The increased use of digital services such as iTunes and Spotify in 2011 have offset decreases in sales of CDs, giving British tunesmiths a happy payday. Also contributing is the huge international success of such artists as Adele. Royalty payments grew 3.2% year on year, to GBP635.3 million. Representing 75,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, PRS for Music said the surge more than offset a double-digit fall in royalties collected from CD sales.

The market is estimated to be worth $821 million, up from $697 million a year before, and includes social media optimization for search, agency fees to revise and improve natural and paid SEO, SEO PR, and SEO staffing investments. Social, mobile and local search are now being added by practitioners into their responsibilities. Google continues to dominate in the UK, with more than 90% of searches done there.

Ofcom is reporting that the increased use of smartphones and tablets are the reason behind the increase, with eight of ten Brits accessing the Internet across a variety of devices. The amount of time spend online is up by half over 2006. Usage among older users is driving the trend, with more 45 to 54-year-olds than ever logging on. The figures for young users remains unchanged.

London’s claim to being the hub for tech startups in Europe got a boost last week, when Google opened the doors of its latest effort, Google Campus, a seven-story centre for startups, which it has launched in partnership with several existing organizations, and big ambitions to galvanize some of the tech activity that has already marked out London to take it to the next level.

The standalone UK edition of digital media site paidContent is to be "phased out" as part of the group's integration with new owner GigaOM, the publisher has announced. Coverage of UK stories will continue, with paidContent UK editor Robert Andrews working with a bigger team "with a broader international reach", ContentNext Media editor Staci Kramer wrote in a post on the site.

The location-sharing service has recently hired its first UK employee, former Google staffer, Omid Ashtari, as its director of business development, and Crowley believes through the deals he will strike, Foursquare will become popular in Britain. "The UK is a little behind the U.S. in terms of getting on board with Foursquare - but that's because we haven't had a dedicated team doing deals with British brands - making the service really come to life for people over here," Crowley told The Telegraph.

The Swansea student given 56 days in prison for posting racially offensive comments on Twitter should not have been jailed, according to Europe's most senior human rights official. In an interview the day before he left office, Thomas Hammarberg, theCouncil of Europe's commissioner for human rights, said the sentence imposed by British courts on 21-year-old Liam Stacey was excessive.

The advertising watchdog has slammed Bar Fusion in Kent for offending people of short stature by advertising a "midget" Christmas party on Facebook. The Advertising Standards Authority has banned the ad for being offensive and promoting negative attitudes to short people, and has warned Bar Fusion to ensure future advertising is socially responsible.

BlackBerry is going back to its roots in focusing on business users after failing to compete with Apple, Samsung and the like in the consumer world. The company says it will still have a consumer operation, although this is likely to be tailored to business people. No word on whether BlackBerry's "biggest ever marketing campaign" for the launch of its BB10 operating system will be scaled back or cancelled altogether.