ReadWriteWeb

Over December we've reviewed the top Web products and developments of 2010. Now it's time to look ahead to 2011. The ReadWriteWeb team is always thinking about what's next, so in our final series of 2010 we attempt to predict the big stories of 2011.

Predictions are of course a tricky business. The braver the predictions, the more risk of them not coming true! Without further ado, here are my predictions for 2011 - 5 serious and 1 not so serious.

Music videos became famous in the early 80's on MTV. Nowadays, music videos are more likely to be viewed on the Web. Seven of the top ten YouTube videos of all time are music videos - from the likes of Lady Gaga, Shakira and Justin Bieber. The increasing popularity of music videos online led the AP to proclaim that "watching music videos has become [a] central aspect of Internet usage."

AP points to an experimental Web video by Arcade Fire, created using advanced browser technology HTML5, as evidence that the music industry is adapting to videos on the Web. In related news, according to online analytics firm comScore, MTV is now the number 1 music destination on the Web. So it too is evolving fast.

Ultimate Chart is a new type of music chart for the Internet age. It doesn't just measure music sales and radio play, as Billboard has traditionally done, but popularity over a variety of online services - YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, iTunes, MySpace, MTV.com, and many more. But does Ultimate Chart live up to the hype its received since launching in July? A scan of the top 10 of each chart shows that 8 songs feature on both Ultimate Chart and Billboard. The number 1 on each differs only slightly. On Ultimate Chart the #1 is "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz, displacing Eminem's "Love The Way You Lie" (still #1 on Billboard).

Either Billboard is keeping up with the times more than Ultimate Chart likes to admit, or Ultimate Chart isn't actually changing much in the music industry after all. Which is it?

Everybody piled into the ballroom today at the Austin Convention Center to hear Spotify CEO Daniel Ek give the final keynote interview of SXSWI of 2010 fully expecting to be blown away with the release of the peer-to-peer music player.

Instead, we got somewhat evasive and allusive answers on when to expect a U.S. version and were left looking to yesterday's announcement of MOG's move to mobile, with full knowledge that Napster is nipping at its heels.

By now - the beginning of a new decade and well into the 21st century - it's a story we've long come accustomed to: the music industry is dying a slow, painful, sputtering death at the hands of the Internet.

According to analyst firm Forrester's latest report, 2009 was "a lousy end to an even lousier decade" for the music industry and we shouldn't expect much different until at least 2013. Last year, as a matter of fact, was one of the worst years yet, with a 13% decline from the year before.

It's November 2009 and we're nearing the end of a decade. It's been a tumultuous time of change for many industries, much of it driven by the Internet. With that in mind, over the coming weeks ReadWriteWeb will look back on the defining Web trends of the past 10 years. From the dot com boom, to the nuclear winter after, to the passion and enthusiasm of the pre-Web 2.0 innovations (such as RSS and podcasting), to the highs and hype of Web 2.0, to the current era of the real-time Web, to the near future of the Internet of Things. We'll explore all of this and more.

We're starting with online music. No industry, except arguably the newspaper one, has been rocked (pardon the pun) more by the Internet than the music industry.

Last month Walmart gave consumers the number 1 reason why DRM isn't the answer when they announced that they would be shutting down their DRM server come October 9th. Since then, Walmart relaunched it's online music store on Tuesday. The new music store offers the latest hits at only $.79 per song, while standard songs are offered at $.94. With competitive pricing options Walmart could give iTunes stiff competition.

We'd like your help in predicting the following: Will iTunes change its pricing from $.99 a song or go to a subscription music site by the end of 2008?