As Preston rose to vice president of BMI Nashville in 1964, and then to president and CEO of all of BMI (based in New York) in 1986, she would enable some songwriters (Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran were two) to buy publishing companies with advances on future song royalties, or to set up such companies of their own.

WSJ: Frances Preston | Setting Down Roots | By Barry Mazor

In a symbiotic program that should potentially benefit studios, consumers, and perhaps even the medium itself, Apple hooked up with HD Radio developer iBiquity to integrate a "Tag" button into future hardware releases, which when triggered loads metadata about the current song to memory for future transfer to a docked iPod.

ENGADGET: HD Radio rolls out iTunes tagging

Bosses may sing a pretty song about innovation being the future.

ECONOMIST: Two gurus look at the perspiration side of innovation

As the song goes, children are our future, let them lead the way.

FORBES: The Tablet-Computer Market Gets Even Hotter With A Slate of New Tablets: From Kindle. And Toys "R" Us.

It was a song of the divine average and a voice of the future, surprisingly modern even today.

ECONOMIST: American poets

After tiring of a life in politics he gambled his future on a lot of rare Madeira that he bought for a song (because demand was listless) and started his company.

FORBES: Why Madeira Is The Next Great Thing In Wine

But in every episode, no matter how bright or dim their future as a band looks, Bret and Jemaine always have a song to sing that goes along with what they are facing.

FORBES: 5 Entrepreneurial Lessons Taught By The Flight Of The Conchords

But that sacrifice has now paid dividends and with fellow Chinese players Liu Song and Liang Wenbo also in the snooker top 96, Ma Beng forsees a bright future for his countrymen in the sport.

BBC: SPORT | Other Sport... | Snooker | China in Ding's hands

In the future, many, and possibly all, compact discs will be SDMI-compliant, meaning that each song will have a "watermark" embedded in it.

CNN: Digital music security initiative nearly ready