The value of global music sales via the internet is set to top $6 billion in 2010, according to a new report by Informa Media Group. The report, Music on the Internet (5th edition), estimates that the share of music sales online will rise from 4.6% in 2004 to 15.2% in 2010. The dominance of hard format sales through the internet will finally be broken, although the steady rise of download and subscription revenues will not impact on retail as quickly as some have suggested. Global digital revenues are forecast to exceed $3.1 billion in 2010, equivalent to 7.7% of total music sales.

Successful launches in most major territories have generated great interest, in particular the ongoing success of the global download leader Apple and its iTunes Music Store. While the continued proliferation of P2P makes the prospect of legal downloading reaching its true potential unlikely, the successes of 2004 are even more impressive given that every music release is available for free somewhere on the internet.

Author of the report Simon Dyson said: “This year has been important for the whole of the digital music sector and the momentum created in 2003 has certainly continued all through 2004. Converting the P2P file sharers is still central to the long-term success of the industry. Many millions of music fans still prefer to download for free even though the legal services offer such good value.”

Much of the focus with regards to music on the internet during 2004 has centred on the growth of downloads and the numerous launches or services providing a legitimate alternative to P2P file sharing. While this is unquestionably good news for the music industry, illegal file sharing continues to thrive and efforts to limit its spread have so far all but failed. Music on the Internet (5th edition) estimates the value of lost sales to the music industry in 2004 remained almost unchanged at $2.1 billion.

Music on the Internet (5th edition) is published by Informa Media Group, which also publishes the influential Music & Copyright newsletter. The report contains forecasts for online music sales up to and including 2010 as well as a detailed analysis of the different online music players and sectors.

AARNet (Australia’s Academic and Research Network) and ResearchChannel today demonstrated the first high definition uncompressed interactive video interaction across the Pacific at 1.4 gigabits per second in each direction.

The demonstration took advantage of recent massive increases in bandwidth capabilities from Australia to the continental United States on network capacity provided by Southern Cross Cable Networks, to deliver truly remarkable quality video interaction between AARNet’s head office in Canberra and the exhibition floor of the Supercomputing Conference SC2004 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

The partnership between ResearchChannel, AARNet and the University of Washington provided applications that spurred the development of high speed networks and enabled data transfers previously unavailable between the two continents.

The unprecedented high-quality, low-latency interactive video is the first use of the Southern Cross Trans-Pacific Optical Research Testbed (or SXTransPORT), a dual 10Gbps trans-Pacific initiative of Southern Cross Cable Networks and AARNet and acquired with assistance from the Australian Government. The network path also involved the Pacific Northwest Gigapop and the US National LambdaRail (NLR) 10 gigabit network fabric. The network path also makes use of US National Institutes of Health-funded networks through the University of Hawaii. Future expansion of the network is planned to offer these and additional resources to other continents, and bring scientists and researchers together by exploiting new Internet technologies.

Using two Intel PCI-Xpress computers and AJA Video Systems’ Xena-HD HDSDI capture cards, the demonstration is the first to show High Definition interactive systems over Windows XP platforms, providing researchers, medical practitioners and scientists worldwide with new interactive video capabilities.

“This demonstration is the first highly visual culmination of the recent initiatives between AARNet’s international developments arm and Southern Cross at the infrastructure level and with our colleagues at the University of Washington at the infrastructure, technology and applications levels,” said AARNet’s CEO, Chris Hancock.

Dr Mike Sargent, who chairs the Australian Research and Education Network initiative, participated for part of the opening session and engaged with Professor John O’Callaghan, CEO of the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing, and other participants in Pittsburg for the Supercomputing Global 2004 conference.

“This is a great demonstrator of the benefit of strategic investment of Australian Government funds in helping put the network infrastructure in place to support these innovative applications” said Dr Sargent.

“The video quality presented at the exhibition floor of the SC2004 conference in Pittsburg from Australia is exceptional” said Professor O’Callaghan”

Demonstrations will continue through the rest of this week, though in Australian time these sessions are from 2am to 10am of the mornings of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and from 2am until 8am on Friday.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, commended the Senate’s passage of S. 3021, the “Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004″ and issued the following statement:

“This comprehensive legislation will enhance the enforcement and operation of the intellectual property laws so critical to our economy and our future.

“We must do everything in our power to ensure that our intellectual property is protected. As technology develops and changes, our role in Congress is to update our federal laws. This comprehensive package is the result of careful, bipartisan negotiations.

“I want to commend the Senate for passing S. 3021, the ‘Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004.’ This important legislation is actually a package of several intellectual property bills that the House and Senate have been working to enact over the past two years. This bill strengthens the intellectual-property laws that are vital to the ongoing growth of our economy.

“Title I of this Act, the Artists’ Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2003, (the ART Act), will close two significant gaps in our copyright laws that are feeding some of the piracy now rampant on the Internet. First, it criminalizes attempts to camcord movies off of theater screens. These camcorded copies of new movies now appear on filesharing networks almost contemporaneously with the theatrical release of a film. Second, the bill will create a pre-registration system that will permit criminal penalties and statutory-damage awards when copyrighted works are distributed illegally via the Internet before they are even made available for sale to the public.

“Title II of this Act, the Family Movie Act of 2004, resolves some ongoing disputes about the legality of so-called “jump-and-skip” technologies that companies like Clearplay in my home state of Utah have developed to permit family-friendly viewing of films that may contain objectionable content. This will ensure the future of technologies that enable families to watch movies without exposing their children to profanity or images of rape, sex or murder.

“Title III of this Act, the National Film Preservation Act of 2004, will reauthorize the National Film Preservation Board and the National Film Preservation Foundation. These entities recognize and preserve historically or culturally significant films – often by providing grants and expertise that enable local historical societies to preserve historically significant films for their local communities. This work will preserve the history of the 20th century for future generations.

Title IV of this Act, the Preservation of Orphan Works Act, also ensures the preservation of valuable historic records by correcting a technical error that unnecessarily narrows a limitation on the copyright law that protects librarians and archivists.

Title V of this Act, the Anticounterfeiting Act of 2004, strengthens our criminal and civil anticounterfeiting laws. Traffic in counterfeit copies of American goods has become a multi-billion dollar drain on our economy. Companies are combating this counterfeiting by using increasingly sophisticated authentication features to distinguish genuine, authorized copies of their products. Now, the crooks are stealing or forging these authentication features and selling them to counterfeiters. The Anticounterfeiting Act of 2004 will impose criminal and civil penalties upon those who traffic in counterfeit or stolen authentication features. This will help halt criminal traffic in authentication features before it can create the illusion of authenticity that allows counterfeit goods to penetrate legitimate markets and endanger our citizens and economy.

“Title VI of this Act, the Cooperative Research and Technology Enhancement Act of 2004 (the CREATE Act), will help public institutions and private entrepreneurs combine their expertise in collaborative, joint research efforts. Unfortunately, the literal language of Section 102(g) of the Patent Act could create a disincentive to form public-private joint-research projects.

“I believe that we must encourage – not discourage – public institutions and private entrepreneurs to combine their differing talents in joint research efforts. Indeed, Congress committed itself to this principle when it passed the Bayh-Dole Amendments to the Patent Act. The CREATE Act will simply conform the present language of the Patent Act to its intent.”

Wurld Media, a leading developer of proprietary e-commerce and file transport technologies, today announced it had signed agreements with three major record labels. SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have agreed to provide access to their vast catalogs of music to be made available on Peer Impact (www.peerimpact.com), Wurld Media’s new peer-to- peer (P2P) digital file-sharing network. Peer Impact is currently concluding internal beta testing and is scheduled to launch publicly in the first quarter of 2005.

Peer Impact’s proprietary business model is designed to provide a clear, legal alternative for consumers to buy and share music, video and an assorted variety of digital content. At the same time, the service ensures that artists and rights holders receive their due compensation for each file shared on the network. Peer Impact is a revolutionary platform that harnesses peer-to- peer technology to create a low-cost infrastructure for distributing licensed content. Because Peer Impact will distribute only licensed and public domain content, it leverages the efficiencies of peer-to-peer distribution while respecting the work of artists and copyright holders.

“We’re excited and proud to gain the cooperation of leading record labels, and we look forward to concluding even more agreements in the coming weeks, but we are not stopping there,” said Greg Kerber, chairman and CEO of Wurld Media. “Peer Impact actually revolutionizes P2P in two ways: By minimizing distribution costs and by allowing legal file sharing within a closed network. Our goal is to populate Peer Impact with the greatest, and most diverse, collection of digital content anywhere.”

“The online media market is presently split between authorized legal paid- download services and unauthorized free services; the consumer is stuck somewhere in the middle, and that’s where Peer Impact comes in,” Kerber continued. “From the beginning our objective has been to reach out to the consumer and help build a secure and legal file-sharing community, created by – and for – the fan, but which also ensures that digital-rights owners get compensated. We look forward to realizing that objective with the coming launch of Peer Impact.”

The manager at the front door of the Apple Store in the Grove shopping center in Los Angeles was smiling broadly late Friday afternoon. It was the day after Thanksgiving, the store was swarming with customers and, he said, sales of iPod digital music players were doing very well.

“It’s been a very good day,” said the manager, who declined to identify himself, citing a company prohibition against speaking to the press. “It’s probably a good day for all retailers.”

Not necessarily. While Apple shoppers were banking on music’s digital future and availing themselves of one-day bargains on iPods as low as $228, things weren’t looking merry and bright for conventional music retailers on “Black Friday” – the traditional opening shot of the Christmas shopping season.

This holiday season will be critical for the music business. After experiencing some gains beginning in late 2003, the industry has sagged again recently. Album sales for the year to date have increased just 3.2% over last year, according to the most recent figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

Traffic was thin at some of the larger music stores in Los Angeles. This in itself was not alarming: As Sharon Vitro, operations manager at Tower Records’ flagship Sunset Boulevard store, noted, business will “explode on (Dec. 14). When you can’t find something else for somebody, you can find music, and that’s when they come to us.”

The grimmer news for music retailers was on display in end caps at mass merchants in the area, where music stores were getting clobbered by the big-box stores’ traffic-building loss-leader pricing of hot new titles.

The damage had already been done at the Best Buy store in the West Hollywood Gateway center at La Brea and Santa Monica. There, a clerk said, copies of U2’s highly anticipated new album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” priced at $7.99, had sold out on Tuesday, its first day on sale.

Best Buy’s price was $2.36 under dealer cost of $10.35. It was also $3.25 less than Tower’s sale price of $11.24, and $4 less than Virgin Megastore’s sale price of $11.99.

At the West Hollywood Gateway Target store, a clerk said the last two copies of the new Nirvana boxed set “With the Lights Out” had sold that morning. The store was offering rain checks to consumers.

Target had priced the three-CD/one-DVD Nirvana set at $27.99, more than $10 under its dealer cost of $38.09. Best Buy was selling the set at $39.99; Tower and Virgin were pricing it at $49.99 and $44.99, respectively.

Tower’s Vitro said angrily of the price-slashing mass merchants, “They’re trying to kill the record business. Why do we cooperate with them at all?”

Still, she added, Tower’s sales for the previous week were “awesome” because of the influx of strong new releases, and she added, “I think December’s going to be good.”

Business was visibly slow at Virgin Megastore’s Sunset location. An employee there, who asked to remain anonymous, said the store’s sales would come in the future: “This weekend’s for the Targets and the Macys. Our industry’s about the last-minute purchase.”

He added that pre-Christmas business seemed to be better than last year, but added, “Will it make the industry land on its feet? I’m not sure.”

The anomaly among local music merchants was Amoeba Music, the massive store at Sunset and Cahuenga. At 4 p.m. Friday, manager Jimmy Henderson estimated 1,000 people were shopping there.

Ironically, Amoeba boasted the highest prices on the hottest new releases. The U2 album was priced at $13.98, and the Nirvana box cost $52.98. But customers appeared galvanized by the music-friendly environment.

Amoeba co-owner Karen Pearson acknowledged her store is different from the chain retail outlets: “Traditionally, music is a late gift. (But) going to Amoeba is like an outing. … It’s like going to Disneyland.”

THE DARKNESS previewed five new songs for the opening night of their comeback arena tour in NOTTINGHAM last night (November 24).

The cock-rockers performed a 90-minute set for their devoted fans which included hits ‘Love Is Only A Feeling’,‘Growing On Me’, ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’ and ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’.

The band also played new tracks ‘Grief Hammer’, ‘Dinner Lady Arms’, power ballad ‘Seemed Like A Good Idea’, ‘English Country Garden’, which saw singer Justin Hawkins swap his guitar for an Eighties-style-guitar-keyboard, and ‘Buffet’.

The Darkness also performed two encores which featured a spectacular pyrotechnic and fire display.

During the first finale Hawkins circled the crowd twice on a floating tiger while performing an extended guitar solo during ‘Love On The Rocks (With No Ice)’.

Then at the end of the show, the band’s road crew, who were dressed in Santa costumes, decorated the stage with Christmas trees.

In the same manner as the warm up gig in Brixton the previous night Hawkins played the opening bars of Band Aid song ‘Do they Know It’s Christmas?’ before ending the show with the group’s own festive hit ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)’.

The Darkness will perform their next show in Glasgow tomorrow (November 26).

The set was:
‘Grief Hammer’
‘Giving Up’
‘Stuck In A Rut’
‘Dinner Lady Arms’
‘Growing On Me’
‘Makin’ Out’
‘Physical Sex’
‘Love Is Only A Feeling’
‘Seemed Like A Good Idea’
‘English Country Garden’
‘Buffet’
‘Black Shuck’
‘Friday Night’
‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’
‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’
‘Love On The Rocks (With No Ice)’
‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)’

Besides looking like original works of art, the Troubled Variance boxes sound unbelievable.

This is Troubled Variance’s take on Dann Green’s famous design. It’s a three channel synth that is controlled w/knobs. The Triwave makes pulsing hums, squealing whirring pics of droning swirling psycho modulating waves of piercing beating ambientsonics. It produces triangluar and squarish sonic waves pulsating and oscillating the frequencies. The triwave picogenerator contains two tone generators and three variable speed points at 8 to 200 cycles per second. It has low frequency oscillators that independently vary the pitch of each tone generator. You can control the speed of each of the three low frequency oscillators, the depth of effect of each tone generator with each oscillator, the center frequency of each tone generator, the mix between volumes of each tone generator, and the master volume. You can switch between square and triangle wave outputs. The LFO range extends into audio frequencies for faux ring and beat modulation. It operates using a power supply, included. The stock model outputs to a one quarter inch mono jack…

http://www.troubledvariance.com/

UK record companies are celebrating their best ever year for album sales, with a record 237 million sold in the 12 months to September.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade body said albums by the likes of Keane and The Streets had helped drive a 3% rise compared with last year.

It also said sales of single tracks were up thanks to the availability of legal download services.

Download sales would be added to the singles chart from next year, it added.

Around 1.75 million individual tracks were purchased from online services such as MyCokeMusic and Wippit between July and September 2004 - helping sales of single tracks increase by 9% on the previous quarter.

With online sales stripped out, singles sales were down by 12%.

However, sales of traditional 7″ singles were up for the 11th quarter in a row, with sales topping one million in the year to September - an increase of 74.8%.

Ok, I admit it we are on a bit of a gear streak. In the continuing search to assemble the world’s smallest full featured desktop studio, here is more gear that will plug nicely to a tiny studio.

Digitech Xp-300 Space Station
With all the treated and manipulated guitar sounds making their way onto recordings these days, it’s clearly evident that the XP-300 Space Station was way ahead of its time. This one of a kind pedal is capable of obliterating any guitar signal and transforming it into synth-like pads, pseudo string swells, and even digital blips and bleeps. There is nothing subtle about any of the effects here and they can provided a great springboard for whole new songs or riffs. Textural players and space rockers will make an immediate connection with this pedal and finding applications for these new sounds will be effortless. For the rest of you, I suggest spending some time with the Space Station just to explore the sonic boundaries of what a guitar can really do. These are still fairly easy to track down on the used market so keep those eyes peeled for these bright yellow monsters.

Boss Percussion Synthesizer PC-2
The PC-2 is a percussion synthesizer featuring six controls allowing synth-drum, triangle and other sound effects. It’s possible to control the unit by the external input trigger.

“ah i love this thing. i bought it based on the previous review and i’ve found a myriad of things to do with it.. run it off a stereo pedal and whenever enough sound pumps through, it triggers.. this means it can be a constant tone if you’re pumping enough sound through (say off an aux send) - really controllable sound, especially the sweep and lfo depth and rate knobs. i love using it with my DD5 - sample a hit and let it pan it out to pedals, and the other out to the trigger for cracked rhythms.”

Red Sound Darkstar (@$300.00)
Using DSP analog modelling, the DarkStar delivers 8-voice polyphony with two oscillators per voice, faithfully recreating classic analog sounds. The built-in joystick is assignable to filter frequency and resonance or to oscillator mix and ring modulation. There’s pink, white and blue noise generation and 2 external inputs. Featuring all the essential ‘hands-on’ synthesizer parameter controls, DarkStar is housed in a desktop style case.

Electro Harmonix Mini-Synthesizer (@$600.00)
The EH Mini-Synthesizer features one analog VCO with a Pulse waveform. There is an octave divider and dedicated LFO for a Pulse-Width-Modulation (PWM) effect. There’s a rather quirky analog filter onboard too. Two sliders control the cutoff-point at the start and end of a tone, another slider controls the sweep rate between them and the fourth slider adjusts phase-shifting of the filter. Resonance, phase in/out and sensitivity are handled by on/off switches. Finally it also has a 2x switch which also creates a phase-shifter effect.

Electro Harmonix Micro Synth
You know the sound. Now, the reissued Micro Synthesizer for lets you produce vintage analog synthesizer sounds such as those generated by the early, great Moog synthesizers. The Micro Synthesizer’s ten slider controls give you complete control over the processed sound. Four completely independent and fully mixable voices-guitar, octave above, sub-octave, and square wave (or distortion) are modified by the resonance, start frequency, stop frequency, and rate controls of the filter sweep section to create the classic analog synthesizer sounds.

AKAI ASQ10
This may be a little big for a desktop, but still worth checking out.

“The ASQ10 is the probably the best hardware sequencer to ever be put on the market. An incredible machine, the ASQ10 was the sequencer-only spin off of the equally powerful MPC60 (Midi Production Center: Sequencer, Sampler, Drum Machine). Still unrivaled against today’s new products (except the new MPC3000 - but not the MPC2000). It is also the easiest sequencer I have ever laid hands on, including software sequencers. Actually, software sequencers are clumsy compared to the elegant layout of the ASQ10. The ASQ10 is very transparent to the creative process. Sure, software sequencers can claim unlimited tracks compared to the ASQ10’s 99 tracks, but how many times has anyone used more than 50! I personally have used Performer (which I have on my Mac), Vision, Mastertracks,etc. plus other hardware sequencers and I have yet to find one that gives me a better working environment. “

Cubase SX3 takes music production to a new level by adding more than 70 new features including powerful Audio Warp Realtime Timestretching, an intuitive Play Order Track, convenient Inplace Editing and many new editing functions.

For the first time, a native music production system combines full-featured audio and MIDI recording and editing, virtual instruments and powerful audio mixing with the added flexibility of loop- and pattern-based arranging and mixing. Cubase SX3 supports Windows XP and Mac OSX and works with a multitude of audio interfaces. Add to that the seamless integration of external audio and MIDI hardware, and Cubase SX3 redefines music production technology.

Three of the Big Four music labels have reached licensing agreements to provide their music to the soon-to-launch Peer Impact network, a peer-to-peer service that enables legal music file-sharing.

Peer Impact is being developed by Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based Wurld Media, which signed the pacts with Warner Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music Group.

A Wurld Media representative said Tuesday that the company is currently in talks with the remaining major label, EMI Group.

Peer Impact is currently conducting internal tests and plans to launch to the public in the first quarter of 2005.

Its proprietary business model is designed to provide a clear, legal alternative for consumers to buy and share music, video, and an assorted variety of digital content. The company said the service ensures that artists and rights holders receive their due compensation for each file shared on the network.

We’ve been taking a look at few options for desktop music production at an attempt to produce without the aid of a computer (whoah!). First off we have the Korg MS2000BR:

The Korg MS2000BR is a rackmount analog modeling synthesizer with a 16-band vocoder. The synth engine is based on the Korg Prophecy (remember those?). It has been obviously updated to include some of the most awesome sounds known to man :^)) I almost forgot to mention the killer arpeggiator that has six types of arpeggio patterns. Take a look at the Korg MS2000 Yahoo Newsgroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/korgms2000

You can carve out your own distinct sound with this synth. The MS2000 uses leading edge DSP chips and technolgy to create it’s lush, fat, and nail bitting sounds. All this has been put into a somewhat portable chassis.

It has 4-voices with 2 oscillators and a noise generator per voice. You can select from 8 different waveforms including the classic analog sounds (SAW, SIN, SQUARE, PLUSE) as well as some new more cutting edge sounds. All of which can be modified using the array of knobs and switches (see the above picture). The MS2000 also comes with the famous DWGS (Digital Waveform Generator System) that was origianally found in the Korg DW-8000 synth. It has 64 DWGS waveforms that features the classic bell sound, electric piano sound (think DX-7) and other waveforms include the new VOXWAVE for even a wider array of possible sounds.

The MS2000BR has four filter modes: two low pass modes, a high pass mode, and a band pass filter mode. The low pass mode has a selectable switch either 2-pole/-12dB or 4-pole/-24dB (very steep ). There is the usual resonance knob can also be set to self-oscillate. Pan and volume controls are here as well as an amp section that provides distortion for some real aggressive sound creation. Also there are two LFOs that can be sync’d to MIDI to really create some dynamic sounds. For instance you can route the Mod Wheel to control the filter cutoff point or the pulse width.

For sound control the MS2000 has the traditional four-stage ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) but extends this with the ability to change these settings over time. For instance you can assign an LFO to cyclically modifiy the attack or release settings. The number of possibilities is almost limitless. Every sound parameter can also be synced to MIDI clock or the arpeggiator for some great sounding rhythmic effects. There are two Envelope Generators and two LFOs for each timbre.

Fox Music has launched an online store that specializes in digital and wireless content from Fox television, film, sports and news properties.

The store offers digital singles, extended-play releases and polyphonic ring tones from movies and TV shows including “24,” “Family Guy” and “The NFL on Fox.”

The site also will be used for cross-promotion of various 20th Century Fox divisions. To site is currently offering reward points for purchases made at the store; the points can be redeemed for offers on DVDs from Fox Home Entertainment.

The storefront is powered by Navio Systems. Navio’s software enables Fox to simultaneously distribute multiple digital product formats, including mobile content and digital downloads. Additionally, the Navio software will help retailers, wireless carriers and Fox partners distribute bundles that contain both Web- and mobile-based content.

The system allows for secure digital and wireless transactions, as well as viral e-mail marketing.

Movie studios are increasingly taking to the Net to promote new releases and take advantage of high-speed Internet connections and growing demand for digital content. Leading entertainment media groups also are creating content for cell phones and other mobile devices. For instance, the Walt Disney Internet Group has expanded its mobile content distribution business to include videos and other content based on non-Disney-owned brands such as Trivial Pursuits and National Lampoon.

For all the hype surrounding digital distribution, nearly all initiatives have revolved around the distribution of music directly to fans for pay or for free. Just a cursory surf across the Internet reveals literally thousands of websites that offer to help independent artists sell, distribute and promote their music. Even with the success of iTunes and the proliferation of digital music retail portals, little attention has been paid to the Web’s potential to supply music to influence-makers such as DJs and radio programmers. That is until Trakheadz.

Trakheadz.com establishes a reciprocal relationship between artists and one of the most important groups of decision-makers for new music, the working DJ at clubs and radio stations,” explains Steve Keitt, Founder and CEO of Trakheadz.com

“We’ve taken the concept of the DJ record pool and streamlined it, modernized it, and brought technology to it,” states Keitt. “This is a new way of getting the freshest tracks into the hands of both radio and club DJs, rapidly, easily, and at a very low cost. These are the people who are out there every night, playing music for audiences who are seeking new music.”

FRANZ FERDINAND will cap off a triumphant year in the US by headlining LOS ANGELES radio station KROQ’s ’ALMOST ACOUSTIC CHRISTMAS’ next month.

Night one of the annual holiday event will take place on December 11 at the Universal Amphitheatre. Franz will also be joined by Interpol, The Music, The Killers, Keane, Snow Patrol, Muse, Modest Mouse, The Shins, and Taking Back Sunday.

Night two will take place on December 12 and is headlined by Green Day, Velvet Revolver, My Chemical Romance, Incubus, Good Charlotte, Sum 41, Papa Roach, Chevelle, Hoobastank and Social Distortion.

Fans who are unable to attend either performance will be able to watch a webcast by going to kroq.com the night of the gigs.

SigmaTel, Inc., the market leader for MP3 audio controller chips within portable MP3 players, announces an agreement with Oakley, Inc. to use SigmaTel D-Major MP3 controller technology exclusively for the world’s first MP3 player incorporated into performance eyewear, known as Oakley Thump.

Scheduled to be launched November 20th for the 2004 holiday season, Oakley Thump will be distributed under an exclusive distribution arrangement with Circuit City Stores, Inc. for the consumer electronics channel. Thump will also be offered by Oakley’s own O Stores, Iacon sunglass specialty stores, online at Oakley.com and through limited specialty retailers.

“SigmaTel was a great partner for our creation of the world’s first MP3 player integrated into eyewear. Oakley capitalized on SigmaTel’s small uBGA package, highly integrated chip design, low power consumption and USB 2.0 to create the most innovative MP3 player on the planet,” commented Carlos Reyes, Vice President Research and Development of Oakley, Inc.

SigmaTel is the world-wide market leader for MP3 controller chips to the MP3 player market and is known for its highly integrated solutions. Because of this integration, the SigmaTel D-Major solution is ideal for small, unique form factor designs like Oakley Thump, offering power-savings benefits, feature-rich functionality, high quality audio playback and a lower system design cost.

“Oakley’s globally recognized reputation as a product innovator and master of form-meets-function eyewear and consumer products is well known. The Oakley Thump line of MP3 audio-enabled sunglasses is another great example of this innovation,” says Ron Edgerton, president and CEO of SigmaTel. “SigmaTel’s own expertise with system-on-chip innovations for MP3 audio controllers enabled the Oakley design team to find very few limitations on how this new product would look and function.”

The final programme John Peel recorded for the BBC World Service before he died has been broadcast. Peel died last month at the age of 65 after suffering a heart attack while on holiday in Peru. Before leaving to go on holiday he recorded three music shows ready for transmission. Beginning with a tribute from Mark Coles, the final show featured music from Sweden, Germany, the US, and up-and-coming Liverpool band Ella Guru.

Peel was BBC Radio 1’s longest-serving DJ and in recent years had also presented Home Truths on Radio 4 - a whimsical look at family life. Club DJ Rob Da Bank is to host Peel’s Radio 1 show for the “foreseeable future".

The Streets’ Mike Skinner was on the verge of cancelling his American tour after gambling away the tour budget. The English singer says he’s lost thousands of dollars of his A Grand Don’t Come For Free album royalties, and has had to remortgage his house to finance a third album and the US tour. “It’s scary,” he says. “I’ve lost a lot. Basically, I was getting too drunk and betting lots of money. This year I’ve had to face that I’ve got a problem with everything outside music.”

Southern California heavy-rockers System of a Down are to release a double album in two parts, six months apart. Hypnotize is due early next year, with Mesmerize to follow about six months later. “We mixed a lot of styles together without making them seem like they don’t belong together,” says guitarist Daron Malakian. “We’re going to give everybody the System of a Down rollercoaster, but don’t expect it to sound like it has before.” The band play at the Big Day Out in January.

Queens of the Stone Age release their Lullabies to Paralyze album on March 21. Guest performers include Shirley Manson (Garbage), Brody Dalle (the Distillers), Dean Ween (Ween), Chris Goss (Masters of Reality) and Jesse Hughes (Eagles of Death Metal). The Queens line-up now comprises singer-guitarist Josh Homme, multi-instrumentalist Troy Van Leeuwen, drummer Joey Castillo, guitarist Dave Catching and bass player Alain Johannes.

An excellent article on Scientific American, on how music affects us biologically.

Music surrounds us–and we wouldn’t have it any other way. An exhilarating orchestral crescendo can bring tears to our eyes and send shivers down our spines. Background swells add emotive punch to movies and TV shows. Organists at ballgames bring us together, cheering, to our feet. Parents croon soothingly to infants.
And our fondness has deep roots: we have been making music since the dawn of culture. More than 30,000 years ago early humans were already playing bone flutes, percussive instruments and jaw harps–and all known societies throughout the world have had music. Indeed, our appreciation appears to be innate. Infants as young as two months will turn toward consonant, or pleasant, sounds and away from dissonant ones. And when a symphony’s denouement gives delicious chills, the same kinds of pleasure centers of the brain light up as they do when eating chocolate, having sex or taking cocaine.

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The Azureus project on sourceforge released the new 2.2.0.0 client. Azureus offers multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents. Azureus now features an embedded tracker easily set up and ready to use. The client was implemented in Java enabling it to run on multiple platforms.

Seksu roba is a Japanese-Korean-American electronic music group based in Los Angeles. Using theremin, mini-moog, and micro- processor based technology, they create space groove electro- love vibrations that expand the mind and libido while massaging the soul - provocative pop and instrumental music that can be appreciated by electronic music fans, DJ’s, pop music fans, and anyone who just enjoys fun, eclectic music.

Seksu Roba features Japanese artist/designer/vocalist Lun*na Menoh and Korean producer/thereminist Sukho Lee, plus guest vocalists. The two met through Los Angeles’ underground electronic scene. Lun*na’s background is in visual arts: fashion design/art, painting, installations, etc. which she has incorporated into the band through her unique costume and conceptual art.

Sukho Lee’s background is in classical music which helped him learn the theremin (a strange instrument that pre-dates the synthesizer and is played without touching). Sukho’s musicianship has allowed him the opportunity to tour with Damo Suzuki - former lead singer of the legendary German 60’s progressive rock band, CAN.