It's no big secret that HMV is a struggling retailer. It's suffering from the double-whammy of a declining high street caused by the economic situation and a declining market for music on physical media.

HMV is for many towns, the last place the consumers can visit in the high street to buy music. The other big names have gone - Our Price, Virgin (later Zavvi), Woolworths - and independents stores are in decline leaving many towns with none. Sadly I wonder if in five or ten years time this last bastion will also loose its physical presence.

Despite the obvious impact that the above points must be making on the business, I wonder though if HMV are doing themselves any favours. It seems that with each passing year, the amount of space given to the humble CD is declining, being taken over firstly by DVDs, Blurays and Games and most recently by technology. Not only that, the stock on offer has some very interesting pricing options.

The trouble with the pricing is that it's impossible to go in to the store with a budget and a list of albums. Each disc being priced differently (ranging from £7 to £15 or more - excluding sales) makes it impossible to know beforehand exactly how much will be spent. Indeed, it encourages price checking - if I see a disc that I want on offer at, say £12, I will be checking Amazon to see if it can be had for significantly less. Looking at a DVD set of the television series 'Black Books' today, I saw it available in store for £30. Amazon will sell me the same for £17.99! Much as I enjoy browsing a shop, I'm not putting myself out of pocket by an additional £12.

Of course, the price only comes in to play if what the customer wants is available. So often I go into the store with a list of albums in mind only to find that not one of them is stocked. Sometimes I can check a few stores if I'm traveling around but I find the situation the same everywhere. Although a physical store cannot stock everything, the problem is exacerbated by the diminishing range of CDs and although the sale of physical albums has fallen significantly thanks to downloading, it is by no means dead yet.

As for technology, whilst I understand HMV branching out into this area and in particular digital music players, headphones etc., I find it bizarre that they also see fit to stock tablet computers of various makes and models. The technology corner is starting to look like a section of Comet more than a music store and HMV certainly isn't the first place I'd think of to buy such equipment. If their opinion is to sell these devices because they can play music, well I wouldn't be surprised to see full computers making an appearance and perhaps a range of mobile phones too!

I understand the need for the business to diversify but I think it may be going too far. I find that as a music customer the store is not catering for my needs and there are plenty of times when I walk out empty handed. I think they should re-think the deminishing stock of CD albums, better focus the technology section, and bring in standardised pricing. All of this would encourage me to visit the store more often, spending my hard-earned cash which as a business is surely the most important thing.

Unfortunately it seems this guide may no longer work - at least it didn't when I attempted it in Linux Mint 12 (based on Ubuntu). The guide remains here for posterity, but I accept no liability for anything that may go wrong should you attempt to follow it.

Whilst Amazon are to be congratulated for providing version of their software for Linux, I think it's quite poor that after a little more than three years there is still no 64-bit support.

Never mind - guess I'll just be using 7Digital or buying more CDs.

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At long last Amazon has launched it's MP3 music store in the UK, providing more choice for DRM free music downloading (along with the likes of 7Digital and Play.com).

The new store very kindly provides downloading software which is designed to make downloading albums straightforwarded, and even more kindly they have provided a version of the software for Linux. Unfortunately there is not a native 64-bit version of the software so anyone attemping to do a straight install will come up against an error due to the differences in architecture.

Fortunately, in Ubuntu 8.10 at least, this is very easy to overcome, just by following these simple instructions:

• Download GetLibs (provides libraries for 32-bit software on a 64-bit architecture) from http://www.boundlesssupremacy.com/Cappy/getlibs/getlibs-all.deb saving it to your desktop
• Double click on the GetLibs icon, on your desktop to launch the installer. Install this package
• Download the Amazon MP3 Downloader installer for Ubuntu 8.10 from <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/dmusic/help/amd.html/ref=sv_dmusic_3">here</a>, saving it to your desktop.
• Open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
• Move to the Desktop directory:

  cd Desktop

• Attempt an install of the downloader:
  

  sudo dpkg --install --force-architecture amazonmp3.deb

• The install will show dependency errors. Do not worry about these.
• Run GetLibs on the downloader install, stating Yes if you're prompted to continue at any point:

  sudo getlibs /usr/bin/amazonmp3

• The downloader is now installed, and can be started from the 'Run Application' dialog (ALT+F2) by typing amazonmp3

The first time an album is purchased using Amazon MP3, the browser will ask what application to use to open Amazon's AMZ file. Point the browser to the Amazon Downloader which can be found in /usr/bin/amazonmp3. Tick the box to use this program from now on, and that will be the only time the browser will ask.

It was a tough decision, but after four and a half years with eMusic (since Feb 2007), I've cancelled my subscription. I hovered over the cancel button for some time before I finally clicked it, but I've convinced myself that it's the right thing to do.

For a few months now, using my monthly quota of downloads has become a bit of chore. Not because I'm starting to dislike music (although I am in a bit of a lull at the moment), but I'm having difficulty finding things to download. It had got to the point where, a few days before the monthly roll-over, I'd be downloading just for the sake of ensuring I got my money's worth.

The decision wasn't helped by the fact that I was on a grandfathered price plan. I was paying £14.99 per month which entitled me to 75 download credits (or £31.50 worth of music in the current pricing system of 42p per track). It was a good deal - if I had that much to download each month - and there was an incentive to stick with it just because that offer is no longer available. In the end though, I found by the end of each month, I'd sometimes barely made a mark on my credit. I wasn't even getting my payment's worth of music without struggling.

It was good whilst it latest though. My emusic folder consists of 4,711 tracks and at least 340 albums. I've discovered some artists that have become favourites of mine including The National, The Duckworth Lewis Method, Teenage Fanclub, Stornoway, Nada Surf, Midlake, Fleet Foxes, British Sea Power - these are just some that jump out at me as I scroll through the list.

So now I've cut my ties, I can either save myself some money each month or re-invest it. Perhaps I'll buy more CDs each month, or start shopping with 7Digital more (particularly if their FLAC selection improves). Alternatively, I'll spend it on ebooks since they are my latest thing!

On Friday, Doyle and the Fourfathers played a gig at Bush Hall, London to launch their debut album "Man Made".

I first saw this up-and-coming band back in May 2010 when they headlined the Save 6 Music gig at the 229 Club in London. Thanks in part to the publicity gained via the radio station, they are a band going places with an album that officially launches tomorrow, 28 February 2011.

This most recent gig was a lot of fun. The venue is small, but held a few hundred people and was packed by the time the band came on stage following two support acts. The music was loud, the venue was hot and Doyle and the Fourfathers played with gusto.

Their music is decidedly indie pop with some tracks not dissimilar in style to The Bluetones. Other media has also noted clear influences from The Divine Comedy and Duran Duran. Their tunes are catchy and memorable and remain in your head for a long time, but that's no bad thing. Their live performances are energy filled with William Doyle (the lead singer) throwing himself about the stage. They clearly enjoy what they do, and their audiences love it too.

I can see this band going far, particularly with the continued support of DJs like Marc Riley on 6 Music who has championed their work since a demo found it's way too him. Not only does their studio material get played, they have also performed live sessions. I only hope that other major stations pick up their material and bring it to a wider audience.

If you want to hear this band for yourself, they have a self titled mini-album available to download from Amazon now and the new album will be available on 28 February 2011, again for download on Amazon or on CD/LP from Rough Trade Shops. Gigs are listed on their official site, www.dt4f.com

I have a small number of snapshots taken at Friday's gig, available on Flickr. See External Links (above), or paste this address into your browser: http://www.flickr.com/photos/m0gky/collections/72157626144727416/

The BBC are running an experiment on their Labs site regarding one's relationship with music.

The quiz looks at the ability to classify music (after hearing a .5s snippet), keep time, identify when an element is off beat, compare two tunes at different pitches and asks general questions about the relationship with music.

To take part in the experiment, visit the BBC's site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/musicality/ (or click on the provided link in the 'Related Links' section)

The results are broken down into five categories, and mine are as follows:

• Enthusiasm for Music - 94% (High)
• Musical Perception - 98% (High)
• Emotional Connection - 76% (High)
• Social Creativity - 70% (High)
• Musical Curiosity - 65% (Medium)

I am broadly pleased with the results, although I have to admit to being mildly disappointed with the latter. I thought my 'musical curiosity' would be higher but I feel that is probably let down by my lack of attendance to live gigs and what I consider to be an unconscious limit in my favourite musical styles to Alternative/Indie Rock/Pop. Perhaps this should be a wake-up call for me to broaden my horizons and embrace a wider range of styles and attend more live events (something that I've been meaning to do for a while).

The results of the specific audible tests are also provided at the end of the quiz, and I scored as follows:

Group the Music

• 1st Group: POP/JAZZ/POP/POP
• 2nd Group: ROCK/HIPHOP/ROCK/ROCK
• 3rd Group: HIPHOP/JAZZ/JAZZ/JAZZ
• 4th Group: HIPHOP/POP/ROCK/HIPHOP

This test is the ability to identify a musical genre after hearing only a .5s snippet of a track. It seems I didn't too terribly but there is clearly room for improvement. Although Group 4 was a bit discouraging, all of the other groups I managed to put three tracks of one genre together.

Match the Beat

• Correct: 15
• Incorrect: 3

This is a test to identify whether a beep was played in time with the music or not.

The results here I am very happy with, although for those that were incorrect I would have liked to have known if the tones were subtly off or clearly off. I presume subtly since I got them wrong.

Tap to the Beat

• Medium Accuracy: 5
• High Accuracy: 4

In this test, you are asked to tap the space-bar to the beat of a playing track.

I'm really quite disappointed here. I didn't think I'd get perfect results, but perhaps one or two more in the High Accuracy category. Would it look like sour grapes if I said perhaps using a laptop space-bar doesn't provide for good accuracy in it's own right?

Melody Memory

• Correct: 8
• Incorrect: 4

Here, a tune is played twice. The second time is in a different pitch to the first and may or may not have some differences. The task is to identify whether it does have differences or not.

During this test I thought I'd do really badly. Some tunes I couldn't be entirely sure at all. To see these results then, is quite pleasing.