It's not very often we hear about viruses, Trojans, and other types of malicious programs affecting MP3 music downloads, but the latest outbreak is the biggest for three years. According to Mcafee Avert Labs, the Downloader-UA.h Trojan horse has been seen on P2P file sharing networks, such as LimeWire and eDonkey masquerading mostly as MP3 files. Over 500,000 users so far have been hit when installing a fake MP3 player called PLAY_MP3.exe. Once installed, the user's computer is infected with an adware program that launches an Internet browser page displaying a popup advert.

There are many filenames floating around on P2P networks with different file sizes and names. Some of the names include:

• preview-t-3545425-changing times earth wind.mp3
• t-3545425-just got lucky.mp3
• preview-t-3545425-st trinnians girls aloud.mp3
• t-3545425-los padres de ella.mpg
• t-3545425-suicide bride dana.mp3

Rather than risk your entire hard drive being infected and possible corruption by a virus it is always safer to use digital music services, or download free and legal MP3 music from reputable websites.

For more information on where to download your music:

• Top 6 Digital Music Services
• Top 5 Free and Legal Music Websites

Not content with giving away the first 9 tracks of Ghosts I-IV a while back (read blog), Trent Reznor, otherwise known as Nine Inch Nails, has done it again. The new album, called The Slip, was released this week and is available for free download from the Nine Inch Nails website. The difference this time is that the album has been created solely as a thank you to loyal fans for their past and present support. In fact, Trent Reznor has posted a blog comment on the official NIN website saying, "thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me."

The 10-track album is available in a variety of audio formats, which are, high quality VBR MP3, Apple Lossless (M4A), FLAC, and 24/96 Wav (higher audio resolution than CD); incidentally, a Bit Torrent client is needed to download the higher resolution recordings due to the large file sizes.

Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have both shown that it is possible to exist as a successful band without a major record label as long as a large fan base exists. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has certainly acknowledged this through the release of The Slip album and his words of gratitude towards his fans.

Microsoft has announced to all of its MSN Music Store customers that it will be shutting down its PlayForSure licensing servers on August 31st. What this means for users is that their purchased DRM-protected music will only be playable on computers that have been authorized before the September deadline. This is of course little consolation if your computer decides to go south after this deadline and you end up losing all your purchased music.

So, what are your backup options? There are two routes to safeguard your music that immediately spring to mind - either burn your music to audio CDs which obviously removes the protection, or use a DRM removal tool. If you've only got a handful of songs from the now defunct MSN Music Store then burning an audio CD isn't going to be a big deal. But what if you've got hundreds? Burning this many songs onto audio CDs will quickly turn into a long and laborious process. Programs such as Tunebite, which forms part of the recently reviewed Audials One, is one such DRM removal tool that could be used as a backup solution.

This fiasco highlights the dangers of owning DRM-protected music and demonstrates that the user doesn't fully own the right to play the music which they have legally purchased.

Why not have your say and join the discussion on this very subject in the Digital Music forum.

Yes, it's another well established band that has come to the conclusion that providing a free download is a great promotional tool. Coldplay, the Grammy award-winning English rock band, have just released their new album, Viva la Vida, and are feeling in a generous mood. To celebrate the launch of their fourth album (April 29th), they are offering a free download of Violet Hill for one week only. Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and others have tried this method in the past with good results overall.

To get yours, goto the Coldplay website and hope it doesn't crash under the strain like the Nine Inch Nails website did recently.

For more free downloads, why not consult the following articles:

• Top 5 Music Downloads
• Audials One Review

Remember analog cassette tapes? For those of you who remember spending hours making a super-cool 'mix-tape' for it to unexpectedly get chewed up by your boombox, then be prepared for a retrospective new gadget.

ThinkGeek.com has a Cassette MP3 Player that is actually playable as a regular cassette. If you've got a vintage tape player in storage, or maybe still in your car then all you'll need to do is purchase an SD or MMC card (2 Gb maximum) along with the Cassette MP3 player. The device is compatible with the MP3 format and supports bitrates of 32 - 256 Kbps.

This new retro device also functions as a standalone MP3 player so you can carry it around just like an iPod and listen to your digital music with the supplied earphones. The unit has a built-in lithium battery that is rechargeable via USB. The Cassette MP3 Player is available from ThinkGeek.com priced at $39.99

Until recently, Universal Music Group (UMG) was the only major record label to sign up with Nokia's cell phone music service, Comes With Music. Now, Sony BMG has inked a deal to provide its large music catalog via subscription download. Nokia's strategy is to bundle a year's subscription with the purchase of a new cell phone; after that, you can either pay a subscription or purchase a new phone.

"But what happens to all that music I've downloaded, do I lose it?" The good news is that although DRM copy protection will be employed, you will have the luxury of keeping what has been downloaded after the subscription period ends; you'll also be able to transfer the music to your computer. The bad news is that you won't be able to transfer the music to your favorite MP3 player or other device.

As you may know if you have been following the blog, Nokia's new music service it due to be launched in the middle of this year. It was previously reported that there would be the offer of unlimited downloads, but now there are mumblings that it will be a reasonably high limit. Nokia at present haven’t released any details to quantify the vague term ‘reasonably high limit’.

Has Nokia's business model missed the boat considering the trend in the music industry has for some time been shifting away from DRM based services?

Starbucks corporation has announced through a press release that they have teamed up with Apple once again to offer free music downloads via the iTunes Store. Last time we saw a promotion like this was back in October 2007 when over 6 million songs were downloaded with their 'pick of the day'. This has now been reworded to 'pick of the week' and started Tuesday. The first song to be given away was Counting Crows’ new song, Washington Square.

Be sure to grab a coffee on a Tuesday to get your pick of the week card!

MP3Tunes.com has launched a new technology called Autosync that makes buying music and synchronizing it anywhere seamless. Users who are familiar with the MP3Tunes music storage service will know that an unlimited amount of music can be stored via a digital locker. Now, Autosync makes it possible to purchase music at work for example, and to synchronize it with your computer at home. This new technology makes moving your legally purchased music around hassle-free.

The CEO of MP3Tunes.com, Michael Robertson, said, "The PC is only the beginning. AutoSync for popular mobile devices is up next, and we look forward to rolling out AutoSync for your car's audio system by the end of this year."

EMI, one of the big four record labels, is currently suing MP3Tunes for copyright infringement. EMI argue that allowing users to even upload their legally purchased music breaks copyright laws. Even though the digital music lockers at MP3Tunes are private and no sharing with others is possible, the new Autosync technology gives significantly more opportunities to synchronize with any computer.

Could this inadvertently give EMI the ammo it needs to nail home a victory against MP3Tunes?

Scientists at the University of Rochester have revealed that they have developed a technique to reproduce digital music that is 1,000 times smaller than a typical MP3 file. The new method uses physical modeling technology to synthesize the sound rather than recording it directly. Professor Mark Bocko, head of electrical and computer engineering worked with two of his students (Xiaoxiao Dong and Mark Sterling) to model the characteristics of a clarinet. After studying and replicating all the physical aspects of the musical instrument, a 20-second MP3 recording was reduced to less than 1 kilobyte (1K) using the new technique.

The University of Rochester's website has a demonstration that is interesting to listen to. Although the new compression method doesn't replicate the recording perfectly, it is still impressive.

On the subject of formats, did you know Apple's iTunes software can convert to different audio formats? To find out more, read the article on how to convert audio formats using iTunes

According to an article by USA Today.com, the Amazon MP3 store has become the second largest digital music service in the United States. Amazon’s much anticipated digital music service was launched in 2007 and began selling its entire catalog in the unprotected MP3 format. Initially, the store had a catalog of 2 million songs but this has now increased to over 4.5 million - this is quite staggering since the service has only been in operation for approximately 6 months.

The reason for their speedy success can be attributed to excellent marketing through the use of consumer-friendly MP3 downloads and aggressive pricing that even forced Apple's iTunes Store to lower its price of DRM-free songs.

For more information, read the full review of the Amazon MP3 Store.