British rock trio Muse revealed to music newspaper NME Friday that the band's new material may be released more "organically" in the future, versus reserving it for an album release. This idea of taking the "album" out of the equation is something that many bands have been quoted as saying in the last couple of years, most notably Radiohead. Drummer Dom Howard is quoted as saying that the new methods of digital releasing and downloading "presents a canvas to do whatever you want and just release music as and when it is ready to release," that is, more organically.

The new "canvas to do whatever you want" should not indicate that Muse (or any other band) is "against the concept of releasing an album in the traditional format." Howard maintains, "If we group a bunch of tracks together, it's because they're meant to be together as a unit." The new formats are most exciting for new listeners and consumers, in Howard's opinion, since they do not typically purchase an album on CD. Despite Radiohead's success at releasing an album solely via the internet (and for free), Howard also denied that Muse would duplicate that method. He and his Muse bandmates just remain open to new ideas for the music industry.

Organically released music would make more sense in the market as it grows closer and closer toward single-track downloads. The most obvious case in favor of releasing music as soon as it is ready is Coldplay's recent free download of single "Violet Hill" in support of the band's new album. While it was not released as soon as it was ready and was intended to directly promote the album, it did enjoy high downloads and put word about the band, the band's return, and the new album out there rapidly and well in advance of the album's release next month. Singles did not originally correspond directly to albums, so why shouldn't the music industry return to that idea?

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.