Bluetooth gadgets often aren't much to look at. So it's nice to see someone trying to inject these devices with a bit of style.

Jabra, the Bluetooth buffs leading the 'Wireless Earvolution', have announced that their Stone and Street devices will now be available in white. With the iPhone 4 setting a trend for what could well become a tech whitewash, they're set to be one of many manufacturers deciding that - for now, at least - white is the new black.

The Stone will give you 8 hours of talk time and up to 12 days on standby. Noise Blackout Extreme technology promises to make your conversations that little bit clearer, and a portable charging unit should keep the most forgetful of you out of trouble. But, if you're after something a little more flamboyant, the Street plays music from your mobile or mp3 as well as letting you chat - all without getting your phone out of your pocket, that it. With an operating range of up to 33 feet, it'll give you the same 8 hours of talk time as the Stone, and a very reasonable 7 hours of music playback.

The Jabra Stone will set you back £99.99, while the Street comes at a slightly more affordable £49.99. Both will be available from July.

If you are fed up with your desk being covered in boxy black and grey gadgets - printers, monitors, hard-drives - you can add a splash of colour with your speakers. Colour - and an unusual shape that is. These stiletto-shaped speaker from GadgetShop are called Gimme Tunes (there's a shoe-related pun there, see if you can spot it) and will play from any music device with a 3.5mm jack. Power them through the USB cable connected to your computer.

Obviously these speakers are not for everybody, but you are really into your shoes, like the idea of playing Kylie out of a pair of stillettos, and want your computer desk to stand out, these are the desktop speakers for you. [I say "play Kylie" but by all means play Ramstein or whatever music you fancy.]

Previously only available in pink, a red version has just been released. No, you can't wear them.

As for the sound quality..? Well, we just asked and they said: "It's not the same as a hifi but it's ideal for listening from your PC." There you go.

Gimme Tunes are £24.99 from GadgetShop

While we hope you haven't exactly been holding your breath, the good news is that online music service Rdio - which you may have heard about way back in 2009 - has finally arrived. Well, in the US, anyway. But according to their blog this Spotify rival will be available in other parts of the world 'soon'.

Rdio is the brainchild of Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the pair who created the controversial file-sharing service Kazaa and later redeemed themselves (and paid the legal bills, presumably) with Skype. For a monthly charge, users can access a catalogue of major label music, streaming or saving their favourite tracks to PCs, iPhones and Blackberrys. Don't panic if you're an Android user - word on the street is that an app is on its way for you, too.

$9.99 will get you Rdio Unlimited, giving you both web and mobile usage, while a $4.99 gets you the web-only Rdio Web package. A caching feature means you'll be able to store music on your mobile without blowing the 3G budget, and with Warner Music Group backing the service we guess you could soon be listening to anyone from The Doors to Red Hot Chilli Peppers on or offline. (Unfortunately, Michael Buble is probably an option, too.) There are also suggestions that EMI and indies Orchard and INgrooves could soon be a part of the Rdio package.

Rdio's competitors are likely to be Rhapsody, Napster and the lesser known Mog All Access. And of course Spotify when it launches Stateside. But, with all eyes - and ears - on Spotify in the UK, what can Rdio really do to recommend itself to the discerning British listener? Well, it seems that this music service will include several social elements. So you'll be able to follow friends and find out what they're listening, and hijack other people's playlists when you're lacking inspiration. This does however mean you'll have to give up that filthy Nickelback habit.

Will you be tuning in to Rdio when it touches down in the UK? Or, in the time they've taken to get up and running, has Spotify already won your heart?

In good news for music streaming sites (and their users) it seems that advertising can support letting users play free music.

Music streaming service we7 is announcing that it has had its first month where all of its on-demand music played in the UK was paid for in full from advertising. If sustainable, it's good for the music industry as well - suggesting that ad-supported streaming is now a valid business model. It's notable that leaders in the field - Spotify - still aren't a profitable business. We7 is different from Spotify in that no sign-up or app installation is required.

We7 claim that they uniquely have got the combination of ad frequency, ad sell-through and ad rates right to make the model work.

In their model, 1 million plays of a song on we7 would generate a range of payments to the music industry of between £2,000 to £4,000, figures significantly higher than in other services, according to them.

How do you get your music?

Remember vinyl? Of course you do - vinyl records are still around, still in use and still probably the coolest (though least practical) way to store your music.

Well it's National Record Store day on 17th April and Parlophone Records (and its imprint label, Regal) are releasing a series of limited 7" vinyl records to celebrate and support vinyl lovers all over.

The series will run over a total of 12 artists, new urban hottie Tinie Tempah to the Beatles, originally released on Parlophone. Each release will come in a vintage-style paper Parlophone house bag which has been designed especially for the releases and uses elements of historic sleeves from the 1960s to the present day.

Each release is strictly limited (the maximum run is 1000) and exclusive to the independent record shops taking part in the event - of which 150 are in the UK, see more on the parlophone website.

The songs available:

Artist: Babyshambles
A: Side of the Road
B: UnBiloTitled

Artist: Bat For Lashes
A: Howl! (Live at De La Warr Pavillion)
B: Wild Is The Wind (Live at Grove Music Studios)

Artist: The Beatles
A: Paperback Writer
B: Rain

Artist: Chiddy Bang
A: Opposite of Adults
B: Sooner or Later

Artist: Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
A: Just War (featuring Gruff Rhys)
B: Just War (instrumental)

Artist: Eliza Doolittle
A: Pack Up
B: Rollerblades

Artist: Hot Chip
A: I Feel Bonnie (featuring Bonnie 'Prince' Billie)
B: Bear Witness

Artist: Jónsi
A: Go Do
B: Boy Lilikoi

Artist: Lily Allen
A: Back To The Start
B: Kabul Shit

Artist: The Pet Shop Boys
A: Love Life
B: A Powerful Friend

Artist: Tinie Tempah
A: Pass Out
B: Pass Out (SBTRKT Remix)

Okay so it doesn't exactly sound like rock and roll, but a new cable system GuitarBud that lets you plug your electric guitar into your iPhone is bound to please geeky guitar-players.

Made by Paul Reed Smith Guitars, GuitarBud lets you link your instrument up with lots of different apps. Hook up to simple Voice Memos to record a quick riff or use one of several apps for guitar player on the iPhone:

PRS have released their own free app to go with the cable - JamAmp app - a guitar amp simulator, tuner and training tool all in one. It also allows the user to change the pitch and speed of playalong tracks independently enabling tracks to be matched to the pitch of the guitar. Some of the other apps suited to use with the Guitarbud include StompVox, Riff Raters, GigDaddy, iStrobosoft, Rectools Pro and Guitar FX Deluxe.

Yes go forth and create geek musicians. Just don't go thrashing your guitar around - you might damage your iPhone...

Guitarbud, £29.95 from PRSguitars

Have you heard of Spotify? Last.fm? It seems lots of people haven't. Research by Consumer Focus announced that four in ten people can't name a single legal online music service.

Of the music fans that were aware of such services, 85% could only name Amazon and iTunes. Doing the maths, that means that only a measly 9% of people are aware of the 20-odd sites such as Spotify, last.fm and We7 where you can legally listen to music.

And whose fault is that? Perhaps digital music music companies should take some of the rap for failing to educate people about legal music sites. This is a missed opportunity for the labels to make money from the legal sites, it's also encourages piracy as people try to listen to stuff illegally instead.

"Illegal services threaten the music industry by side-stepping the artists and ultimately taking revenues from the development of new music. When combined with the risks of malware and virus attacks and a clear lack of awareness into the alternatives to the consumer, what more can be done to stamp out piracy and help the industry, consumer and artist alike, to share music and listen without compromise?" a We7 statement read.

Spotify has ramped up its music service by bolting on a new recommended artists feature and artist radio - unleashing all the data it has gathered from user listening habits to create a recommendation engine.

The recommendation features take Spotify into the territory of rivals Last.fm and Pandora Radio (an American-only service) - which emphasise the discovery and social sides of listening to music online. The feature also makes use of the vast amounts of data on music tastes that the Spotify must not have access to.

Scandi service Spotify has stormed to success with its ad-supported music streaming service, this will consolidate its position as the major music streaming service. Look for some gesture towards social music sharing next...

Youtube gets into music recommendation with a Last.fm style project called the Youtube Music Discovery Project. They launched it quietly - it's still a Test Tube project rather than something you can access on the main site.

Go to www.youtube.com/disco to try it out. Type a band name or genre into the search box and it generates an automatic playlist

Features that make it slightly better than last.fm:
- You can see what the list is going to play in advance
- You can edit the playlist, taking out songs or adding new ones from the list of songs of the artist you search for.
- In last.fm that you only got one or two songs from the artist you requested, in this Youtube site you get more with the option to include all songs available from the artist you chose.

Downside: you have to click "next video" everytime you want to move onto the next song. That's a bit rubbish and means you can't just sit back and listen to it.
Youtube does seem to have quite a comprehensive catalogue these days, thanks to channels like Vevo and EMI so finding songs isn't a problem, but sometimes the videos have ads built into them which means your listening is disrupted by audio ads occasionally.

Oh and of course streaming videos eats more data than that just music so depends on your connection.

Worth a try? Yes: www.youtube.com/disco

Virgin Media is squaring up to web services like iTunes and Spotify with a music streaming and download service called MusicFish. Due to launch this summer, the service will work along the lines of premium Spotify deals.

It is suggested that Virgin will charge a certain amount a month for access to the service which would include unlimited ad-free online streaming and mp3 downloads of songs (not sure what the limit on downloads is). The monthly price will be released closer to the launch but we imagine it will be somewhere near the Spotify Premium fee of £9.99.

They have already signed a deal with Universal, and hope to close talks with EMI, Sony and Warner to get as full a catalogue of songs as possible.

With sales of CDs falling and music shops closing down, it makes sense for Virgin to move into digital streaming and sales.

My only question: where does the Fish come from? I know Spotify is a slightly silly name when you think about it... but "Musicfish"? It sounds like a children's TV character. I suppose the "user-fish" swimns around in the music stream, but I reserve the right to find it all slightly comical.

[via BrandRepublic]

There's been a lot of noise in the US about a site called Vevo. After streaking ahead of MySpace Music in December 09, it's the biggest online music service in the USA, with some 35.4 million unique visitors. And it only launched on December 8th. Gulp.

What is it? Why is it so successful? When's it coming to the UK? We answer a few of the questions about Vevo.

What does Vevo do?
It's a music streaming service, which shows high quality professionally-shot music videos of artists from the Jonas Brothers to Lady Gaga.

Why the hell is it so successful?
It's the traffic from Youtube that has sent Vevo through the roof. Vevo is now the most watched channel on Youtube and 92% of visits to the Vevo home site come from its youtube channel. The professional video and high-quality sound must also give Vevo an advantage over less good shaky or amateur footage. The company has some serious corporate muscle behind it: Vevo is a joint venture between Google, Universal Music Group and Sony.

Google, as in the Google that owns Youtube?
Oh yes, that Google.

When's it coming to the UK?
You can already watch its youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/vevo But the website is not available.

Are we going to like it over here?
Local start-ups Spotify and Last.fm rule the roost for Brits wanting to listen to music online. But something offering videos could still be very successful. After Youtube stripped thousands of music videos off its site last year, nowhere has emerged as a dominant place to watch music videos.

What are the Top Ten music services in the US?
Conveniently enough, Techcrunch have drawn up a table: here you go. Figures represent unique visitors in December, 2009 and are compiled by comScore

1. Vevo: 35.4 million
2. MySpace Music: 33.1 million
3. AOL Music: 29.0 million
4. Warner Music: 23.3 million
5. MTV Networks Music: 17.6 million
6. Yahoo! Music: 16.4 million
7. Jango Music Network: 9.6 million
8. ToneFuse Music Network: 8.3 million
9. MSN Music: 6.6 million
10. Rhapsody: 6.5 million

Vevo Youtube Channel
Vevo site coming soon

As the internet sends old business models haywire, new ones pop up: sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

In the music industry one persistent model seems to be fan-financing and a UK band that started out on a fan-financing site seems set to make it big in the States. Newcomers Scars on 45 got funded by fans on website Slicethepie and has now landed a multiple record deal with big US label Atlantic Records.

Website Slicethepie offers a model for fans to contribute to artist's albums in return for credits on the album and free records and merchandise. Fans act as talent scouts, choosing to put their money behind their music taste.

It's not just a success for the band... according to Slicethepie, "fans who invested in Scars on 45 back in 2008 will enjoy a double triumph - seeing their band on the verge of breaking the biggest music market in the world and pocketing an impressive 800% profit on their investment."

Scars on 45 are an Indie/Acoustic pop band from Leeds.

It all shows that we're not out of love with old media just yet - clearly getting into the big labels is still the goal, but bands aren't only relying on music industry talent scouts to get their names out there in the first place.

Slicethepie.com
Scars on 45 on Myspace