People don’t like ads, and the success of Spotify Premium shows that they'll pay to avoid them. YouTube is now offering a similar option in the form of YouTube Red, giving users an ad-free experience and exclusive content. How might the loss of commercials impact the future of the ad industry?

Social media has become a key influence on how shoppers make purchase decisions. But what if you didn’t have to check your phone to see what was trending in-store? That’s the thinking behind O2’s ‘live-feed’ clothing rail, which shows how much a particular item is being talked about online.

Using data to cut through the noise, Next Big Sound is an analytics company that’s able to predict album sales with a degree of accuracy that’s never been seen before. Now, brands are getting in on the action, signing up to guarantee that the song they use on their next ad is a number one.

Twitter has partnered with American music chart company Billboard to create two real-time music charts based on social media mentions. Though the music industry must adapt to survive, can a social media chart really represent an artist or song's popularity authentically?