Comparedownload.com is a new service that takes a Kelkoo-esque approach to music downloads, presenting you with price comparisons for downloads of a given track. It also includes related videos, reviews and gig tickets.

The site is aiming to become a “music information hub”: a content deal with YouTube guarantees plenty of video material and user reviews are aggregated from Amazon.co.uk. There’s also a partnership with streaming service We7 to provide content for a Comparedownload.com-branded music player.

It clearly has the potential to be a useful service – comparison sites are a proven model, so why not in music downloads?

However, the site is let down somewhat by the UI. I’m guessing they were aiming for “clean”, but it could use work. Increasing the number of merchants would be a wise move too.

[Update 4 August 2009] Hey everyone – So I think we found the culprit that gave rise to this whole episode. Our best guess at the moment is that a problem occurred involving the XML-RPC protocol when the draft post was first submitted to our site using the ‘WordPress for BlackBerry’ software. For whatever reason that set the post to go live without us knowing, causing us to be taken unawares. We are, in fact, now in contact with Automattic, the company behind WordPress, to isolate the bug so hopefully other sites won’t fall victim to this kind of accident. Thanks to all for this great discussion. We’ve learned lots. Mike Butcher.

Original article:

This weekend, TechCrunch Europe contributor Milo Yiannopoulos heard a rumour that James Whatley, who as head of social media for Spinvox has been a vociferous supporter of the company, might be quitting his job. This was not confirmed by James and we had not spoken to him yet, as it was the weekend. We started working on the story in draft on the site, in anticipation that the story might break this week, if confirmed. We planned to talk to James on Monday first thing. Working on stories in draft is common practice for blogs like ours as others in the team can see what is being worked on and prevent duplication.

However, although the story was marked as “draft”, and was not in any way intended to be published, it somehow appeared in our public RSS feed. We do not currently know the reason for this and we have our technical guys looking into it. However, we know it was not published manually. Unfortunately the post was also deleted from our system before we had a chance to edit it into the story we did have. Once deleted, it remained on our feed but couldn’t be changed directly by editorial.

A number of people noticed the publication, took screenshots of this completely unfinished, unconfirmed story and started republishing those images. It’s worth pointing out that the story was clearly marked DO NOT PUBLISH.

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Well, July came and went and we saw no sign of Microsoft‘s much-anticipated new streaming music service. So I did a little digging around, and over the weekend word reached me through a friend in the music industry that the delay has nothing to do with technical problems, as some have suggested. According to my source, Microsoft “has no label deals”. And a streaming music service isn’t much good without any content.

That’s surprising, if it’s true. It would be strange if Microsoft, having the benefit of observing Apple and Spotify at work over the past year, has been making unrealistic demands on the labels. Strange, too, that the labels wouldn’t realise what a cash cow a deal with Microsoft could be: if Microsoft can match Spotify’s speed and quality it’s difficult to imagine it failing.

Not much is known about Microsoft’s plans for the service, apart from the fact that it’ll be a lot like Spotify and that it’s definitely coming. We do know that it’ll be ad-supported and sit alongside the recently revamped MSN Video.

The service was set to launch at the end of July. Now? Who knows. We’ll get on to Microsoft to see if we can elicit a response.

Update: A representative for Microsoft in the UK declined to comment on this report.

Day two of this ridiculous juice cleanse experiment and I feel like a new man. By which I mean, I feel like my insides aren’t fully developed, I have no strength in my arms or legs and the idea of eating solid food is just a distant dream.

It’s all Lacy’s fault, of course, she actually pays for this nonsense every month or so and claims it’s the reason why she no longer gets sick when she travels. Arrington and Heather apparently swear by it too.

The rest of TechCrunch, meanwhile, are beyond skeptical, bandying around words like “science” and “proof” in a pathetic attempt to disguise the fact that they’re in the pay of Big Cheeseburger. Whatever the truth, I’ve bet Lacy fifty dollars that the only thing the cleanse will achieve for me is crippling hunger and a loss of feeling in my extremities, so I’m in for the duration. At least as I lie on my deathbed, puking water and romaine-and-celery juice into a cardboard bowl, I can comfort myself with the fact that it was free – a promotion by the company to tempt California-based hacks into starving themselves to death. Journalistic freebies for the win (see my statement of ethics: here).

Speaking of ethics, I’m just back in San Francisco from an all expenses paid trip to the beach. Promoted as ‘Geeks At The Beach’, the trip came courtesy of J.R. Johnson who runs a new site aiming to bring people together based on things they agree on, to discuss things they don’t. According to the invitation, J.R. wanted to round up ‘influential’ social media types for a day of discussion about trends in the industry, and where it’s heading next. In Los Angeles. On a beach.

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