Well, it's here again. Next Wednesday, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival kicks off in Austin, Texas. I won't be attending, so don't look for a sequel post to this one about how much fun I had or what acts I saw perform. Needless to say though, many music listeners and fans will be attending the festival, now in its 21st year. If there is a larger festival in terms of sheer number of venues, I am not aware of it. But, the fact that more than 1400 acts perform in 65 venues makes the amount of music just immense, in the simplest of terms.

These numbers follow a previous blog by me about how concerts and music festivals are only positive forces for the music industry. The only problem is that there is no "real" way to translate the experience of attending the shows outside the actual festival. Of course, that does not stop Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes store from including music and videos from various performances, but these always seem to be the largest acts and the venues they play. I'm reminded of the Coldplay videos that were showcased on iTunes last year.

In any case, if any readers are attending the festival next week, I implore you to enjoy the music for what it's worth because you won't experience music that way anywhere else (especially on a CD or from a download). Of course, the advantage of live musical performances is always that the experience is better than listening to an album in your home, or at least that is this blogger's opinion and past experience. At the same time, opening a new CD for the first time and listening to an album has its perks as well, but that is another story and opinion for another time.

There's nothing like a ringtone to set a girl apart from the other hangers-out at the coffee shop. Ringtone sales have been huge, says the Motley Fool's Rick Aristotle Munarriz, for companies like Infospace. But when Skype started selling ringtones, it was to a big ol' yawn from users - who really needs to set his computer ringtone apart from the other computers in his home office?

Munarriz sees a lot of potential, however, in the music download market. His belief is that Skype's 100 million-plus registered users might finally be monetized through music (and, naturally, video downloads and concert tickets), at last justifying eBay's purchase.

I have a hard time seeing this as such a huge advantage, personally - I'm a faithful Skype user, but I've never spent a penny with them. And music won't be the place where I start.

I own a few shares of eBay and zero Skype ringtones.