• Peripherals: On Yer Bike with the iH85B, iHome’s iPod Speaker (Gizmodo) - Worth a look - ingenious design for an iPod speaker system designed specifically for mounting on a bicycle - whether it will enable you to take on the dubstep/junglist massive is questionable though…
• Soundpedia: A Decent Pandora Substitute For The Rest Of Us (TechCrunch) -
• iTunes moves up to third largest music store (Playlist) - "In third place iTunes captured a 9.8 percent share of total music sales, ahead of Amazon, Target, Borders, Circuit City, Virgin Megastores and others."
• Downloads fail to stem Britains’ love of the CD (Guardian Unlimited Music) - "Despite the growing popularity of downloads, UK physical music sales held up strongly last year "
• The Fall of the Record Business: What Next? (Rolling Stone) - Interesting: 5 predictions about the future of the record business from industry insiders.

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That subject line should also mention that’s average number of CDs per head of population. Is this something to feel proud about? Given recent news that digital downloads aren’t necessarily more ecologically sound than CD buying (I still find that hard to believe), perhaps I should be. I’ll also admit to an enduring love of physical formats. It’s an interesting article: apparently the average price of a CD fell below £9 for the first time last year; also UK music revenues fell 5% between 2001 and 2005, which doesn’t seem that bad, given the diversity of other media increasingly available and may as much reflect a tightening of margins rather than a death rattle for the industry as a whole. Anyway here’s the full list:

CD sales per person in 2006

Britain 2.7
US 2.1
Norway 2.1
Ireland 1.9
Australia 1.9
Denmark 1.8
Belgium 1.7
Sweden 1.7
Switzerland 1.7
Japan 1.5
New Zealand 1.5
Canada 1.5

It would be interesting to know the average number of MP3s purchased for those countries as well, I’d guess Japan and the US would top that list.

Link: Guardian article

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• iPod not eco-friendly - "Environmental groups claim the music industry’s transition from physical to digital has no discernible benefit to the environment and, in the short term, is actually causing more harm than good."
• Google Music Trends - Looks like Google is dipping a toe into music charts… Apparently the service tracks users listening habits via Google Talk.
• EMI says DRM-free music is selling well - "Early sales indicate that DRM-free music is noticeably more popular than DRMed music, EMI senior VP Lauren Berkowitz recently told Bloomberg."
• Apple Links iTunes To Social Networking Through Bebo (Strange Glue Music) - "Apple are trialling a new service in the U.K that will enable almost 9 million U.K and Ireland Bebo users to download music from Apple?s iTunes store."
• Holy cow… 6mm users and growing 300k/day! (iLike Team Blog) - If their figures are correct, it looks like the new FaceBook platform has been a boon for iLike.
• New Free Music Download Service (launchr) - Following in the footsteps of Peter Gabriel’s recently announced project along the same lines: "founding editor of Gizmodo and Engadget to launch RCRD LBL, an ad-supported model to offer free, online music downloads."
• Daft bluetooth speakers (Aving USA) -

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The majority of the music I listen to is instrumental, but here I am singing along to Scott Walker’s The Electrician (be glad you can’t hear me!) As you can see from the screenshot above, I’ve got hold of a copy of the lyrics and pasted them into the text area of the MP3 file for reference (and caterwauling). However, this isn’t a particularly elegant way to access this information - indeed, it seems rather half-hearted. Perhaps Apple’s developers went this far and then observed the legal threats from record companies against all those lyric sites. If that wasn’t the case, I’m sure Apple could come up with a lovely piece of eye candy: semi-transparent text floating over your screen or similar.

Which leads me to the question posed in the title of this post - are there any ways you’d particularly like to see iTunes improved in terms of interface enhancements or ironing out niggles?

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First it was Last.fm with their ‘user-generated club‘, now the iTunes Music Store is throwing its hat into the ring by sponsoring a free, month-long music festival in London. High-profile names including Amy Winehouse, Crowded House and Stereophonics have been announced. Gigs will take place at the ICA, located just off Trafalgar Square (at the other end of the Mall from Buckingham Palace). Tickets will be awarded to iTMS competition winners so check your iTunes for details. To ensure a nice bit of closure, all gigs will be recorded and made available for purchase from the sponsors…

Via: Billboard
Link: iTunes Festival website

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• Music Sheets: New Digital Paper Knows How to Play Sounds (Gizmodo) - “Researchers in Sweden have come up with a new kind of paper that’s able to play sounds.”
• Jemima Kiss on CBS’s buyout of Last.fm (MediaGuardian.co.uk) - “After last week’s CBS buyout, Last.fm’s founders are the first British Web 2.0 millionaires…”
• Apple sells DRM-free music. Throws in your personal data for free (Memex 1.1) - Ouch.
• EMI Sold: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (hypebot)
• Birth of Music Visualization (Modern Mechanix) - Precursor to today’s mp3 visualizers…

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Sheesh, you turn your back for a few days well-deserved r’n'r and suddenly a giant American corporation goes and snaffles your preferred music service. When I read the news on my return, I’ll confess my heart sank a little. Last.fm’s my little secret (that I happen to share with only 20 million other subscribers). Why would they want to go and sell out to CBS? The answer’s obvious and detailed on Last.fm’s recently initiated blog. I hope they’re treated with as much of a hands off approach as Yahoo! have done with del.icio.us. I wish them a hearty best of luck and will now return to daydreaming that I’d had such a brilliant idea. Sigh.

Link: Last.fm blog post

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