When you buy a CD from websites such as Amazon, HMV, Play and most other online retailer ever wondered why they’re often shipped from the Channel Islands? The answer is so you can avoid paying the VAT – which goes someway to explaining why the few high street retailers of CDs just can’t compete with the Internet – online stores have the advantage of scale and the need for far fewer staff without being handed a 17.5% advantage. The Guardian reports

VAT-free CDs exploded at the end of last year, driving one in three purchases by British music-lovers on to the web. The surge in sales casts doubt over Treasury claims to be tackling the tax dodge, already thought to be costing the exchequer £110m a year and rising. Simon Bowers.

Much as I’ve appreciated purchasing CD’s cheaply it’s about time the Treasury put a stop to this loop hole – although the declining sales of CD’s will probably put paid to all but a few CD shops long before the treasury get’s its act together.

I’ve never got on with The Magnetic Fields album 69 Love Songs – it seems you’re either obsessed or agnostic – and a group of obsessed comic-artists, illustrators and writers are busy illustrating every one of the 69 songs at How Fucking Romantic – the results are more enjoyable than the actual album.

With record – sorry CD – shops disappearing from our high streets faster than a snow flake in June – with the demise of mainstream stores such as Virgin, Zavvi, Fopp and MVC we are left with just HMV which if my local store is anything to go by is now a film and game shop with music relegated to a few racks at the back – it’s now become almost impossible to indulge in the simple pleasure of browsing through racks and racks of CD’s.

Help is at hand with the website Indie Record Shop which provides a store locator allowing you to find your nearest independent shop – it’s not perfect – anybody know of a decent shop in Birmingham? That said the site has only just launched and anything that aims to help stores survive has got to be a good thing – there’s even a record store survival guide.

Hat Tip: Drowned in Sound.

I like lists and so I thought in common with the press I’d list my top 10 of 2009

Still I wonder how much one can tell from such a list when I’ve still not listened to many CD’s of 2009 which got me thinking what would my list of 2008 look like now.

Also in the press there’s been a few CD’s of the decade so here’s my list for the Noughties.

Which leaves me wondering what the 90s look like.

This would be interesting to compare with my view 10 years ago – except I didn’t do one 10 years ago. And if your wondering why the Amazon dates don’t correspond with the year that’s because Amazon’s dates are the release date for that version of the CD not the original release date.

Music files are generally stored on computers as MP3 files. These files are compressed to reduce storage requirements. The bit rate of these files, which might be from 192kbs up to 320kbs and possibly even 640kbs will determines the size of the file and quality of the sound – the lower the rate the smaller the file and conversely the higher the bit rate the better the sound quality. Additionally there’s something called FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) which doesn’t compromise on sound however, FLAC isn’t as widely supported – and there are others such as Apple Lossless. Anyway I diverge from my point – or at least Trusted Reviews which came to the following conclusion

For most listening purposes, with most equipment and most ears, 320kbps MP3 is perfectly good enough. Sure, use FLAC for archiving purposes – it makes sense to have a lossless master of your CD on a server, NAS or PC in the house – but if you’re clogging up a portable player with FLACs or Apple Lossless files, then either a) you have superior ears, a headphone amplifier and seriously high-end headphones or b) you’re lacking in common sense.

Many of us simply couldn’t tell the difference between 192kbps and FLAC. There are caveats. A wider selection of music in our test might have thrown up more differences, and some ears and some headphones might reveal more obvious distinctions. That said, there’s no reason why you should turn your nose up at 192kbps or 256kbps files if you’re just looking for something to listen to in the car or on the daily commute. You’ll get more tracks on your player, and the sound quality will probably be good enough. Stuart Andrews, Trusted Reviews.

Personally I suspect that’s true for most of us when at home – how many of us have a perfectly positioned stereo in a perfect acoustic room – pretty well none of us – we sit to close to one speaker or the other, there’s a sofa in the way of one, or we sit too close or even too far away… You get the picture – there’s a lot of snobbery about music but I wouldn’t pay too much attention.

You guessed it building a wall U2 played at an event organised by MTV.

The organisers of the event, the music network MTV, erected a two-metre high “sight barrier” to exclude those without one of 10,000 free tickets from catching a glimpse of the band. The irony was not lost on fans, some of whom said they would boycott the event in protest.

The 10,000 tickets for the 20-minute free concert at the Brandenburg Gate were snapped up within three hours of being made available on the internet last month. The organisers said the barrier – a metal fence draped in a white tarpaulin cover – was necessary to protect local businesses from the sheer numbers of fans expected to crowd the space around the Brandenburg Gate.

MTV was not available for comment. U2’s publicist, RMP, also refused to comment. Kate Connolly, The Guardian.

I’ve a comment – clueless.

Spotify – for those who don’t know – is one of the best sites for listening to music on the web and if you’ve not got an account – then why not? Now it’s back to invites.

Due to the huge demand in the UK over the last few days since we launched our mobile service, we are going to have to temporarily reinstate our invite system in the UK. We are invite-only in all our other launch countries but we hope to be able to remove the need for an invite again very soon. Spotify, Andres Sehr.

Unless you pay of course.

Now I’m a bit of a fan of The Killers, but what’s been bothering me is what does the lyric Are we human, or are we dancer? from their Human song mean. Here’s an answer form Wikipedia.

Initially there was confusion and debate over the line “Are we human, or are we dancer?” in the song’s chorus. Debate raged across the internet over whether the lyrics said “denser” or “dancer”, a misunderstanding which invoked conflicting interpretations of the song’s meaning. Entertainment Weekly’s Pop Watch section called this line the “silliest lyrics of the week”. They were puzzled by the interpretation, stating “most dancers are generally human”. On the band’s official website, the biography section states that Flowers is singing “Are we human, or are we dancer?” and also says that the lyrics were inspired by a disparaging comment made by Hunter S. Thompson, where he stated America was raising “a generation of dancers”. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Flowers said that he was irritated over the confusion about the lyrics and also that fans were unhappy with the song’s dance beat: “It’s supposed to be a dance song, [the beat] goes with the chorus…If you can’t put that together, you’re an idiot. I just don’t get why there’s a confusion about it.” Wikipedia.

Well not quite:

Music legend Bob Dylan is “talking to a couple of car companies” about becoming the voice of their GPS system.

The singer-songwriter discussed the possibility on his BBC Radio 6 Music Sunday show which was on the theme of street maps. BBC.

So what car might I have to buy to get Bob as the voice of my sat-nav?

Yesterday, The Omaha World-Herald (sounds like something outta a Marvel Comic, don’t it?), spoke to Robb Nansel, who runs Bright Eyes’ label, Saddle Creek and he made this grand confirmation:

“I think he feels like Bright Eyes has a certain association, for better or worse. I think he’s trying to distance himself a little bit from what that means to people.”

However, Nansel did continue to say that Oberst plans to record a final Bright Eyes album during the first half of next year, with a projected fall 2010 release date. DiS would presume/demand there will be one last tour. Sean Adams, Drowned in Sound.

In recent years Bright Eyes have produced some brilliant albums, such as Cassadaga and I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, and it’s end is sad especially if Conor Oberst continues in the vein of his patchy Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band project – anyway here’s to Bright Eyes.