TechBytes: Video Game Sales Lagged in June, Spotify Debuts

July 15, 2011— -- In today's TechBytes, video game industry sales are down 10 percent. It's the second straight monthly decline for hardware, software and accessories.

But Microsoft's Xbox 360 bucked the trend, selling more consoles in June than a year earlier.

Reasons for the overall decline include few new games being released.

Spotify Launches in US

The popular music-streaming service Spotify has finally arrived in the U.S., where it will go head to head against Pandora and iTunes.

USA Today's Ed Baig got an advance look at the service, and was very impressed with what he heard.

"-Big deal to have access to 15 million tracks, that's a huge stash of music. You're gonna find pretty much anything that you want to hear. On demand, good sound quality AND it's free," said Baig.

There's also a $10 per month version that allows users to stream content directly to their mobile devices.