The iTunes Festival is currently in full swing - 30 days of live music, held at the Camden Roundhouse in London and streamed across the globe via iTunes and its many apps. There’s a variety of acts available, with warm up artists appearing before more established names, and the diversity is amazing. So far we’ve already heard from the pop name that is Olly Murs, through the more acoustic Ed Sheeran to the dub stepping Plan B.

I can be quite fussy with my music tastes. If you don’t count the Backstreet Boys, I tend to like songs rather than artists, which means I can get bored watching a full length set. However, at 90 minutes, and available to as a live stream or on replay, you can dip in and out of the festival action as much (and as often) as you want. 30 days of free live music is not something to be sniffed at, particularly when it is available on demand as well.

There’s an added bonus that, as this is a string of gigs in the same location over a prolonged period of time, it has its very own meme. Usher slipped over and chastised himself by doing 40 press ups. Murs decided that he would go one better and do 41 - although he regretted it afterwards. JLS decided they would do 40 each, and then proclaimed that meant it was 40x4 for the next person. I love it!

For iTunes, the benefits are clear - more people talking about the brand, and people like Mr C snapping up songs that are new to him, or ones he’d heard of but didn’t get round to buying. I am also buying a few songs but as mentioned before: fussy.

The only issue I can find with the whole September music fest is that the Roundhouse seems to be an exceptionally warm place to perform. I’ve watched several of the acts, particularly the ones who are bouncing around, literally dripping with sweat and it’s not a pleasant look. Maybe when iTunes make lots of money off the music purchases people will make, they can look at helping install some decent air conditioning.