(Photo: Angelfire)

Digital music licensing revenues surpassed those from radio for the first time ever, mostly thanks to Google Play and Xbox. [The Guardian]

If this really is Mark Zuckerberg's first ever Angelfire page, it's just as mortifying as yours was. [Gizmodo]

Q1 of 2013 yielded a strangely low number of IPOs: only eight companies went public in the three-month period. [Silicon Valley Business Journal]

Not to be eclipsed by Microsoft, Samsung is getting its own brick and mortar stores, but with a twist: they'll exist solely inside Best Buys. Guess they really like the Geek Squad? [AllThingsD]

The Facebook phone is expected to be announced today. Yay? [New York Times]

These people have monies. (Photo: Wealthfront)

You work hard for that six-figure salary. Heads down and standing desk up, evening coding sessions bleed into all-nighters with the ease of a mouse click. So when it comes time to hand over some of that hard-earned cash to the government for taxes, it's understandable that you'd be a little ruffled. "Why can't I find tax loopholes like that guy Mitt Romney?" you might wonder angrily as you zip down the 101 in your company-leased BMW. "Life is just not fair."

Luckily, a startup called Wealthfront is here to ease all your wealthy person woes. Wealthfront targets fresh-faced tech workers with six-figure bank balances and uses algorithms to help manage their money. Wired reports that the company announced today that it has developed an automated service that can help budget-conscious tech workers legally skimp on their taxes. Hey, didn't you see a post on Hacker News about hacking the tax code?

The new service allows clients with more than $100,000 in their portfolios to partake in "tax-loss harvesting," which can save them a bundle of dough. Wired explains:

"Say you own shares in two mutual funds. One goes up, and you sell for a profit, which in tax terms is considered a capital gain. Meanwhile, the other fund goes down. So you sell that too...

...When you sell the tanking mutual fund shares for a loss, you can write that off against the gain you made selling the other shares. At the same time, you can take the remaining proceeds from the shares you sold at a loss, then turn around and reinvest them in a different fund of comparable value. In essence, you’ve sold shares for a loss but still own the shares. You’ve 'harvested' your loss, but you haven’t lost your crop."

If the financial jargon hasn't caused you to nod off, then congrats--by enrolling with Wealthfront's tax-harvesting service, the company says you'll be able to increase after-tax returns by 1 percent/year.

That may sound laughably small to 47 percenters, but when you're building your golden nest, every little bit counts.

Mr. Jordan.

Opening the TechCrunch Disrupt proceedings bright and early this morning: Andreessen Horowitz Partner Jeff Jordan. Accompanied by the sounds of birdsong (hey, this thing does take place on a converted pier), he held forth on IPOs, philanthropy, and New York's ecommerce bloom.

The discussion opened with a discussion of the IPO market. The former OpenTable CEO presided over the company's 2009 IPO when, at the time, according to moderator Eric Eldon, "Everyone [in Silicon Valley] was watching Mark Zuckerberg keeping his company private."

Mr. Jordan contrasted today's IPO fever with the atmosphere just a few years ago:

"It became fashionable for a while not to want to take your company public in Silicon Valley. So there were all kinds of companies that were clearly emerging--Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga-and they were all talking about, 'No, no, no, we don't want to be public.' There was enormous amounts of angst in the venture community, you know: 'Is the IPO dead?'" Plus, the stock market was less than stellar, and the emergence of secondary markets made cashing out less urgent.

Then followed a little moment of story time that sounded slightly skeptical of some recent, unnamed IPOs. "The bankers, on the lead-up to the [Open Table] IPO, showed us the charts of market, the IPO window opening and closing over time. And one of the things that happens when it opens is typically the first few companies out are really quality companies. They've been waiting and they're ready to go. They're willing to test the waters," said Mr. Jordan, adding, "Then as the window opens, so really good companies continue to go, but then the floodgates typically open."

The performance of that second wave of companies "has not always been fantastic," he concluded.

So he applauded what Groupon has managed to build, calling the team "just stunning in terms of business execution," but also suggested that, "They were so motivated to go public they might have done it prematurely."

Nor would he, as an investor, speak a peep regarding Facebook and its future. All he'd say on the issue was, "We see this as an unparalleled opportunity for growth of technology companies," and that, "we believe tech stocks are trading at historic lows relative to the broad market index."

Name names, Mr. Jordan!

There was also a slightly awkward moment over the firm's recent commitment to donating half its VC income to charity. "I talked to some investors and they were like, that's a PR stunt," Mr. Eldon told him.

"It's a damned expensive PR stunt," Mr. Jordan quickly retorted. He proceeded to explain that everyone in the firm is "passionate about philanthropy" and they would be "ecstatic" if others followed their example and that they are "really pleased with our choice."

He also had a few words for the New York ecommerce companies out there. "The core thesis of the firm is that we're technology investors, and a lot of the interesting technology investment happens in Silicon Valley. It's an amazing ecosystem. But I've found, I've been in this job and I spend much more time in New York now than I did as CEO of a public company, and the driver is there's a lot of interesting ecommerce innovation going on. We're in Fab, but there's companies like Bonobos, Warby Parker, Birchbox, Chloe and Isabel," he said. "There's something special happening," he concluded.

Mr. Zuckerberg (Facebook)

Looks like Instagrammers won't be rolling in dough just yet: Facebook revealed in its S-1 filing today that it shelled out just $300m in cash for Instagram, as well as 23m shares of Facebook stock. The filing is confirmation of Dealbook's report last week. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Monday’s disclosure indicated that stock accounted for about 70% of the purchase price and that the shares were valued at roughly $30 apiece."

$300 million is a ton of cash, but once Facebook officially goes public on May 17th, Instagram employees stand to get even richer. Because you know what's cooler than a million dollars? A billion dollars, even if it's mostly in stock.

(elitedaily.com)

It appears NASDAQ's campaign to convince Facebook to list its I.P.O. with them over the New York Stock Exchange has proven successful: inside sources told the New York Times today that Facebook has chosen NASDAQ. "The social network will list its shares on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol 'FB,' according to people familiar with the matter, who demanded anonymity because the discussions were private," said the Times.

The New York Stock Exchange has attracted many of the top technology companies, including LinkedIn and Pandora, but NASDAQ was the more historical choice. And let us not forget NASDAQ counterpart Robert Cooey's star-studded smackdown of the NYSE, "Just because I could say ‘I’m 6 foot 2 and I look like Brad Pitt’ doesn’t mean it’s true."

We're happy to hear of this decision, because it means that NASDAQ's pom-pom waving, vaguely nauseating "What it means to be made in NYC" video was not all for naught. Facebook chose NASDAQ, so now maybe other technology companies will buck the NYSE trend, list with NASDAQ and we'll never again have to watch another video with the un-ironic line, "I start my day with a game of squash with one of my investors."

Please? Do it for us?