And I was never much of a Chili Peppers fan. But I was sitting in a cafe in Bondi a couple of years ago, quietly working, and managed to listen through the whole album twice. I was hooked. Going out on a limb, but this is probably my favourite album... ever.

Blogged about this before but I think it's such a great/simple idea, it's worth repeating. The service monitors music listening habits and discussions throughout the social web and creates 'emerging' music charts. As much as anything, it's taking the pulse of real-time music and (kind of) predicting what bands are destined to become 'big'.

See it here: http://wearehunted.com/

Laura Marling is an incredible indie/folk singing talent. Her always beautiful, often haunting ballads from her brilliant debut Alas I Cannot Swim have been on constant rotation within my music collection over the last year. Amazingly, she’s only 19 years old.

I’m seeing her perform at the Royal Festival Hall in London tomorrow night. Sorry folks, sold out.

Not only is she a brilliant songwriter, she is very savvy in how she ‘sells’ her music. Check out this from her site:

You’ll notice that this album doesn’t just appear in a ‘normal’ format - the music is part of a ‘Song Box’, designed by Laura, which contains postcards, trinkets and stories - plus a concert ticket to her shows in March. ‘The idea came of a conversation I had with a guy who owned the studio I was recording in,’ says Marling. ‘He said he was depressed with the way music’s going, because nobody buys records any more and people are listening to MP3s on bad headphones, using music for wallpaper.’ So, she designed the chart-ineligible, beautifully printed ‘Song Box’: ‘I want people to love music,’ she says, ‘I want people to treasure it, not just my songs, but treasure music.’

Will let you know what the concert’s like, and in the meantime, listen to some of her songs/videos.