Photo: Noah Hall. Used under license.

Bizarre.

Not only does Amazon.com’s MP3 service sell 256k MP3s with no DRM at all… but it appears to work from the UK.

Order as normal. Use your amazon.co.uk username/password. Choose a credit card. It then asks you to update your address - I filled in my London address, and then chose “CA” for my state, and the ever faithful “90210″ as my ZIP code.

And I’m now the proud owner of a song (KD Tunstall, if you’re interested), for the sum of 44p instead of iTunes UK’s DRM’d 79p charge.

Amazon.com = iTunes killer.

If you follow the world of Content Restriction and Protection, aka DRM, it’s been an interesting week.

First came the news that Universal Music are trialling DRM-free music sales. This is big news; they’re the largest music company in the world, and they’re joining EMI in removing restrictions on music sales. And, while they’re still having an icky fit with Steve Jobs and refusing to do this in iTunes, it’s still very interesting; and comes hot on the heels of some research showing that people don’t like DRM.

The slightly more hidden story is probably rather more interesting. Boing Boing reports that one company is closing its video store - with the result that “after August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos.” Yes, you thought you’d bought that copy of Star Trek - but you hadn’t. And now, this company is taking it away from you.

If your local Virgin Megastores went bust, you’d still be able to play the CDs or DVDs you bought from it. Indeed, if the record label went bust, that still wouldn’t render the CD unplayable. But in the heady world of DRM purchases, this is exactly what can happen. And, as this story shows, is happening.

So, as consumers buying products with crap in them - content restriction and protection in the form of DRM - we need to be more careful than ever before. Because if the deal we’ve got is too good to be true, and the company goes pop: so does your music. This is a massive step-change. We’ve never before had to be aware of the financial health of the companies we buy entertainment products from.

Being fair on the video store company involved, they are apparently giving you your money back - at least, in vouchers for their online payment system. It’s highly unlikely that a bankrupt online video store could do that; instead, you’d just be left with useless files, and no refunds. At least, the people behind the ‘uncrackable’ DRM would tell you they’re useless files. A quick Google search would tell you otherwise.

Mind you, a quick Google search would help pay for your refund. Because the company that has closed its video store and rendered its videos unplayable… is Google.

This isn’t a posting about my moggy - though that’s him, just up there, relaxing in Yorkshire in 1999. (Eight years later, he is warming my lap as I type this).

No, this is a posting about Mog.com, a new music website (well, new to me, anyway) which has a few interesting tricks up its sleeve.

So far, Pandora makes you type some of your favourite songs to base a jukebox around them; last.fm insists that you install some software to spy on what you play, and waits until you’ve played 200 songs to give you some useful personalised information. Mog.com is interesting, because it has a piece of software called ‘Mog-o-matic’ which appears to go through your music files and lets the website know what you own. It’s a fairly quick process (taking overnight from my point of view), and from that… hey presto, music recommendations. To a point.

Being frank, the music recommendations aren’t up to much using mog.com. This is probably because the system just knows what’s in my collection, and not what I listen to most. So, recommended songs include a Stereophonics song I loathe, albeit lots of other songs I don’t, yet, recognise.

But the interesting thing is Mog TV (in beta, naturally). This kind of works by scouring YouTube for stuff it reckons you like. Punch it up on thne MacMini connected to the television, as I did over the weekend, and it plays music television - exclusively, stuff I might like.

There’s a lot of Beatles in my iTunes collection, for example (and a lot of Monty Python, and there’s a reason for that which I won’t bore you with) - so I get a lot of Beatles tracks on Mog TV. Except YouTube throws up a fascinating set of treatment of Beatles songs - from the manic ukelele player I mention earlier to some great, presumably home-made, video clips. In short, not only did I get ‘official’ clips, but also a set of fascinating, unofficial, creative clips too.

I’m enjoying Current, the new TV channel on Sky, but when I want music, Mog TV is really rather fine. And the clever bit is: it’s all coming from YouTube in the first place. Mog doesn’t have to worry about music payments, copyright, or anything else.

Viacom’s concerns about YouTube aside: is this what MTV should have done? Why watch non-stop music videos I don’t like, when I can watch non-stop music videos that I do enjoy on Mog TV?

Incidentally, the best way I’ve found so far of finding new music is this post from Dan Taylor, from which I used a non-UK-based online music retailer (coughski) to purchase all the albums I’d not already got, to give them a decent test. I like Belle and Sebastian, and will be purchasing more of their albums from a UK-based retailer soon. (I did not like Yo La Tengo, however.)

Phill Jupitus, right, watches Roger Daltry accept an award. But do we need knowledgeable music presenters like Phill on the radio any more?

The most compelling reason for music radio can be the musical knowledge that you get from a good informed presenter. Even when playing a song you know and like, a great music DJ can add more information to make your enjoyment increase.

Which appears to be the plan with SpotDJ, which Eric Rice points me toward. It’s a way that you can record knowledgeable ’spots’ which iTunes can slot in for users playing those songs, making your music collection closer to a radio experience. But without the radio. Click the ‘play’ button on the front page to have a listen.

Of course, you still need to own the song. So this doesn’t replace the thrill of hearing a new song you’ve never heard before. But it does go a long way to getting the companionship you enjoy with the radio. Except now you can turn the DJs on and off.

One to watch, perhaps?