Hi-fi nerds will have heard about Ascendo Immersive. The German company were already renowned for their enormous 80 Sub – the enormous 80-inch subwoofer which was the largest in the world. Now they’ve gone even bigger and dialled it up to 100.

Yes, Ascendo has put two new bass beasts onto the market – the 64 Sub Pro Passive Infrasonic Sealed and the 100 Sub Pro Passive Infrasonic Sealed. The latter spans 100 inches, making it, yes, the largest of its kind in the world once more. This is bass you will feel in your bones.

How have they done it? Well, the quad suspension system has been optimised for greater linear and non-linear movement across the range. The voice coil at the centre of the cone has a diameter of 21 inches in diameter, larger than many commercially available full-sized subs.

The cabinets have been upgraded for more rigidity and control, and enclosure depth increased for extended frequency response at the bottom end. Ascendo have also used multiple-density damping materials to lower resonance frequency, resulting in a clean, punchy impulse response. The driver unit of the 100 Sub Pro on its own weighs in at a whopping 260 kg.

Obviously this isn’t the sort of thing you’ll install in your living room, unless you want to seriously hack off your neighbours. Or even in a club. It is, as Ascendo’s Geoffrey Heinzel suggests, for state-of-the-art home cinemas. "These two new subwoofers are the largest in the world for home cinema, and are incredibly powerful, efficient, and fast," explained Heinzel.

"We are proud to be the leader in infrasonic bass. Our continuous innovation in this category translates to an extremely high-performance, emotionally connected experience that enriches state-of-the-art home theaters and music reproduction systems with bass you can feel."

There’s no information on the price yet. Seriously expensive, you’d assume. But then there are seriously big.

We’re just about old enough to remember the era when cassettes were the chief music listening format. Those little plastic rectangles which housed miniature tape spools were quite a finicky and often unreliable format for containing your favourite music, and they weren’t a safe bet for long-term storage either.

But still, there was something - much like the vinyl format - about the way cassette tapes sounded. There was the engagement engendered from that physical interaction with your listening medium, the tactile mini-thrill of just pressing substantial, clicky buttons. It's an element of music listening that we're finding ourselves warming to more and more as we progress ever further into the smartphone-dominated 21st century.

The appeal of this type of format-nostalgia is shared by We Are Rewind, the French company who (with a little help from a cabal of seasoned engineers who worked on portable cassette players back in the golden age of tape) has created an all-new breed of modern personal cassette players, which balance the legacy mechanics with some of today's bells and whistles such as Bluetooth 5.1 functionality and a rechargeable battery.

Now, ahead of the release of the company’s impressive looking take on the classic boombox, we spoke to We Are Rewind’s co-founder Romain Boudruche, and found out more about how the team overcame myriad obstacles to bring this classic format back to life. Let's hit play.

MusicRadar: Hi there Romain, firstly can you kind of give our readers a bit of background on We Are Rewind, how did the company first get off the ground?

Romain Boudruche: “I used to be a copywriter in advertising for around 10 years, and I was kind of fed up with the advertising industry. I had a friend Matthieu Mazieres who, at the time, was unemployed and he mentioned the fact that he had some money set aside. We discussed creating an independent project.

"I really wanted [to start] something about nostalgia. I didn't know why, but at that time, I found that there was something interesting there.

"I saw an article which mentioned the fact that cassette tapes were having a very small boom, and [the format] was back. The first question I asked myself was how are people going to listen to these tapes again? I mean - there are no more cassette players available.

"So, this is how it started. There were these low quality tape players, made of plastic, available on Amazon. And so, I thought it would be interesting maybe to offer an in-between, because you could also buy some very [high-end] devices [which originated] from the 80s.

"I was thinking maybe we could try to do something which could be both a quality cassette player made of aluminum with a neat design, and we could also maybe implement a few more modern features into it. That had not been done at that time.

"Matthieu used to work for some labels and before that, he worked for Sony, and is now still working as a part time for an African music label. I grew up in a family where music was all around, so it's very cool that we are now in the music industry. This is a fun project. We didn't have any ambitions in the first place. It was just like a friendship project, a labor of love."

MR: So did you guys share that same kind of specific nostalgia for the cassette format? Did you grow up with them?

RB: "I had a few. I'm actually more [from the] CD era. I was born in 1988, but I have an older brother who is a musician. He used to make a lot of mix tapes back in the day, and I remember borrowing his cassette players because I wasn't allowed to have a CD player.

"I was big into vinyl collecting, but I don’t really have this big feeling of being overwhelmed with the [quantity of] streaming media and things like that, I just enjoyed the fact that I could have a physical thing. I definitely felt that there was something at that time, like six years ago, that was already [in the air] and it's just had been confirmed for us for the past years."

MR: It must have been quite a technical challenge to bring back the physical cassette player and its internal mechanics. How did you source the parts and build your stock?

RB: "The first step was finding someone who could manufacture.

"The idea was to get the best we could from the [currently widely used] mechanism, used for the cheaper models. But when we looked around for manufacturers we realised that a great many had been closed. Sony had closed its last manufacturer saying there was no business in it anymore. Tape simply was not big enough, there was no interest. So they closed everything.

"There was this one existing manufacturer in China. But the idea was to see how we could improve every piece of this existing mechanism. We wanted to see how we could get as close as we could to the 80s devices that you could [still get hold of] at that time.

"We have been very lucky, because we’d been struggling with many issues. Actually, the first one was the fact that there was COVID, and so that just killed us for almost two years.

"After months, we were like, ‘Okay, we are not going to be able to make it.’ We actually had a Kickstarter, and so many people were waiting for their orders. So, every night, I went to bed thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I'm gonna have to refund everyone.’

"But luckily, we found an excellent French manufacturer, which is in the West of France called RTM (Recording The Masters). They made excellent blank tapes, and also reel to reel and magnetic heads. I contacted the boss of the company, because we knew we wanted to have a record function on our tape players.

"So, I called him and explained to him our project, and he said, ‘Okay, this is really great, because I also make my own cassette players which I sell on our website.’

"Then he said he wasn’t interested in making money from cassette players himself, but said ’I'm really keen to see you succeed with cassette players, because the better you go, the bigger [the market] to sell tapes.

"It's very well connected, so it became more like a partnership.

"The [engineering team] that RTM worked with were quite small, and were once based in Singapore. These were engineers of 70+ years, they used to work for Thomson for many years. [The boss of RTM] put me in touch with them.

"The company was called ORA and they told us that they made this special cassette player for RTM, which was called the B-1000. It’s a really good device. We made some tests on it, and they had already made many improvements on the mechanism

"It wasn’t a very ‘designed’ appearance, though. It was just a plastic one. But inside was the [widely-used] mechanism, but with many improvements. The sound quality was extremely decent. So, we bought the license of the B-1000 from RTM, and we decided to work with ORA to see how we could develop our own devices and make even more improvements, as well as implement these special features.

"These were the first steps, we were very lucky to find the engineers, because these are extremely rare resources right now."

MR: Yeah, that does sound like a challenge. I guess having those extra, modern features makes the players more attractive for younger listeners. There’s also the sleek and cool design aesthetic. How long did it take you to land on the look of your players?

RB: “We had three proposals from our designer. He was actually the designer from the first company we worked with. We asked him to make some proposals. And he made this first one, which looked almost like a Polaroid [camera], because of the circle window. We made a few adjustments because of the mechanisms, size and everything and we decided to go with that one. It was inspired by [German Industrial Designer] Dieter Rams. Of course, he was a big fan of the 1980s design ethos.

"We have always said that we wanted to have something very neat, very designed. We had this model, which was a Polaroid [camera], because they were kind of devices that you would use a few times, and after that, you are just going to put it on the shelf in the living room and just have it as a decoration.

"I was definitely convinced that most of the people would not use their cassette players every day. In a way it would be just like the vinyl records; a very ceremonial thing that you play sometimes, perhaps a few times in a year, The rest of the time you are just happy to have this beautiful device on your shelf.

"So we wanted to create something very neat, and this is why we used aluminium instead of all the plastic. And that was how our tape player (aka ‘EDITH') got off the ground."

MR: Earlier this year, you collaborated with Chromeo for the all-chrome, co-branded version. How did that collaboration get off the ground? Are artist collabs like that something you want to do more of going forward?

RB: “It’s absolutely mandatory for our business. We are going to try and follow the example of the lifestyle brands who make drops every month and work on collaborations with brands and artists.

"For the Chromeo collaboration, it was them who dropped us an email. They said ‘We found your device, I think it’s so cool.’ They suggested we collaborate and put together an all-chrome cassette player. After that, we decided that we would definitely go more in this direction. We have plenty of collabs on the fire.

"We are in discussions with other artists. Some international artists which will be much bigger than the Chromeo collab…"

MR: Recently you announced the BOOMBOX GB-001, it’s an impressive piece of kit with 104 watts of power and full-spectrum stereo audio. Again the retro design is on point, and the VU meters are a really nice touch too. What made you switch focus to doing a boombox next after the cassette player?

RB: “Actually it was the logical way forward for us after the personal cassette players. We had messages in our inbox and on our Instagram from people saying ‘Ah, I wish you guys would make some boomboxes. We also get messages asking for portable CD players too, of course.

What’s very interesting about this device is we’re not selling it as only a cassette player/recorder - we are mostly selling it as a very cool, designed, connected speaker.

"If we stayed too focused on the tape angle then we would still be in a niche domain. We want to open up and interest a larger audience. So our BOOMBOX is really competing with some Marshall speakers, JBL, Sonos - some of those bigger music listening brands.

"All [those types of devices] look the same, they haven’t really changed in the past ten or fifteen years. I have really big hopes for [BOOMBOX]. We want it to be as good as a Marshall speaker. All our tests were made to make sure we were able to reach this. Actually, we’re a little better.

"We wanted BOOMBOX to be as good as what they can do but with our own identity and our own design. Marshall is aimed at the rock market and we’re more angled toward hip-hop.

"The boombox is the emblematic device of the 1970s and ’80s hip hop, and that’s now one of the world’s biggest genres. There’s nothing bigger.

"We try to stay open, it’s not only for [hip-hop] but yeah I believe this device will interest more people, not only people who are looking for a ‘cassette player’ but people who are just looking for a very good speaker with a very nice design."

MR: It also has the added advantage of being able to jack in a guitar or a microphone to record yourself playing and singing. What motivated you to include that recording input functionality?

RB: “We knew that there was an interest in the Japan and East Asia market. The Japanese are very keen for tech to have these karaoke-type features. I asked our engineers; ‘do you think that we could implement the ability to sing at the same time’? [as the audio playback]. I believed that Japanese people would be very interested in this functionality. They said, yes, definitely.

"Then we thought, if we could make it with a microphone, we could also have it serve as a guitar amplifier.

"As it’s stereo, you can put your vocal, or guitar on the left, on the right, with the [stereo] knob, you can definitely play with that and see the difference. The sounds are actually wider. We worked also on that [so you can] really feel the stereo image that you have when you listen to it.

"If you put it in front of you, you can definitely feel the difference on left and right, especially with older, 1970s songs. It’s just like you’re in the studio."

MR: Do you think people will start using the BOOMBOX GB-001 for music-making purposes, then? Is that (music production) direction an area you want We Are Rewind to pursue? After all, many swear by tape when recording their sounds…

RB: "We didn't expect it, but even our portable cassette players have been used by musicians. We have people who tag us or message us on Instagram. We think that our boombox will be especially interesting because the record function is a very good quality one. We actually have a Sony mechanic in it.

"Aside from recording, we get many small bands who also contact us, saying, ‘Ah, we would like to make a partnership’ [to sell cassette versions of their albums at their gigs]. It's much easier for them to produce some tapes and sell them for like €2.

"But people do use cassette and tape decks to record their albums, even in the big leagues. I'm listening to the podcast on the French Touch movement right now, and it explains how Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter recorded using a boombox. He always said ‘if it sounds really good on the boombox, it will anywhere’. So it was for his reference. He was always using a really old boombox to check the sound quality."

MR: Well that’s an endorsement for the boombox, right there, isn't it? Beyond your actual players themselves, have you considered curating your own cassette mixtapes or maybe a cassette-only label?

RB: "On the retro side it's complicated. We wanted to have the possibility of having a list of songs on our website, so people could just pick from some of them, and we would then make a mixtape for them directly and send to them alongside the device. It would have been very fun to do that, but it's actually so complicated [from a rights point of view].

"Right now we are also trying to open a special page for a few selection of tapes. We’d like to have, say, 20 albums. We’re not going to make a lot of money. It's not part of it. It's just more we believe it's fun and it's cool to have everything at the same place."

MR: What do you personally think lay behind the resurgence of interest in retro formats like cassette?

RB: “We had an interview three years ago with a social expert who mentioned the fact that when times are very uncertain, people really love to go back to a time when they felt secure - a more reassuring time. So it’s not only the fact that everything is going too fast and everything is digital, although that’s part of it. I love to press on [real buttons].

"It’s sort of a social thing, people sometimes feel scared. Even if it's a time that they didn't really know, going back to a past era can be reassuring.

"It’s good to bring back some memories, and sometimes that can just be from the ‘click’ of the way you put it in."

For more info on We Are Rewind, and to peruse its roster of cassette players - and get the lowdown on the upcoming BOOMBOX GB-001 - head to the company's website here

Attention all vinyl fans and lovers of physical music – here’s something you know you’re going to fall in love with.

It has to be the dinkiest format yet. A US-based start-up called Tiny Vinyl is launching, well, some tiny vinyl in the form of a new series of four-inch singles.

They can be played on standard turntables, at 33rpm, but even at the slower speed can still only fit in just four minutes of music per side. Of course, in the Spotify era it’s rare for any track to last over three minutes thirty. Which is handy.

What do they have over seven-inches? Well, they’re better for the planet. Tiny Vinyl say they made out of bio-attributed vinyl and just use just 15g of material per single, as against 140g for a 12 inch album.

Tiny Vinyl have entered into a partnership with US retailer Target, who are promoting the new singles on their website. As you can see here, the artists included Gracie Adams, Doechii, the Rolling Stones, Motley Crue and Lola Young.

Quite a range, then. But what they all have in common is they’re signed to Universal. Apparently though there are four inch singles on the way from some Sony-affiliated artists including Britney Spears and Doja Cat and Warners ones such as Bruno Mars and Black Sabbath.

The one catch – as it is for vinyl everywhere in 2025 – is the price. They retail at $14.99 at Target, and presumably a similar price once they reach the UK.

For more information on Tiny Vinyl head over to tinyvinyl.com.

A North Carolina YouTuber and record store owner has been telling all about the time he purchased the record collection... of a serial killer.

The fellow in question (the YouTuber, that is) is called Dylan and he works at Noble Records in the small town of Matthews, NC. He’s uploaded the vid to the store’s channel and talked about how he came by the collection of Scott Williams, who lived in the nearby town of Monroe. Williams was convicted for the murders of three women between 1997 and 2006, but is now safely behind bars, serving three consecutive terms of life at the Alexander Correctional Institution.

Dylan recalled how one day in 2021 he got a call out of the blue offering him Williams’ collection: “No hesitation (I said), ‘I would absolutely love to.’ Because first of all, I like to buy anybody’s record collection… But also, when you buy a record collection - the weirder the person, the better the records. That’s just usually the way it is.”

“I did feel a bit strange going to a serial killer’s house,” he added. “But hey it wasn’t as if he was going to be there.” In the end, he changed his mind and the person who made the phone call came to him with the records.

He had expected the collection to include stick to cliché and include plenty of metal, horror soundtracks and the like. Not so, it seems. Williams records included mainstream fare like Barbra Streisand, The Carpenters and Johnny Cash. The only strange thing was the fact he had no fewer than six copies of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

“It was just so normal!” Dylan exclaimed. “The only metal record was an Exciter record, I think it was Exciter’s self-titled. Not particularly weird and not even really that exciting when it comes to metal,” he added. “It was stuff that you see every single day. Nothing rare, nothing cool. Nothing exciting.”

Dylan does reveal that he kept one record from the collection himself: “I had to keep one just because it was such a weird story,” he says, before showing what he considered the coolest out of the trove, by obscure 70s band Mama Lion. “Not particularly rare or valuable, but really really cool psychedelic blues rock type of thing.”

He also made the point that whilst back in the 1980s activists like the PMRC (Parents’ Music Resource Center) tried making the link between ‘satanic’ heavy metal and violent crime, Williams’ collection revealed a man who was seemingly ‘normal’. The lesson? Don’t judge someone by their record collection.

Mark Zuckerberg and Paul McCartney find themselves as joint investors in a British start up that aims to provide an audio player for children that, crucially, comes without a screen.

The player is called Yoto and it’s a dinky-looking thing that looks more like a Fisher Price toy than a modern high-tech gadget. Its unique selling point is an aperture into which you can slot a card which plays audio versions of popular children’s books, educational material, stories or songs.

Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan joined in a new funding round for Yoto through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Over $11million (£8.6million) came in from the Facebook founder and other new investors. The deal values the company at $182million.

Macca is one of the company’s existing shareholders and last year the Beatles legend released special Yoto material - condensed junior versions of his old group’s Red and Blue Greatest Hits albums, and Say Hello to Paul McCartney, a card that features kid-friendly highlights from his vast solo back catalogue, including Let ‘Em In, Mull Of Kintyre and We All Stand Together and two new tracks exclusive to the platform.

Zuckerberg is the owner and founder of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. His current worth, according to Bloomberg, is around $179billion, making his the fourth richest person in the world.

Yoto was founded by Ben Drury and Filip Denker back in 2015. The company says its simple-to-use music players give children as young as three autonomy over what they listen to, putting them “safely in control of their listening”, with “no more handing over your smartphone or worrying about intrusive ads”. 

The player, which currently retails at £90, reported sales of over £22.2 million in 2022, a figure that looks likely to climb given the current debate around the amount of screen time young children are routinely exposed to.

Latest figures from Ofcom showed that a quarter of children aged 7 and under own their own smartphone and that around half of children under the age of 13 use social media, despite there being a nominal ‘ban’ on them using the apps.

In other McCartney news, the ex-Beatle has announced four arena shows for the end of this year, his first UK dates since his triumphant Glastonbury headlining slot in June 2022. Tickets for the shows - two each at the O2 and at Manchester’s new Co-Op Live Arena - go on sale this coming Friday.

Here on MusicRadar, in the build up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and throughout the Holiday season, we'll be bringing you the best deals on musical instruments of all kinds for US-based musicians, drummers, guitarists and producers. Click here for all the best Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals in the US.

Sweetwater has shaved an impressive $400 off Denon DJ’s Prime media player, the SC5000M, now at $1499, down from $1899.

The unit features a high definition, multitouch display and an eight-inch jog wheel with a central display that shows the current playing track or even custom artwork.

Each deck features dual-layer audio playback and Denon DJ is keen to stress that this is the first media player to fully analyse both beatgrid and musical key on the unit.

To take advantage of this deal, head on over to the Sweetwater website now.

SC5000 key features

• 7-inch HD display with multi-touch gestures
• 24-bit/96kHz digital audio outputs
• Dual-layer playback with individual audio outputs
• Plays uncompressed audio formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV)
• 8 multifunction trigger pads for Cues, Loops, Slices and Rolls
• 8-inch rugged metal jog wheel with HD central display
• Customisable RGB color around the jog wheel
• 3 USB and 1 SD input for music playback
• LAN output to link to up to four players

More details have emerged regarding Ikea and Teenage Engineering’s Frekvens music products, which are set for release in 2019.

AdAge has an interview with TE’s Jesper Kouthoofd, in which he appears to confirm that a turntable, speaker and lights will be available. These brightly-coloured components are designed to attract attention, with prices for the products projected to be between $5 and $99.

"We're working on tweaking the turntable design right now to get it to a good price," says Kouthoofd. "I want it to be as low as possible."

Intriguingly, and in true Ikea fashion, it turns out that some kind of self-assembly might be required, with Kouthoofd saying it’s “a big part” of the collection. We’ll bring you more news as we get it.

Tomorrow is international Record Store Day - an annual celebration of independent music outlets and all-things vinyl.

We’ve already brought you a run-down of our pick of the exclusive releases for this year’s event, but what’s the point in getting up early and spending your hard earned cash if you’ve got nothing to play your purchases on?

To that end, here’s our quick guide to record players. We’ve rounded up five different record players for five different types of music fans; from hi-fi nerds, to the fashion conscious to the no-nonsense DJ.

Things to consider

There are a handful of factors to consider when buying a turntable.

Firstly, are you looking for a unit for home use or for DJing? If it’s the later, you’ll need something that’s direct-drive (as opposed to belt-drive) so that it’s got enough power, plus it’ll need a pitch control for making fine adjustments to the record’s speed.

Then it’s worth considering what RPM speed records are you going to be playing (i.e. 45s, 33 1/3s or 78s?) While most players - particularly newer models - will play all speeds, it’s worth checking before you buy.

Will you be wanting a USB connection too? Many modern turntables include one, allowing vinyl records to be easily transferred to a computer for digital back up.

Whatever type of music fan you are, and whatever variety of player you’re after, here are a few of our favourites from the multitude of options...

This minimal-looking offering from specialist turntable brand Pro-Ject offers a great balance between high-spec features - such as its carbon fibre tone arm - and good value for money (they retail for around £300.)

Most importantly, these Debut Carbon turntables sound great. They come in a range of seven striking finishes too; all of which look fantastic.

Find out more

The sound quality of these retro-styled portable turntables from Crosley might not pass muster with serious hi-fi connoisseurs, but they look fantastic and will certainly job for most day-to-day users.

On the plus side, the Spinnerette features a built-in USB connection for digitally ripping your old records, plus a set of built-in speakers. At a retail price of around $150, it offers a pretty balance of features and value.

Find out more

These turntables from Audio-Technica are direct drive and feature a pitch control, which makes them suitable for DJ use, but they also pack a built-in USB connection.

They’re an ideal option for a DJ who wants to bridge the gap between their vinyl collection and the digital world - allowing users to spin on the ones and twos, but also back up their records for digital safekeeping.

Find out more

From their release in 1979 up until they were discontinued in 2010, the 1200 MK2 series was the undisputed champion of DJ turntables.

They were simple, powerful and solid as a rock - and they look iconic to boot. Since they’re no longer in production they’re only available second-hand these days, but there are still plenty about. If you’re really serious about your vinyl DJing, then they’re still the option to go for.

As with the Technics 1210s, Dansette record players are no longer in production - in fact, the British manufacturer went out of business back in 1969.

Over a million Dansette portable turntables were sold during the ‘50s and ‘60s, however, and they crop up on the second-hand market all the time, generally priced at around £150 and up (all depending on their condition.)

The Dansette Bermuda is one of our favourite models, but there’s a whole variety of them out there - all of which look perfect for playing those cherished Beatles and Stones records.

What do you buy the bovine-loving music fan for Christmas? This year, the smart money's on Creative's Zen Moo music player.

Based on the same architecture as the Zen Stone, this 'fun' device contains 2GB of memory, comes with an FM radio and has a playback time of up to 20 hours (MP3 and WMA formats are supported). It also works as a voice recorder and an alarm clock.

Most importantly, though, it's designed to look a bit like a cow.

Apparently, it's being released to celebrate the Chinese New Year - 2009 will be the year of the ox. This being the case, we're not yet sure whether it'll be available outside of China (where it was announced).

Assuming the Zen Moo does get the worldwide launch it so obviously deserves, we'd suggest plugging it into these.

(Via Engadget)

Pioneering electronica artist Jean-Michel Jarre is on a mission to make us think about the "quality of reproduction" of our music, but perversely, he's doing it by launching an iPod speaker system.

The new AeroSystem is currently only available in France - it looks rather like three metal cutlery holders stacked in a glass tube - and costs €450.

This is all well and good, but MusicRadar is a little confused about Jarre's rationale for launching the product.

While we agree that there's a quality gap between "high-quality hi-fi systems" and using "laptops to listen to music as MP3s", the fact is that most iPods contain compressed music that will never be up to audiophile standards.

This being the case, you could argue that launching a speaker system that's specifically designed to be used with Apple's player will perpetuate rather than buck the trend that Jarre is concerned about.

When he says that "sound quality is often overlooked in favour of its ease of use and storage", one can only assume that he's challenging the iPod's dominance, so why release a product that's specifically designed to support it?

Maybe something's got lost in translation - the press release was originally written in French - but like we said, we're confused.

(Via Engadget)

Here's a concept we don't see everyday: an MP3 player designed for two people inspired by mitosis. Like a cell separating into two identical sets, the Twinned MP3 Player breaks into two units, but play exactly the same music at exactly the same time.

Both units run from the same playlist, and both players must be docked to update it. One is incapable of functioning without the other, like star-crossed lovers, if you will.

It's actually quite a nice concept, if completely unusable. Lovers will agree to disagree on most things, but can anyone honestly say they share identical music tastes with their partner?

If you answered 'yes' to the last question, the Twinned MP3 Player is still just a concept, so keep dreaming…

(Via: Gizmodo)

As MusicRadar and many others predicted, Apple will be hosting a 'special event' on September 9, which just about everyone believes will see the launch of a new range of iPods.

The event, which the invite reveals is called 'Let's Rock', will take place in San Francisco at 10am, and speculation is rife that all of Apple's music players will be updated. A redesigned, more affordable iPod touch certainly looks to be on the cards, as do increased-capacity shuffle and nano models.

We're also hopeful that Apple will spring a surprise and give us something new in the Mac department. However, as we reported yesterday, this might have to wait.

US presidential hopeful Barack Obama makes it his business to know the issues. Turns out he knows his music too. In a new interview to be published in Friday's issue of Rolling Stone, the presumptive Democratic nominee talks about what's on his iPod, and the artists who fuel his political ideals.

"I have pretty eclectic tastes," says Obama, who lists Bob Dylan, Yo-Yo Ma, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow and Jay-Z as just some of the names on his iPod. As a child of the '70s, Obama says he listened to The Rolling Stones, Elton John and Earth, Wind & Fire. He cites Stevie Wonder as his musical hero from the era.

Not surprisingly, several musicians on Obama's iPod are mutual fans, including Bruce Springsteen. Obama says he hasn't met Springsteen, but the two have talked over the phone. "Not only do I love Bruce's music, but I just love him as a person," Obama enthuses. "He is a guy who has never lost track of his roots, who knows who he is, who has never put on a front."

Yes, but the real question voters want to know is this: Did he address him as the Boss? "You've got to," the candidate says.

Asked for his thoughts on rap, Obama says the genre has been an incredible musical force, although he admits he's nervous about his daughters Malia, 9, and Sasha, 7 istening to it.

"I am troubled sometimes by the misogyny and materialism of a lot of rap lyrics," he says, "but I think the genius of the art form has shifted the culture and helped to desegregate music."

According to the largest academic survey of young people's music habits ever conducted, MP3 players belonging to teenagers and students contain an average of 1770 tracks - half of which have not been paid for.

The results also showed that 63% of the 14-24 year old respondents use peer-to-peer file-sharing networks to download music while 42% upload their own.

It's not all doom and gloom for music sales, though - 80% of illegal downloaders would be willing to pay for an unlimited legal service and 60% would still buy CDs. In fact, only 3% do not own any CDs… although 14% of the average CD collection had been ripped or burnt, ahem.

Other points of interest show 60% of music budget is spent on live rather than recorded music (mostly gigs and merchandise), young people believe songwriters, musicians and performers should be the beneficiaries of a proposed music license and more than a third of people who play a musical instrument have uploaded their own recordings to a social network. It's quite surprising to see that a small number who do not play any musical instruments still manage to upload their own recorded music - vocal harmony groups perhaps?

The Music Experience And Behaviour In Young People survey was conducted by British Music Rights (BMR). You can download the full 41-page report here.