What techniques are used to create this 1-minute motion graphic?
Okay, now that you have updated your question I think we may be able to answer your questions better...

But keep in mind this could have been done 100 ways and we are simply hypothesizing on how it could have been done.


The individual letters coming in like this could be done 100 different ways, it could be done via an effect in aftereffects, a preset in livetype, etc.  I most likely would simply make each letter its own layer and tie that to a slider via expressions and then be able to keyframe the slider to initiate and finish the animation...this allows me to change the speed of the animation easily and the in and out points of the animation etc.
My guess is that as the items are sliding in and out vertically there is a mask of white with a high feather so that as it goes from center to bottom or top...it is going beneath a layer of white that is feathered to solid at the tops and bottom and feathered to transparent at the center.
I am going to say this was also done with expressions, he had a gride of icons, in a circle...made the middle icons slide from the - in the z axis and arrive on 0, with a crossfade of an icon of the world.
This is more of an audio question, "how do you make music?" but I would say digital performer, or even on the super cheap side is garageband which is free with mac os, and theres millions between, burn-studios.audiotool.com is free, theres audacity, theres fruity loops


Hope this helps you a little bit