Recently, BigPond has made deals with various music industries including Sony BMG, Universal, Warner Music and EMI, as well as with independent labels MGM and Liberation.

This would mean giving Telstra’s BigPond the rights to even more music, raising their inventory from 20,000 to nearly a million.

The advantage they stand with, is the ability to download the music to almost any portable device including media centers or your Xbox.

Each downloaded song will not have any restrictive copy protection limiting it against a single device. This gives the iPod owners an alternative from iTunes and “puts consumers in the driving seat”, says BigPond MD, Justin Milne.

It is estimated that the inventory would grow up to 1 million by Jan 09. However, in the meantime it shouldn’t be too long before BigPond users get access to more than just the current 20,000.

I came across this article, on The Big Chair, that was written earlier this year – and I laughingly agree with Conrad Walters on this following extract from the article:

10 things that won’t change in 2008

1. Google will still have access to more information about you than your mother has.
2. The DVD drive on your computer will still be ideal for holding your first cup of coffee while Windows Vista loads.
3. Internet filters will still require children to help their parents view the websites they want.
4. Spammers will still exploit the inverse relationship that exists between IQ and greed.
5. Social networking sites will still be the best place for identity thieves to refine their craft.
6. People will still visit Second Life trying to discover if there’s something to do other than to see if there’s something to do.
7. YouTube will still be the definitive source for guidance on how to train cats to flush a toilet.
8. Mobile phones will still come with a choice of 200 ring tones, none of which anyone wants.
9. Broadband in rural Australia will still involve paper cups and string.
10. Video iPod users will still squint into postage-stamp screens and convince themselves they’ve enjoyed watching something.