Even bigger than the launch of Spiral Frog is the news that Amazon is due to launch a new music-download website, imaginatively named Amazon MP3. The service, which will offer tracks for as little as 89 cents, is the latest in a line of companies attempting to oust iTunes as the world’s premier music-download service.

Online-seller Amazon unveiled plans for Amazon MP3 this week, announcing a service with more than two million downloads available for users to buy, with albums going for between $5.99 and $9.99.

Users of Amazon MP3 will be able to play downloaded songs on any device, including Apple’s iPod, due to no copy protection being used on all files. This is likely to attract iPod users who currently pay $1.29 for each song from iTunes, which has a 70% share of the market at present.

Almost 20,000 record labels are behind Amazon MP3, and the world is waiting to see how Apple will respond to the launch of this and Spiral Frog. If it means cheaper music for all of us then it can’t be a bad thing. We’re excited about the launch of all these new services.

Whether or not another paid service can succeed when we all know how to download songs for free will be the real test for Amazon. The digital music market is worth some $2 billion, so people do still buy their music at least some of the time, although CD sales are at the lowest for years.

What has happened to Ian Brown? This guy really needs to stop making solo albums. The World is Yours is his fifth studio offering since The Stone Roses split 11 years ago, but this has to be his worse musical offering to date. The sound is old and stale, and no number of orchestral accompaniments can save it.

Generally admired as a talented songwriter, here he’s singing songs that could have been penned by a teenager. You know what sort of direction an album is going to take when you see that there is a duet with Sinead O’Connor on it. Has anybody managed to hold together a decent duet with Sinead in all these years (excluding Prince)?

Tracks like “Illegal Attacks” are unpleasant to listen to lyrically, while other songs are so dull musically that the lyrics become immaterial. Every track sounds like it could have been an Ian Brown B-side 10 years ago. It’s sad to listen to, because there were high hopes for this album.
The production work is too clean and adds nothing to the album. It’s not rock, it’s not indie, it’s kind of hip hop, but it’s got no soul.

He’s done many great things and been a part of many great tracks, but you won’t fid any of them on The World is Yours. It sounds rushed and it sounds like Ian Brown just doesn’t give a f*ck any more.

Bat for Lashes are an all-girl, four-piece band from England. They’re something special though. If you can imagine Bjork and Tori Amos and Kate Bush merged into one, you’re still nowhere near the power behind the music of Bat for Lashes.

The 2006 album Fur and gold was one of the underrated classics of last year. Natasha Khan is the girl in charge of the troop, and what a damn fine job she does of it. Her voice mesmerizing. It’s soft and captivating, and yet it has emotion behind it, as you’d expect with Bjork, but somehow it’s easier to relate to.

Fur and Gold should have won this year’s Merucry Music Prize, but sadly it lost out to those godawful Klaxons. What’s the world coming to? Tracks such as “Horse and I” and “Bat’s Mouth” are pure magic. The music has a real dark edge to it. It’s down tempo with real hints of folk in it.

Bat for Lashes should go on to great things and we are awaiting a new album eagerly. The sort of music they make isn’t to everybody’s liking, which is probably why Bat for Lashes are yet to really burst into the mainstream, but for casual listening, it’s inspiring.

Blonde Redhead’s seventh studio album, 23, is a wonder to behold. Japanese former-art student Kazu Makino and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace are back after a three-year absence with what could be the album of the year. They perform in English, Japanese, Italian and French.

The music is sweet, radiant pop and indie with a dark edge to it. Makino’s voice is soothing and peaceful, but it has an unmistakable power to it. The drumming is precise with the guitar chords simple yet effective.

23 is 10 tracks of genuine emotion. From the melodic title track, through the beautiful “Top Ranking” to the unsettling “SW”, this is a band at the top of their game. Although they have been active for almost 15 years, Blonde Redhead have failed to achieve widespread popularity in the past, but with an album like 23 they’ve begun touching base with a new audience of listeners.

This album has romance, it has tragedy, it screams from the hills and whispers from beside you – it’s an intense music journey that stands out from the rest of this year’s album releases because it’s original.

Simply put, if you buy this album your life will be better. Blonde Redhead are a class act.

Honestly. We could devote an entire category to “stupid things Britney is doing”. As if her career wasn’t enough in tatters after that performance, now she’s only gone and pulled a Paris: Britney has been charged with driving without a license and hit and run.

She could be jailed for up to a year for this, and you’ve gotta think that she could do with some time inside for quiet reflection. Somebody needs to seriously help the girl out.

Apparently, Britney Spears drove into a parked car and then sped off from the scene. At least nobody was hurt, but the exact circumstances surrounding this one are a mystery.

She could have been drunk, high, with friends, on the phone – we just don’t know yet.

We’re gonna say it: Britney Spears is dead. We don’t know who this imposter is, but she’s ugly, uncouth, untalented, weak and ignorant. This isn’t our pop princess. This tabloid whore has taken enough column inches.

A hearing is set for October 10, although to the disappointment of the paparazzi Britney doesn’t have to attend it.

This fake Britney is starting to freak us out even more than Michael Jackson with his obsession for forcing his three children, one of who is named Blanket, to wear wigs in public.

Despite being the most annoying band on earth, one of the Klaxons has managed to get himself engaged to a hot chick. Simon Taylor, whose picture alone is enough to make you want to pull your hair out, is due to get married to CSS-lady Lovefoxxx (probably not her real name). She’s a beautiful girl and now she’s going to have to wake up next to that oaf every day. Is there no justice in the world?

They met this year on the Shockwaves NME Awards Indie Rave Tour (what the hell is Indie Rave?) and fell in love. It’s being dubbed by NME (those bastions of made-up genres and rubbish journalism) as a “new-rave wedding”. That’s one for the kids (literally) there.

CSS-drummer Adriano Cintra said, “They’re the happiest couple of MySpace. They’re gonna get married, it’s not a rumour. They’re gonna have baby CSS-Klaxons, it’s gonna be beautiful.”

The less aid about Klaxons the better. They’ve been ruining British music for about a year already and they must be stopped. We like CSS though, but a marriage such as this one can only spawn evil things.

If you can’t afford tickets to the next Klaxons concert, you can make your own by taking a bag of cats and a set of crockery and throwing the whole lot down a flight of stairs. Sounds great, right?

We love it when someone gets one over on 50 cent. But to do it twice? Wow, now that’s something. Not only did Kanye West outsell 50 Cent when the pair went head to head with their latest albums, but he also pipped him for a Music of Black Origin (Mobo) award for best hip hop artist.

It’s official: Kanye is better. The Mobo’s aren’t the most interesting awards going, particularly when a joker like shaggy is booked to perform, but for a short dose of pop and hip hop the whole thing was rather fun. Kanye also won the award for best video, which perplexes us because he just ripped off Daft Punk.

Also at the awards, Amy Winehouse won the best British female gong, beating the likes of Joss Stone. Miss Winehouse didn’t look to be in the best of shape, bringing up disturbing memories of Britney’s horrible performance a few weeks ago. Despite not being black or really singing music of black origin, Winehouse still performed a two-song set.

Our favorite rapper Dizzee Rascal won best British male artist. Unsurprisingly, Rihanna won best international act while aging wannabe gangster Tim Westwood won best DJ for about the hundredth time. Can you believe he’s 50 years old? He could be your dad! Now there’s a thought.

The music industry may be suffering at the moment, but Kanye West is still hot as hell. He is officially the kin of hip hop at the moment, and 50 Cent is just a has-been. Remember when 50 Cent’s debut album came out? People were hyping him up as the next Notorious B.I.G. All hype, brother! Kanye has taken the crown already.

In its first week of sales, Kanye’s Graduation outsold 50 Cent’s Curtis 957,000 copies to 691,000. West’s album is doing better than any other new release this year. 50 Cent has fallen off. The Massacre sold more than a million copies in its first week, but now everyone is hyped about West.

”It’s great marketing on Def Jam’s part, by putting us out there at the same time and make like we can actually be compared on some level,” said 50 Cent, who boasted that if West outsold him, he’d retire. Looks like it’s time for someone to hang up their mic then. None of Fiddy’s recent tracks has inspired much radio play and even with the prospect of a world tour looming, it’s hard to get excited about the G-Unit frontman any more.

We’re still not so keen on West after he dissed Justice at the MTV Video Music Awards, but getting one over on 50 Cent goes some way to redeeming that. Now if only he hadn’t ripped off Daft Punk on the track “Stronger”, we might be even more forgiving.

Trent Reznor, lead singer of rock band Nine Inch Nails, made headlines this week when he urged fans of the band to steal their music in protest against the high prices changed by record companies. Reznor slammed his band’s record label, Universal Music, saying that NIN fans were being ripped off by the high price of the band’s latest CD, Year Zero.

On stage at a gig September 16, Reznor told fans to steal the CD instead of buying it. Reznor yelled, “My record label all around the world hates me. I called them out for being greedy. Has anyone seen the price come down? OK, well, you know what that means: steal it. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing.”

While you could commend Reznor for lashing out against the music industry, perhaps telling people to steal from stores is pushing the boundaries a bit far.

The band’s latest CD is on sale in Australia for the equivalent of about US$25, which to us, being English, looks pretty average. Apparently, someone from Universal told Reznor that the price is so high because NIN fans are willing to pay more.

If you ask us, we don’t see what all the fuss is about. Do people still even buy CDs? Last time we looked, almost every person listening to music was downloading it off the Internet or burning copies, using the money saved to go towards a new iPod Touch. Oh yeah; we want an iPod Touch.

Seriously though, you should buy CDs, at least sometimes, to support the artists. Don’t steal music from stores though.

It’s been a long, troubled road for Spiral Frog, but at long last, the ad-based, online music store has made it debut with more than 750,000 songs available for free download, along with 3,500 music videos.

As well as various independent record labels, music giant Universal Music Group is also in with Spiral Frog. When news of Spiral Frog was first anoucned last year, many saw a revolution coming in the online music world, but money problems left some questioning how successful Spiral Frog could be.

Unless some serious money is generated from ad sales, and fast, Spiral Frog could well spiral out of control.

Working in Spiral Frog’s favor is the teaming up with Universal, who own a quarter of the global music market.

Monthly memberships must be renewed by users every 30 days and songs can be downloaded to any hand-held device, such as an MP3 player.

According to Billboard, eight of the top 10 selling songs last week were available on Spiral Frog… for free.

Want to see what all the fuss is about? Check out Spiral Frog today. The service is only available in the US and Canada at this time.