Record companies plan to keep on suing people for downloading music illegally. Come on now! Although we don’t condone it, many, many people do it? Music downloading is easy and quick, and it’s half of the reason why some people own computers.

Six major record companies have taken Jammie Thomas from Minnesota to court for illegally downloading and sharing music online. This woman is a mother of two, not that that has anything to do with this.

This is the first time such a case has gone to court. They are making an example out of this woman. Thomas is apparently linked to a Kazzaa account, but the trial is only focused on 24 songs, rather than the 1,702 initially discussed.

Thomas could faces fines of up to $150,000… per song. It’s a good job they aren’t trying her for all of the songs. The record companies only have to prove that Thomas made the songs available, not that she transferred them to anybody.

The record companies involved are big players: Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and Warner Bros. Records Inc.

We’re going to be watching this one with interest. Whose side are you on?

Those boys from Radiohead are a clever bunch. After being left with the freedom of not having a record company to make music for, the band decided to release their latest album, In Rainbow, online. Not only that, but it has no fixed price, so whatever you want to pay for Radiohead’s latest LP, that’s the amount you will be charged. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s genius.

As each buy enters the amount they want to pay, they must question why they are choosing that amount, leading to a moral dilemma. You could get the new album for just a penny, or you could pay a fair price. Our guessing is that most people will do the latter.

The new Radiohead album will be available October 10 and you can bet that the number of downloads will be phenomenal. EMI Capitol Records no longer has the privilege of releasing Radiohead’s albums, so there are no executive costs to cover, and also no costs of CDs. Nobody has heard the new Radiohead album and no copies have been sent to press.

The hype building up to October 10 is unreal, and rightly so. Here is the biggest band on the planet doing something unheard of in the music industry. Only a band with the fanbase of Radiohead could do this.

For more information visit www.inrainbows.com

In one of the greatest music hoaxes of all time, some trickster set up a website allegedly counting down to the long-awaited new Radiohead album. Radhioheadlp7.com had fans and pundits on the Internet talking about what the countdown timer was leading to.

It eventually came out that the band had nothing to do with the website, but that didn’t stop 25,000 people logging on when the countdown did eventually reach zero.

And what did they get for their trouble? The first thing was a message reading, “The most gigantic lying hoax of all time.” The real kicker was that the website then redirected everybody to a Youtube video of Rick Astley’s godawful “Never Gonna give You Up”. Who’d have thought it?!

The culprits responsible for this prank are yet to step forward, but even Radiohead fans will surely be able to see the funny side to all of this. Hopes for what could be the greatest album of the past five years were squandered by bloody Rick Astley. If you can’t see the funny side of that then you take life far too seriously.

Although the disappointment of the website is something that displeased many fans, we salute whoever’s idea this was because it brightened our day no end.

In yet another twist in the long line of weird thing that go on in Michael Jackson’s life, reports coming out of the US are claiming that the former King of Pop is has remarried. The story is that he secretly married his children’s nanny.

Source say that Wacko Jacko married long-time staff member Grace Rwaramba some time ago. That poor woman now has three step children whose faces she can never see, thanks to them always wearing masks and wigs.

Other sources are strongly denying the rumor.

“Wide spreading reports regarding Michael Jackson being married are not true. Documents stating otherwise are a hoax,” said one source.

Where rumors like this come from is anybody’s guess. What’s more perplexing is that people actually seem bothered. Who is Michael Jackson’s nanny? Has anybody ever seen a picture of her? We’ve got no idea who she is or what she looks like, and we really don’t care.

As for the long-awaited comeback, the album should be dropping some time soon, with collaborations with the likes of 50 Cent and Akon. There are also rumors of a world tour. If he can keep himself together without doing anything else weird, perhaps some good will finally come from Michael Jackson’s world again.

Some strange revelations from George Michael today. It appears that the former face of Wham! only became interested in music after he suffered a severe blow to the head.

In an interview with Kirsty Young on BBC Radio 4, Michael said that before he received his head injury as a child, stitches and all, he was only interested in bugs and insects.

“At the age of about eight I had a head injury and I know it sounds bizarre and unlikely, but it was quite a bad bang, and I had it stitched up and stuff, but all my interests changed, everything changed in six months,” said Michael.

We knew he was weird, but this is a whole new kettle of fish. Does this mean that if a young boy hadn’t taken a bump on the head, we wouldn’t have had to endure the music of Wham!? Now that’s an interesting though. Perhaps another blow to the head would be enough to get him to go back to his insects.

Any takers?

Michael, who has sold over 85 million records, said that after his blow to the head he became obsessed with music. It was like he became a different person. Maybe that’s what happened to Micahel Jackson.

Proving that there are still music fans with taste, a survey by a UK-based digital broadcasting service, Music Choice, revealed that the band most fans want to see get back together is Pink Floyd. More than a quarter of the 5,000 people surveyed voted for the aging rockers, who gave us such classics as “Comfortably Numb”, to reunite.

Despite selling more than 250 million records, founding member Roger Waters continues to rule out the possibility of the boys taking to the stage for one last shindig.

If Led Zeppelin can get back together, you’d have thought maybe Pink Floyd could, but alas, music fans just aren’t that lucky. Led Zep will play a charity concert November 26, while other old-timers to get back together include The Police, The Stooges and The Who.

In stark contrast to Pink Floyd, the next most popular request for a reunion was for Abba, followed by Guns ’n’ Roses. Could the world really survive an Abba Reunion? It’s doubtful.

The newly reformed Spice Girls were the band most people wanted to split up (again). The Spice Girls will begin a world tour in December. Nobody has thus far been able to figure out why.

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.