GenAudio Inc., the makers of AstoundStereo™, is celebrating the launch of its AstoundStereo Expander software by offering 10 million free music downloads (up to 2 free tracks per person). Artists such as Public Enemy and Kan’Nal are involved with the promotion of GenAudio's new baby, with digital music marketing company, Hip Digital Media, providing the digital music distribution. The software is currently available for Mac and PC platforms, and boasts 4D sound localization cue technology for sound systems that have as little as 2 audio channels (2 speakers, headphones, laptop speakers). The basic principle of this new technology is that it generates a 360-degree sphere of sound for the listener. According to GenAudio, their new software enables the listener to hear their digital music library in a deeper, more immersed way.

The technology has already been used for the hi-definition home theater version of Hellboy II, and select bonus tracks from Robin Thicke’s latest album, Something Else - featured in our review of SanDisk's slotMusic Player.

AstoundStereo™ Expander can be downloaded from the AstoundStereo Website, priced at $19.95.

For more free music, check out our recent review of Last.fm.

One of the biggest news stories to surface from the latest Macworld Expo in San Francisco, was news that the iTunes Store is to sell all of its music, devoid of DRM copy protection. This is obviously great news for the consumer who now has even more choice on where to purchase DRM-free digital music. Many people have anticipated this move for some time, and so it comes as no surprise that Apple have finally jumped on the DRM-free bandwagon.

The biggest move has come from the 'big four' music labels (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, and EMI), who have agreed to remove the copy protection on their music tracks, in return for a variable price structure from Apple. What this means for consumers is that Apple will sell music tracks at different prices, which will be 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29; this new structure will come into effect around April 2009. There’s no specific details on the mechanics of how this will work, but it is thought that tracks that are new, or popular, will attract the higher price-point.

For more information on the iTunes Store and getting the most out of Apple's iTunes software, be sure to read the following articles:

• iTunes Store Review
• Top 5 iTunes Tutorials

Nielsen SoundScan, which is a music sales information system, has published its end-of-year report. The published document covers all point-of-purchase sales of music-related products for December 2007 to 2008. It shows that single track digital music downloads have increased by a whopping 32%, while album downloads have also seen a healthy rise of 27%. Digital album sales in particular where boosted during the holiday season by 37% compared to the same time in 2007. Overall, total digital music downloads has topped the 1 billion mark for the first time, giving a much needed boost to the music recording industry.

In the top ten selling digital tracks, Leona Lewis's Bleeding Love was number one with 3.37 million downloads, followed by the track, Low, from Flo Rida Feat featuring T-Pain (2.94 million downloads). For digital albums, Coldplay's Viva La Vida triumphed in the top ten selling digital album charts with 617,000 units; Jack Johnson's Sleep Thorugh The Static was number 2 with 325,000 units sold.

If you've been lucky enough to recieve a digital music gift card, or have downloaded music from a digital music service during the Holiday Season, you may want to read our guide on How to Create Playlists in Windows Media Player in order to better organize your music library.

It's been quite an eventful year in the digital music world. We've seen Yahoo pull the plug on its Yahoo Unlimited music service and then transfer its bewildered customers to the Rhapsody service. Initially, Microsoft also made waves by announcing that it was to shutdown its DRM licensing servers for existing customers of the now defunct MSN Music; they later reversed their decision by pledging that they would offer support for at least another 3 years (2011).

Luckily their was a lot more good news in 2008 than bad, like the gradual realization by digital download companies that consumers wanted freedom from DRM copy protection. Napster for example made their entire music library available in the MP3 format (article). There was also the continuing trend of music bands giving away free music - even entire albums, like The Slip album by Nine Inch Nails (blog).

There was also some unusual stories in 2008, such as cops in the United Kingdom who mistakenly identified an MP3 player for a gun, and hackers who took a dislike to the RIAA Web site and decided to hose it clean. Recently, there was also news that pirates plundered the Amazon store with a Firefox plugin! I wonder if 2009 will be as eventful? Let’s hope so!

For more digital music highlights, be sure to read our Digital Music Annual Review 2008

Here's to a happy 2009!