Backstreet Boys have been celebrating the launch of their new tour, 20 years of their best album Millennium, and a host of other things. Lots of content, tweets, videos, competitions, the works. I really liked the recent videos they released featuring their videos from the Millennium album with added information. It’s like the good old days when MTV was actually comprised of music videos, and you could sit all day and watch pop videos with bonus trivia in the lower thirds.

Beats 1, Apple’s live streaming radio service, has a lot of great content. It can be hard to keep on top of it, and I’ll admit it does lean towards the cooler end of the music spectrum than I would place my own listening habits. However, what they do well is getting a variety of guest presenters in to host a show and therefore airing lots of different tastes and views.

Mr C and I don’t go much in for the Valentine’s Day thing but something happened this week that it’s important to document. After years of searching (more than a decade), I have finally found OUR SONG. It turns out, this On the Record thing that I’ve been studiously documenting for the last 3+ years has finally been worth it. This week, Mr C selected Huey Lewis & the News (he doesn’t always get his picks from Carpool Karaoke, honest), who of course I only know from Back to the Future.

We’re listening to Last.fm of a Saturday night, with the 80s tag plugged into the radio station option. Don’t Stop Believing by Journey comes on and we get about two seconds into it before Mr C says: “That’s the 4 chords.” We had to pause it, drop everything, and watch the video again, because there is nothing more amazing than this. I think I may have blogged it already, but it bears repeating.

When I first discovered Last.fm it was a revolutionary thing - all that music, available to listen to for free? It was a turning point for my listening habits. Most of the time, I would select a radio station - pop or indie or 80s - and listen away, occasionally skipping the tracks that weren’t to my taste. Being able to heart the best songs, track what I’d listened to previously, and share the music with others was a great thing.

For the first time in their six years of broadcasting, Radio 1’s sister station 1Xtra is to go on tour. The Breakfast Show will be in five different cities over the course of a week from 16th-20th March. The show goes out live each morning from 8-11am. It’s presented by Trevor Nelson and Gemma Cairney, and will feature performances from special guests. From the BBC Press Release, here are the details of the tour:

As media, and particularly music, becomes more and more digital, it seems as though subscription services are the way of the future. There are many sites out there that offer an all-you-can-eat style buffet service, allowing a monthly fee to provide access to all tracks behind the wall. Of course, once you cancel your subscription you are left with nothing, but as long as you continue to pay, you can continue to consume as much as you desire.

Elbow have been having a stellar couple of years, with the Mercury Music prize under their belts, plus the Best British Group gong at the 2009 BRITs. Now it seems their popularity translates to the Red Button Music Sessions. The Red Button service often provides coverage of music festivals and events throughout the year, and also screens performances that are usually recorded for radio. Elbow were playing for Radio 2, with the BBC Concert Orchestra, at Abbey Road, and the gig took place on the 17th January.

First impression: How dare they??? Second impression: Could be worse. Thoughts? Update - Third impression: As with most covers, it seems to miss out on the emotion of the original, however, it is growing on me.

I’ve just found this and had to share. Utterly amazing. Aside from the fact it’s scary how many songs are alike, I’m very impressed with their ability to switch from one to the other. I’d just get carried away and at least finish the chorus of one song. How do they manage to control themselves to just do one line of each?