Can’t stop the music: Arcane licensing deals haven’t prevented the growth of many new sites offering a wide selection of quality music downloads.

Kempa.com: Vinyl Data: One strategy that major record companies have been employing lately to deter downloading is adding bonus computer content to new CD releases. I recently discovered that this technique is not unique to CD’s, but had in fact been practiced in the vinyl era as well. That’s right: there were a handful of records released in the late 70′s and early 80′s that contained computer programs as part of the audio. This is totally insane, and totally great.

Why CDs are slipping down the charts: The music industry is being sustained by middle-aged men who can’t use the internet.

Hijacking the playlist: An Irish easy listening station is being relaunched with another format, so in the meantime not only has the web site been hijacked, but it has posted the lyrics to the only song it has been playing over and over (a Muppets song called “Mahna Mahna”) so you can sing along.

Sounds That Surround You Make It Onto Your Playlist: An interesting-sounding device that has a built-in FM tuner with 20 station presets that records all the signals at the same time to its hard drive, so any of those recordings could be added to your music collection. It also has a built-in microphone to record your own voice or whatever other sounds are around you at the time.

Ladies & Gentlemen: An all-encompassing arts magazine done in part by the fine folks across the river at Aesthetic Apparatus. It is no coincidence that it is the same size as a vinyl album.

The Playlist Meme (load entire library, shuffle, list first 20 songs no matter how embarrassing):

Pussycat Trash – Tattoo

The Halo Benders – On A Tip

Fugazi – Recap Modotti

The Beatles – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Tegan & Sara – Underwater

Hey Mercedes – St. James St.

Sparta – Echodyne Harmonic

Killsadie – 1000 Deaths

Walls of Jericho – Moment of Thought

The Ramones – She’s A Sensation

Avail – Swing Low

Ugly Casanova – Pacifico

Modest Mouse – BMX Crash

Murder City Devils – Dance Hall Music

Elton John – Bennie and the Jets

Tracy Chapman – Behind the Wall

The Weakerthans – My Favourite Chords

Rocket From the Crypt – Ball Lightning

Weezer – Space Rock

Converge – Shingles

I guess one thing I can say is that I’m not embarrassed by any of my music. There are several music “party fouls” in my collection, and I am quite proud of having them.

Mperia.com: Mperia is BitPass’s new online retail store for independent musicians. Artists can sign up for free, upload their songs and albums in MP3 format and sell them for whatever price they choose.

There are no daily, weekly, monthly or yearly recurring fees; we only take a percentage of each sale, so we don’t make any money unless the artist does. There are no exclusivity clauses, no length-based contracts. If you don’t like Mperia, you can remove your account and your work at any time. You can sell your MP3s anywhere else you like, for any price you like. You can compete with yourself.

And here’s the kicker: you’ll make more selling two songs via Mperia than you would selling an entire album if you were signed to a major label.

Yahoo Considering Music Downloads; Interested in MusicMatch: Cue echo-y falling scream of “Noooooooooo!”

The Top Sample Lists: Ranks movies, TV, and other sample sources based on how frequently dialogue from these sources has been sampled and used in some sort of musical context.