Right - even though I can't sing along to any of the lyrics, Sigur Ros tunes regularly feature on my iPod with their wonderfully atmospheric quality. Over the past year one track from Sigur Ros' 1999 has had a revival thanks to film making student Liron Damir who created this dark brooding video clip that has attracted a lot of attention on YouTube and throughout the blogosphere.

Indie rockers Silverchair achieved a fair bit of notoriety for themselves tagging along with the tail end of the grunge movement when still only in high school. These days things the lads are a little more melodic with Luv Your Life being one of their more mellow tracks. This video was directed by top animator and director Steven Scott and has a really wistful quality about it that's nicely in tune with the music and even though it's a few years old now is still a top clip.

Although the two companies had a agreement to allow their trade marks to co-exist, the issue came to a head as a result of Apple's enormous success with the iPod and iTunes, which reinvented the technology company as a heavyweight in the music world. As a result of the tensions the remaining members of the Beatles and Yoko Ono took Apple to court in London during 2006 but lost their case to challenge Apple's use of the trade mark in the music industry.

There were hints of a reconciliation at the iPhone launch last week which featured at least two references to the Beatles - so it would appear that the remaining members of the Beatles have now licked their wounds and bowed to the inevitable - giving permission for Beatles tracks to be sold on iTunes. I'm sure it won't hurt their already swollen hip pockets much either.

• Our favorite major label bully is talking tough about his Apple re-negotiation. He must realize his biggest ace in the hole is telling Jobs that Universal is ready to drop DRM?
• PlaysForSure isn't dead, but I'd hate to be on the hook for its medical bills
• "For the past 5 years, INgrooves has been distributing content from our independent clients to MP3 download stores because we, and our clients, know that DRM only frustrates the end consumer. If a music buyer wants to steal music they simply will, DRM or not."
• "Under a new deal with SnoCap, ReverbNation.com users can now sell downloads through the site's DistroNow module. Under the arrangement, SNOCAP will handle the transaction with the consumer and the royalty payments to the digital rights holders."
• eMusic is the number 2 digital music retailer, directly behind Apple's iTunes Store

I read an excellent article today that doesn't actually provide any answers, but does have all of the questions - twenty of them in fact. UK Web site Digit just published a great article titled 'iPhone: 20 Things We Don't Know' which asks twenty big questions that are yet to be answered, including: 'How much will it cost to own an iPhone?', 'Will the iPhone scratch or peel?', 'Can you use the iPhone to make VOIP calls?' and 'Why is the iPhone Being Launched Without 3G Capability'?

It's an excellent article that cuts through the Apple hype and gets a lot of the key issues out into the open about this very expensive new product from the folks at Apple.

[Via Digit]

Despite the good news for the industry the IFPI still isn't satisfied though - they're still looking for the so-called 'holy grail' an increase in digital music sales equivalent to the reduction in CD sales. IFPI Chairman John Kennedy had a bad case of sour grapes when he said that he wouldn't be happy until the digital music sales exceeded the drop in CD sales.

Given that the music industry has been suffering from declining CD sales for most of this decade and the industry has been ruthlessly cutting costs as a result so to me Kennedy's statements sound a bit cynical. The majors have been rationalizing their businesses for many years now in response to competition from DVDs, video games and pirated music so I'd expect that increases in digital revenues should be a boon. Maybe it's time to for the IFPI to stop crying wolf and start thinking about better methods of delivering music that consumers will actually want to use.

Now, in a stunning about face, EMI will share revenue with Baidu for a new streaming music service, and has agreed to drop its part of the appeal against the earlier ruling for Baidu. Further Baidu will not cease its practice of deep linking to pirated music tracks. The decision by EMI is a gesture of defeat in China, a reflection that the majors have failed to cut down on piracy through the use of heavy handed litigation.

Whether or not this has any wider implications for court actions launched by the majors in the US and Europe against file downloaders remains to be seen, but maybe someone up high has started to weigh up the cost of litigation and impact the poor publicity against their actual losses due to Internet piracy.

Lily Allen is British pop's latest enfant terrible, with a bad attitude and some great tunes to match. The lyrics on this tune are well worth a listen, and I'm doubly fond of this one since the video is filmed around my old neighborhood of Westbourne Grove in London. Have a good listen to the intro in the record store which is pure genius.

The latest nut to be cracked by he Apple legal sledgehammer is a site called MoDaCo, who made the mistake of publishing screen shots of a mod to Windows Mobile that would create an iPhone look and feel on any Windows Mobile device.

The screen shots were quickly the subject of a cease and desist letter from Apple's lawyers O'Melveny and Myers LLP who are clearly looking at a bumper billing year in 2007. When is Apple going to realize that the sort of people who post mods like this are the sorts of fans that have kept the company going for all these years?

Today it was announced that The Venice Project name has been retired and it will from this point onwards be known as Joost.

While not just about digital music, The Venice Project Joost has huge implications for the music industry as well as every other section of the entertainment industry. It's currently in Beta testing, if you're interested in testing it out, then you can apply at the site to see if the good folks at Joost will sort you out - or you can find an existing user with some spare invitations.