(newsweek) This year the Web turns 21. So it's somewhat ironic that 2010 will also be the year the place finally sobers up. Many of the startups and media sites that define the e-commerce ecosystem are, at long last, making serious plans to make serious money. Hulu, the slick portal that picked up where TiVo left off in killing the idea of "appointment television," is the free site likeliest to begin charging in 2010. Chase Carey, a top executive of News Corp., which owns 27 percent of Hulu, announced in October that "it's time to start getting paid for broadcast content online" and "Hulu concurs with that." Comcast's recent purchase of NBC Universal, Hulu's other founding network, makes a pay-model future only more likely. Hulu hasn't made any official announcements yet, and it may continue to offer ad-supported versions of some programming, but expect to start using your credit card when you need your Arrested Development fix. Music is headed toward the same fate. Cloud-based, streaming music is poised to replace the mp3, and Spotify, Last.fm, Pandora, and Rhapsody are the big names that currently dominate the format. Most of these sites have a free-to-users, ad-supported model, but the labels are starting to grumble that too much money is being left on the table. Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" was one of the most popular songs on Spotify in Europe, but she reportedly earned just 7 for a million listens through the service. (Spotify disputes the figure.) Naturally, record companies want to improve these terms. Reportedly, in their negotiations with Spotify leading up to the service's U.S. launch, they have insisted that Spotify scrap its free version altogether and require subscriptions across the board.

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