater.

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The music streaming business continues to grow and actually buying tracks seems to be heading for the distant memory pile. Spotify is one of the top competitors in this growing industry. The competition forces each business to differentiate itself and today Spotify does that.

The streaming service is announcing a new Family Plan. This option brings tunes to up to four people, all under one monthly bill. Each of the people on the account will be able to keep their playlists, history and recommendations completely separate.

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Cord cutters are not new, they've been around for years now. Various reasons lead to this decision -- ranging from a simple lack of interest in programming to a desire to get TV shows and movies through other means. Over-the-air (OTA) has always been possible, and some go that route, but a growing number of services have sprung up to fill the gap left behind when cable and satellite service is cancelled.

Netflix, Hulu and Amazon all provided options for movies and TV shows, and now each has spread its wings and moved into the realm of producing original content. That is likely the time when cable providers should have moved into panic mode.

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Cable providers see the writing on the wall. They will eventually become internet services and nothing more, but for now each is fighting this future. The battle took a turn against those TV services recently. HBO has dealt the latest blow.

For the moment, the HBO app requires the user to verify a subscription by adding information for a cable or satellite provider. That's bad for cord-cutters -- it means they simply can't get the HBO service. However, that requirement will be changing in 2015.

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There's no accounting for what will happen if you run a website, especially a questionable one. We've all witnessed the trials and tribulations suffered by the folks behind the Pirate Bay. Others have been more fortunate, though the outcome for the site has been the same -- a takedown. Some give up, while others move on and fight to survive.

Popcorn Time falls into that latter category. The company has so far thwarted efforts to remove it from the internet, but recently faced yet another hurdle. The site's domain name was taken down -- a common problem to the folks at the Pirate Bay. No problem, just get a new one. Move along, nothing to see here.

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