We wrote about Twitter's new music app a while back, so it is good to see that is is finally set to land in the UK today.

Annoyingly the app, which allows users to discover new artists and songs by offering recommendations based on the people the user follows on the social network, is iPhone only for now.

There's no update on when an Android or even Windows version will become available.

The app, which is culled from the We Are Hunted music discovery service, which Twitter recently acquired, then plays the music in one of a number of platforms including iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify and Rdio.

T"[#Music] uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists," said Twitter's Stephen Philips on the company blog.

"It also brings artists' music-related Twitter activity front and centre: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists. And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app."

There are rumours today that Amazon are on the cusp of launching a digital music streaming service to rival Spotify, Pandora and any other not yet launched services from Apple and Google.

The Verge is suggesting that Amazon, which is in talks with music companies, would integrate the service into its cloud music storage and Cloud Player products.

The big question for the retailer though is how much will a streamed service eat into its MP3 sales? I guess it might take quite a chunk if buyers are offered the chance to stream music rather than buy it?

The other big question is whether the service will be free to use or be paid for by a subscription?

I guess Amazon will wait to see what its rivals - Apple and Google (via YouTube) - both of whom could have services later this year - are planning. If it charges for the service it might also end up as a freebie bundled with the Kindle Fire and maybe even its rumoured new smartphone.

It does beg the question - will streamed music play an important part in the way that you shop for a tablet in the future? It could mean that if you buy a device (iPad/Nexus/Kindle Fire) that you get the service on board as freebie. Or possibly that you if you subscribe to the service then you get the hardware at a reduced price or even for free.

If this business model does develop then it could put a lot of pressure on Spotify to partner with a manufacturer too. Maybe a deal with Samsung?

Didn't see this one coming. There's going to be another big player in the online music market - Twitter.

In a scoop from Cnet, the website says that after acquiring the music discovery service We Are Hunted last year Twitter is now going to put together an Apple iPhone and iPad iOS app called Twitter Music that enables users to find new music and see what their friends are listening to.

It could be available as soon as the end of the month.

According to Cnet it will work by...

'...suggesting artists and songs to listen to based on a variety of signals, and is personalised based on which accounts a user follows on Twitter. Songs are streamed to the app via SoundCloud.'

The move might be a little surprising but it makes a lot of sense for Twitter.

Firstly Facebook has dallying in the music streaming space via its clever alliance with Spotify. Twitter wants to evolve into a more mainstream media company more like Facebook, so adding music to its menu of services is an essential move.

Twitter also boasts accounts from a lot of high profile musicians many of whom have millions of followers too, and I imagine that their input will be incorporated into the app.

There's a lot more detail about how the service will work at the Cnet article, but to give you a brief picture the service works around four main tabs.

'Suggested' recommends songs and artists based on a user's follower graph -- artists they are following, and artists that other people they follow are following. #NowPlaying brings in links to songs tweeted by people you follow who tweet using that hashtag.
Popular' brings in songs trending on We are Hunted, and an 'Emerging' tab tracks up-and-coming artists.'

When the user taps on the file then they are taken to any music that is stored on SoundCloud, or to song previews from the iTunes store.

Personally I think that the weakness with the service is the Soundcloud/iTunes support. Twitter really should have opted for Spotify (in Europe) and maybe Pandora (in the US) both of which offer full streaming of tracks and have massive online catalogues.

What I can see this app doing is giving artists who use Twitter the chance to get closer to their followers.

However I am not sure how popular it will prove to be?

What do you think? Are you ready to find out about the people you follows music taste? Or do you find the 'now playing' streams on Facebook irritating and think Twitter Music could be just as annoying?

Record shop, and I guess we can call that again now, Rough Trade has been doing brisk business in spite of the difficulties that have afflicted some of its rivals.

Now it is turning its attention its online offering and delivering a very interesting new service.

In association with The Guardian, it is launching Tracks of the Week. Basically you sign up and pay £2.99 a week, and every Friday six new tracks will land in your inbox.

And before you say - why can't you just check them out on Spotify, Rough Trade are promising some fascinating stuff and exclusives that won't be available anywhere else.

Also you won't know what they are until they reach you - which is where the excitement lies.

You can also get 24 free tracks if you sign up here.

Now if they could get some big names to sign up this could be really fun. It only works though for people with catholic taste in music as knowing Rough Trade you could receive some scratchy US indie alongside some quirky London urban sounds.

As Stephen Godfroy of Rough Trade says: "We're delighted to offer, in partnership with the Guardian, a music service that offers genuine digital value and excitement for the music lover. Not knowing what you're going to receive each week replicates the thrilling sense of adventure felt in our stores, providing customers a priceless moment of trusted discovery, surprise and joy."

Last night team Shiny Shiny went along to an exclusive Spotify event here in London to learn about what the popular music streaming service has planned after its most successful year ever with a whole load of new customers and countries under its belt.

We watched a livestreamed keynote speech from Spotify's CEO and all round nice guy Daniel Ek, in which the Swede introduced a number of new updates that will be coming to the platform over the next few months.

The most exciting one comes in the form of a new "Discover" tab in the desktop version of Spotify, which will suggest new tracks based on all kinds of information about the user. You'll even be able to see the context at the side, explaining why certain artists and albums have been served up to you. Ek showed us some examples of tracks that were brought up for him to remind him of his youth or other artists that have similar influences to his favourites.

There will also be new Twitter-style follow features, which will allow Spotify users to keep tabs on artists, friends and celebrities whose music or taste in music they like. If those people then upload a new track or make a new playlist you'll receive an automatic update straight to your phone.

We're excited about seeing the updates "in the wild" and will write up a full review once we've had a play around with them all.

However, the night wasn't just about the raft of new features that'll be introduced to Spotify, but a new band too. In a surprise that had everyone giggling and gasping, Ek revealed that heavy metal superstars Metallica will be releasing their entire back catalogue through the Swedish music platform. ROCK ON! Or something much cooler...

A new study into music piracy has revealed that super boring singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran is the UK's most pirated artist. Come on guys, we thought you all had more refined musical taste!

The new research, published by Musicmetric, also revealed that Drake is the most pirated artist in the US. Overall the data shows that 40 million albums and singles were shared in the UK, while 96.6 million were shared in the US.

Globally good ol' Rhi Rhi was the most downloaded artist overall, with her latest album Talk That Talk racking up 1.2 million illegal downloads.

Despite directly affecting his sales, Ed Sheeran proved optimistic about the figures when he was questioned about it in a BBC interview, stating that downloads are likely to inspire fans to come to his gigs (something that they can't pirate) from which he earns more money anyway. Fair enough.

However, as you'd expect, it's not a sentiment shared by industry executives. Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of the BPI, said:

"A lot of people are getting very rich from stealing other people's things.

"That's wrong, and we think that musicians deserve to be paid for what they do, just like everyone else."

You can view a breakdown of the tracks that have been downloaded the most in your area by putting your postcode into a new music widget provided by the BBC.

Let us know in the comments below who the most shared artists in your area is... Everyone around our office in central London apparently can't get enough of Lady Gaga.

[Via Tech Digest]

New details have been released today about Xbox Music, a digital streaming service that's set to rival Spotify and will run on an Xbox 360 console.

We first heard about Microsoft's music offering at the E3 conference and now it's emerged that it's set to launch later this year along with an annual subscription model that's similar to Spotify.

According to sources, Microsoft is currently at the negotiation stages with a number of major record labels, including Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Sony and EMI in order to secure licensing agreements.

The service won't just be all about streaming music, it'll provide users with a way to buy tracks through Microsoft's Zune store and even Apple's iTunes and the Amazon MP3 store. There purchases will then be accessed through a kind of "digital locker", which will sync up accounts with any other devices that are running Windows 8, Microsoft's upcoming desktop and tablet operating system.

[Via Tech Digest Via Bloomberg]

Figure might be our new favourite music making app, as it allows you to create impressive tracks from your mobile with a super intuitive touch interface and good quality sounds powered by Reason.

There are a lot of apps out there for music lovers, but we've fallen for new music app Figure in a big way. Brought to us by the team behind Reason, Figure is a very simple application that has even complete beginners making music in a matter of minutes.

However, that doesn't mean you don't have plenty of choice, you can play around with drums, bass, leads and synths, then tweak the rhythm, range and scale step with a number of dedicated wheels in real-time or record your tracks too. It's the app's touch interface that makes it really stand out, allowing you to slide, spin and swipe through the different controls in a way we've never seen before from such a cheap music application.

Figure may be great, but don't expect miracles, it is an iPhone app that you can buy for under a pound after all and won't allow you to put HUGE tracks together. However, if you've got a few spare minutes and want to play around with a fun app that's got a rather special interface, then Figure is for you, regardless of whether you're a beginner or a seasoned producer.

Check out this awesome video of Figure in action.

Available from iTunes for 69p.

[Via iSO50]

Spotify launched a number of new apps last year, but soon big brands will be able to get in on the action too.

Popular music streaming service Spotify will be accepting apps from big brands over the next few months that'll help users to interact more with its huge library of tracks. Ad Age believes this is a necessary next step for Spotify, in order to "make the platform more attractive to advertisers that can help offset massive licensing costs."

Spotify introduced a range of apps last year, our favourites include the likes of Rolling Stone, We are Hunted, SongKick Concerts and the hilarious karaoke app, Tune Wiki.

A few brands have already created their apps and are getting in on the action early. Reebok's new offering creates workout playlists, which is a great idea, particularly if it looks at your music tastes to find out what kind of thing gets your blood pumping. There's then Intel's new app called 'Sifter', which will apparently suggest tracks based on what your Facebook friends are listening to.

The challenge for brands will be to create something that's ACTUALLY useful to Spotify users and doesn't just come across as a way to crowbar their name and key messages onto the platform.

Luckily, to use apps Spotify users must choose to install them from a list, much like the app store. So if you're not interested in what brands have to say and want to keep your listening experience pure and untainted by big bad corporations it's easy to push them into the background.

According to Ad Age, the brand apps will be officially launched at the publication's digital conference in New York next week.

[Via Ad Age]

MTV is set to launch a new hub called Artists.MTV, but will it really help musicians connect with fans, or is it just a Myspace rip-off?

Last week, the MTV blog revealed plans that the network is set to launch a new project called Artists.MTV. From what we can tell, it's set to be a kind of platform/website/social networking space specially created to bring fans closer to the artists and bands they love. The blog post explains:

"The summer launch of Artists.MTV an attempt to help music junkies and musicians close the gap by providing a one-stop place where fans can listen to and buy music and purchase concert tickets and merchandise."

Each artist will be able to set up their own customisable page, complete with the ability to upload music, videos, photos and sync up all of their social networks in one place.

It's hard to pass judgement on the idea before the official launch, but it seems very much like Myspace with a little more focus from the outset, and obviously the support of the MTV network behind it. It's MTV's dominance in the music space that will really make Artists.MTV so appealing for up and coming acts, as not only will they be affiliated with the brand, but every month there's a chance to be showcased across the group's TV channels and other online properties.

Van Toffler, president of Viacom's Music Group, said it's this focus on learning more about popular artists AND finding talented yet relatively undiscovered acts that makes the social network so appealing:

"There is infinite choice out there, but with this artist platform, we want to provide a meaningful road map for consumers to weed through the chaos, and discover the musical gems that should break through."

If any brand is going to succeed in creating an online music hub for artists globally, then we have a lot of confidence in MTV to do it right. It's whether that kind of hub is really necessary when there are so many social networks, websites and platforms already dedicated to musicians that are so popular and pulling in the users every day. In many ways the site seems very different to what Myspace was (or is?), but MTV's plan for the site to be a "one-stop place" for music and entertainment all just sounds far too familiar.

In May the site will be opening up as a private beta for certain artists and it's set to launch properly later on in the summer.

If you don't fancy battling through the frantic last minute shoppers over the next few days, then try giving a gift that your loved ones can receive virtually. There are lots of options out there from different retailers and brands, but as we assume 99.999% of the nation are music lovers, then you can't go wrong with a gift card from the likes of Spotify, fairshare music or iTunes. Plus if you're really struggling on Christmas Eve (or even Christmas morning) they're so so easy to buy.

Spotify

With Spotify's e-cards you can give your loved ones the gift of premium listening, meaning no ads, access to everything on your mobile and exclusive features from the Spotify team.

You can choose to give premium access for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 12 months and we can guarantee that if someone's been using Spotify's free services for some time, they'll really value the chance to be bumped up to premium!

To find out more, go to: http://www.spotify.com/uk/get-spotify/e-card/

fairshare music

fairshare music is a music library with a conscience, it's got more than 16 million tracks in its vaults from just 79p and for every download that's purchased half of the profit will go to a charity of your choice.

You can easily and instantly send a gift card virtually to any recipient and then they can use that to buy anything in the store.

You could also gift songs, albums or playlists too or even create a quick wish-list so other people know what to buy for you.

To find out more, go to: http://www.fairsharemusic.com/gifting-wish-list-tips

iTunes

Earlier in the week we showed you how to give an app as a gift this Christmas and that process works for music too.

However, if you'd prefer to let the person you're buying for choose what they want, then buy a gift certificate that can be emailed out to them and used whenever they please.

All you need to do is fill out a simple form and choose whether you want to give a gift certificate of anywhere from £5 to £30.

To find out more, go to: http://www.apple.com/itunes/gifts/

Today a new digital music streaming service called Rara has been launched, which is set to rival Spotify. Hmm, we've not heard that one before...

What is it?

Aside from the fact it's got a ridiculous name (which is both a skirt and slang for a posh person), Rara looks pretty interesting. The service offers users around ten million tracks, including all the major labels, and it sets itself apart from the rest by not aiming at the tech-savvy early adopters, but setting its sights on those with a casual interest in music.

Rara's founder, Rob Lewis, said:

"The vast majority of music services today are designed for people who know a lot about music and are technically literate.

"If we're going to make digital as mainstream as the CD was (which is what we need to do with CD revenues heading in the wrong direction), we need to reach people who know less about music and less about technology."

How's it different?

According to Rara's research, these more casual tech and music lovers account for 80% of the potential streaming market and the service aims to reach them through simplifying its interface and collecting tracks into a UI full of colourful, customisable music hubs.

To set Rara apart as a respectable music discovery tool as well as a streaming service, the company has enlisted the help of a number of high-profile associate editors, kicking off with musician Imogen Heap, who's huge online following (and talent, obviously) must be particularly appealing to Rara.

How can we get it?

Interestingly, Rara has teamed up with HP and will come pre-installed on all 2012 HP computers with a bookmark "quick-link" directing users to the web-based service straight out of the box.

As well as the browser based offering, Rara can be accessed as a mobile Android app too, with Windows Phone 7 and iOS apps to arrive sometime soon.

So we know you're all mostly interested in how much it's going to cost. Well, the first three months access will cost just 99p, and £4.99 for the months following. To add in mobile music-caching functionality to ease the strain on your data plan, those prices jump up to £1.99 for the first 3 months, then £9.99 for the months thereafter. End your subscription and a short "grace period" allows access to your saved playlists for a limited time.

Who needs a bit of Rara in their lives?

One of Rara's main draws is its colourful, inviting interface, which displays its curated music. It's simple and may appeal to those who have been turned off from iTunes or Spotify in the past because it looks a little confusing, but is anyone really confused by Spotify enough for a new simple offering to be created? I'm not so convinced, even some of my older relatives manage to use it with ease at the moment.

If you're looking for something a bit different and want to get on board with Rara now before its big plans are announced early next year (there are some significant announcements coming at CES according to Rob Lewis), then give it a whirl. Otherwise stick with Spotify and iTunes for a few months to see how everything pans out...

Go visit www.rara.com now to give the service a try.

After Spotify and Facebook became BFFs at the f8 developers conference the week before last, the popular music streaming service introduced a controversial way of signing up new users, which required them to have a Facebook profile.

This really wasn't a surprise considering how heavily integrated both Spotify and Facebook are becoming, but all kinds of people (OK, so mainly angry Twitter users) got really mad about this and many threatened to cut all ties with both platforms. Brave. Very. Brave.

However it seems that the new integration actually helped Spotify, as its subscriber base has grown from 3.4 million users before f8 to a HUGE five million this past weekend according to Evolver.fm.

This goes to prove two things, that Spotify made a very good move by teaming up with Facebook AND despite how many people complain about changes, the mob mentality online rarely has a big impact on figures in the long run.

So what the hell is Deezer? And do you need another music streaming service in your life? Well, chances are you hadn't heard of Deezer before last night when the French company announced its role as part of Facebook's music package. Deezer however has been around for a while. It was launched as a service back in 2007 in France (before Spotify) and since then has signed up more than 20 million users and 1.3 million subscribers. It actually debuted in the UK earlier in September, but will have got a massive new number of subscribers yesterday.

But what if you have Spotify already - do you need another music streaming service? Well here are the differences between the two.

1 Deezer is web-based. Spotify is client based.

The big difference is that Deezer is a web based service. So you don't have to download any software, you simply go to the website, create your account and the music - all 13 million tracks - is waiting for you.

With Spotify you have to have a computer with the client on board for it to work. The Facebook upgrade, which lets you listen to Spotify songs on the social networking sites, doesn't actually change this. If you try to listen to a song it then downloads the client on to the PC. Very cleverly it doesn't matter who has been using the Spotify client as it automatically logs you out of someone else's account and connects to yours.

I guess the browser based nature of the service might mean that Deezer can go a few places that Spotify can't as it might be able to skip through some work firewalls.

2 The free options are different

As you probably know the free Spotify service is one, ad funded and, two comes with a few restrictions on the number of times you can play a track. With Deezer things are a little different. You can access the radio channels and Smartradio, but music on demand is limited to 30 second clips rather than the whole song. To listen to whole albums etc you have to subscribe. However when we signed in this morning we were offered a few weeks of the service for free. I am not sure how long this will be available for.

3 The mobile service is different

Deezer wins on this one. Its mobile options are easier to use and more detailed than Spotify's and includes extra features such as radio and Smartradio. You can also listen to music on your mobile via Deezer (well the radio and Smartradio) without having to pay for a subscription, Spotify only offers its mobile service to its paying customers.

Other than those three biggies the services are fairly similar.

Spotify has the edge in number of track 15 million to 13 million, however I did keep finding things on Deezer that are not on Spotify. The big names are John Lennon (his catalogue was removed from Spotify a few months back) and Pink Floyd (whose albums are being rolled out on Deezer in the next few weeks). Neither service has The Beatles or Led Zeppelin.

The interfaces and general features (like social sharing of tracks) work in a similar way. Deezer looks a little more MySpacey to Spotify's iTunes influenced design. Deezer does have Soundcloud integration, which is a very nice touch. I guess Spotify will get this soon.

The subscription deals are virtually identical with both charging £4.99 for full PC service and £9.99 if you want to take tracks with you on your mobile. Slight moan about Deezer though - their service is 4.99 and 9.99 Euros which makes it even cheaper in France. Shame they couldn't have saved us Brits a few pence too.

Overall then, do you need both? Well probably not. Is one better than the other? Not really, it is too close to call. There might come a day when one of them offers a feature that will make me change my mind, but for now both services are well worth considering. Five quid a month for all that music? Bargain!

A new online recommendation tool called Spotalike lets you quickly and easily find Spotify playlists that'll suit you.

It's very much like the music version of film and TV recommending gem Jinni (if you haven't tried Jinni yet do it NOW). Spotalike asks you to enter just one track by one artist and it'll recommend a playlist that you'll like gathered from the Last.fm vaults.

Now Spotalike can't read your mind, so if you enter a song that you know doesn't fall in line with the rest of your music tastes it won't be able to tell.

Although there are similar recommendation tools integrated within other programmes, we love Spotalike because it's just SO simple, making it ideal for a Spotify beginner who wants some ready-made playlists, or even a seasoned user searching for a little bit of inspiration.

Most people seem to have a favourite music service that they always come back to for discovering, storing and sharing their favourite tracks.

The likes of iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud are already firm favourites, but we've come across a few music apps and services recently that are a little different.

1. Flowd
What is it? An app which has been dubbed "Foursquare with a musical twist".
Why is it different? By using your phone's GPS, Flowd allows users to 'check-in' to gigs and festivals. Artists can then run all kinds of promotions to interact with and reward their fans. Flowd now also has Soundcloud integration too, so it's not just all about location, location, location.
How much is it? Free.

2. Songkick Concert
What is it? Songkick Concert makes sure you never miss your favourite artists when they perform in your area.
Why is it different? It scans through your music collection and creates a personalised calendar of concerts and events that you'd love. It then gives you plenty of information when you get there too, like a venue map and line-up details.
How much is it? Free.

3. Discovr
What is it? Like Jinni but for music, Discovr lets you explore new artists that are similar to the ones you already like.
Why is it different? Start by inputting the name of an artist or band, then you can see how others are related through a kind of big, shiny, mind map. You can go as deep into the world of music as you like by clicking on more and more artists.
How much is it? £1.49.

4. MusicDrop for Dropbox
What is it? A way to listen to the music collection stored in your Dropbox account.
Why is it different? It gives you a fuss-free way of listening to everything in your Dropbox account, along with browse and search functionality, a directory browser and Facebook integration all within a slick interface.
How much is it? £1.49.

5. Roqbot
What is it? Kind of like a little jukebox in your pocket.
Why is it different? It lets you control the music that's playing in a venue, as well as buy what's already on, vote on what you want to hear next and integrate all of your social networking channels. The only issue with Roqbot is that it looks like the venue needs to be in on the game too, so it might take a while for this to catch on.
How much is it? Free.

Spotify is increasingly becoming a love-it-or-hate-it kind of service, much like Marmite or the Twilight franchise.

In my experience, those that avoid it tend to fall into one of two, or both, of these categories:

1. "My music taste is just so obscure that Spotify doesn't have any of my favourite tracks."
2. "I'm not paying money for that."

However, it's undoubtedly been hugely successful and those that love it aren't alone, as the service has more than 10 million (both free and paying) subscribers, including the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears and Trent Reznor.

Spotify's free offering has always been of a fairly high quality, but the brand is increasingly making more and more changes so those that don't cough up the pennies every month are getting more ads and less freedom when it comes to what they can listen to and where they can listen to it.

So the big question is, is it really worth paying a premium for Spotify?

At the moment, Spotify's offering is split up into three different types, open, unlimited and premium.

Open (Free) is the free service and includes access to Spotify's library of tracks if you're online, but there are lots of ads breaking up your listening and restrictions on how often you listen to certain tracks. If you're not planning on using the service often, or you want to scope out exactly what's available before you commit to buy, then try Open first, but I can guarantee you'll get frustrated very quickly.

Unlimited (£4.99 per month) is the cheap and cheerful option, which allows users to get rid of ads and restrictions, but you can't listen to Spotify on your mobile or access tracks offline. This would be the perfect option for those that only want access to the service when they're at work or on their computers. If you like to have the little green Spotify logo smiling (it kinda smiles, right?) at you from your smart phone but you never actually listen to it, don't pay anymore than an Unlimited subscription.

Premium (£9.99 per month) is the ultimate Spotify experience, allowing you to listen to anything however many times you want, without ads, on your mobile, online, offline, running, walking, in the office, at home, at night, with a few added extras, like exclusive content and (allegedly) better sound quality. If you listen to music on the go and want access to all of your Spotify playlists on the move now now now, then this is the option for you. It does make you feel a little guilty paying that much a month just to please your ears, but the other two aren't going to do it for you otherwise.

So really the decision as to whether you need to be a paying subscriber or not is all down to personal preference, how often you actually listen to music and where you want to listen to it.

I personally have a pretty serious Premium addiction. I couldn't live without it, but resent paying the subscription fee every month. I know soon I may have to break that tuneful habit, but until then I do love having access to all of my playlists everywhere I go and I can't get enough of the intuitive interface, the way users can so easily make playlists and the colour scheme (I know, I know how shallow of me).

However, despite Spotify being the current love of my life and such a popular force across the globe, if you still don't like it (whether it's the lack of freedom or Roberta's voice), then there are plenty of alternatives out there:

Soundcloud is an online service with access to a range of mixes and smaller tracks you won't find elsewhere, it also has a free mobile app.

We7 is a browser based service which does have some advertising, but currently no limits on the tracks you play and how often you play them.

Last.fm cleverly builds playlists that will suit a user's tastes from more than 7 million tracks and there's an app to go with it.

The Hype Machine aggregates tracks mentioned by music bloggers and then lets you explore them online or via the brand's dedicated free app.

Rdio is currently only available in the US, so we haven't had chance to try it out yet, but it looks like a very slick in-browser and mobile app service with a huge range of tracks.

We don't count getting your willy out as a creative use of Chatroulette. No, boobs don't count either.

But, this concert by Ben Folds does count. This is a creative use of Chatroulette. The singer sits at a piano in a humungous concert hall, lets Chatroulette roll and sings some incredible improvised stuff riffing off the randomers that turn up. It's a pure joy. We want to go back on Chatroulette just to see if Ben is doing this again and we catch him.

Oh wait though - we'd probably just see lots of naked men and get scared again though.

While we're on the topic this was a great use of Chatroulette too: Chatroulette for good? HealCam connects patients.

So was this: Finally, someone has a Chatroulette Party

This was a dreadful use of Chatroulette though: French Connection in rubbish Chatroulette competition

Sales of Vinyl music rose a thumping 55% in the first half of this year pushed up by Radiohead and Adele according to data from the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA).

Vinyl album sales have been rising in the UK every year since 2006, but this is one of the strongest rises. The trend is the same in the US too: Nielsen showed vinyl sales up 41% in the US in the same period.

Why are we buying it? Well it could be because it sounds "warm", because we like the big pictures on the front, or just because we're really nostalgic.

Kim Bayley, Director General of ERA, said:

"Vinyl may still be a niche format, but it is growing fast. Whether it is the "warmer" sound many music fans appreciate, the large-scale artwork of a 12" sleeve or its sheer retro appeal, vinyl seems to be capturing the imagination of buyers despite the fact it typically costs twice as much as a CD containing exactly the same music...Much of the focus in the music industry has been on cutting prices, partly in response to the rise of internet piracy. The success of vinyl shows music buyers will pay a premium if we deliver them a package they really love."

The top ten biggest sellers on vinyl were all recent releases.

Top 10 Vinyl Albums Jan-June 2011
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Beady Eye - Different Gear Still Speeding
Adele - 21
Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See
Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
Noah & The Whale - Last Night On Earth
Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

Oh Mumford and Sons...

[via DrownedinSound]

Youtube superstar - Rebecca Black is releasing a new music video today that will chart the 14 year old's "rocky rise to fame".

It's going to be called My Moment and is going live on Youtube and on her website at 8pm. It's the follow up to her viral hit Friday - which was loved, reviled and played over 150 million times before it was taken off the internet.

But is the story of her path to fame is what we want? I fear that the teen might have lost what made her so real. Surely Rebecca's true genius lies in singing eternal truths about normal life. Things like this:

"Yesterday was Thursday / Today is Friday / Tomorrow is Saturday / And Sunday comes after that"

The mixture of home truths and the little happenings of the everyday - eating breakfast, going to the bus stop - all set to heady pop was what made Friday so globally appealing.

Let's remember the epic opening lines:
"7am waking up in the morning / Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs / Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal"

Can My Moment match it? I only hope so...

If not, why not try your hand at making a Youtube hit? See - Ten Tips for Making a Hit YouTube Video: What we learned from Rebecca Black's Friday

It reminds us of Our Favourite Rebecca Black Memes