Wiley's Twitter feed went into overdrive at the end of last week, starting with a tirade against his former manager John Woolf, who he had apparently just sacked, followed by the rapper uploading twelve zip files of music from Thursday evening and on through Friday, totalling around 200 tracks, including completed tracks, demos, a capellas and instrumentals.

He told fans he was getting rid of everything he had so that he "can go and start a new album and hide it all then release it next year".

As the tweets were coming thick and fast, Grimeforum.com handily collected all the files together in one place, generating so much interest that the site was at times unable to cope with the number of people attempting to access it.

www.grimeforum.com/?p=3455

Fans of Paramore thought Hayley Williams was getting a little raunchy last week by posting a topless picture of herself to her Twitter feed, but it seems the poor frontwoman had her account on the micro-blogging site hacked by someone who had access to the rather personal photo. Well, that's what she says, anyway. Others seem sceptical about her version of events.

Williams deleted the revealing photo, of her lying on her bed, as soon as she was aware of it, tweeting: "Well... my night just changed drastically, got hacked", but needless to say, not before copies of the picture were posted on various blogs around the net.

Check out Twitter's global 'trending' top ten this morning and you'll notice Justin Bieber isn't in there for the first time in, well, ages. However, there is a suspicious looking "Jieber".

This is apparently because Twitter has changed the way it compiles its list of most talked about topics, which appears across the micro-blogging service's website, so that spikes in chatter about new topics over short periods of time score higher, rather than overall chatter around existing topics. The switchover resulted in Bieber falling out of the trending top ten for the first time in months, something the squeaky hair cut himself spotted. He tweeted this weekend: "I heard you changed your system to stop my fans from making trending topics?? Really?? Where is the love??"

Having seen their hero fall out of the Twitter trending chart, it seems Bieber's ever faithful (scary?) fanbase all started referring to him by the abbreviation Jieber, ensuring a sudden spike around a new key word.

How said fans plan to organise themselves to agree a new trending word each day isn't clear, but I'm sure they'll figure out a way. If only such industriousness could be channelled into something worthwhile.

I think the fact "Jick Nonas" is trending is also a result of the new system, though its not clear if that is Jonas Brother fans responding to ensure their heroes still trend, or whether that particular search term is being used by Bieber fans as a diss to the rival teen pop outfit, who apparently slightly dissed Justin recently.

Twitter has confirmed plans to let brands buy promotional tweets that will appear in searches made on the micro-blogging platform, a revenue raising plan previously revealed by the Wall Street Journal. The system adapts Google's main text-based search-placed advertising system, though with Twitter advertisers will have to adhere to the 140-character limit. Twitter bosses say they already have Starbucks, Sony Pictures, Red Bull, Bravo and Best Buy signed up for the new ads system.

Twestival, an annual 'Twitter festival' which uses Twitter to link charitable events in over 200 cities worldwide, is seeking artists, labels, managers and general music people to donate music for its accompanying online radio station, Twestival.fm. People who then listen to music on the site can donate money as they do so.

SoundCloud's Dave Haynes, who is behind the Twestival.fm site, explains: "The goal is to raise $5,000 for Twestival. We have a matching grant too, so every dollar raised by Twestival.fm gets doubled! If you have some music to promote and a Twitter account then you can get involved straight away. It's really simple, you provide the music and fans donate the money".

Twestival itself takes place on 25 Mar, with proceeds donated to Dublin-based charity Concern Worldwide. Last year's event raised over $250,000 in total.

To upload tracks or just check out what's already there, go to: twestival-fm.com

So, yesterday I was running my obviously excellent 'beginners guide to digital media' and was introducing Twitter to some never-before-tweeted types, and among the questions asked was: "How do they make any money". I pondered for a second and then responded: "Well, I guess they'll have to sort out some sort of proper advertising system at some point".

Little did I know, that 'point' was the exact moment I was speaking, to the second. Well, not quite, but the Wall Street Journal's tech blog has just reported on plans at Twitter HQ to incorporate advertising into the micro-blogging service's search facility, so that when you search the tweetosphere for tweets on, say, "New York", you'll see an ad for things to do in New York. When you search for tweets on "laptops" you'll see an ad for laptops. And when you search for "6music" you'll see an ad for clueless executives who specialise in making proposals that won't achieve any of their own aims.

Basically it will work like Google's basic search-linked ads system, though ad copy will have to be 140 characters long, so they take the form of a tweet. They should be much more obvious than the current text ads that appear on the web-based Twitter interface, and it's thought the social networking firm will sell the new ad spots much more proactively, the existing ones generally just promoting Twitter-related services. It's thought these new ads would also show when searches are done off the Twitter network via third party clients like Tweetdeck. People who primarily connect with Twitter using such apps currently completely avoid all Twitter advertising.

According to the WSJ the new ad system should go live this side of the summer.

Finally, the internet has a purpose again; Lily Allen has returned to Twitter four months after announcing that she was becoming a "neo-luddite" and quitting the microblogging site.
 
Yesterday, she announced that she was back. She said: "Hello, I'm back", which I think pretty much confirms it.
 
What has she been up to while she's been away, though? Lily updated us thus: "Just got back from Australia, and I had a wonderful time. Setting up my new office in London, got some really exciting stuff to share with you. For now though, I'm off to the gym. Went to India over Xmas and the clarified butter has made its way from my tummy to my thighs. Eeuuggh".
 
So that's good to know.

So, MIDEM's biggest celebrity booking on the conference side, Mr Pharrell Williams, reckons the internet age has seriously empowered artists, meaning his advice for new talent is this: set up a great website, hold on to your copyrights, and then get all synced up and chase the marketing man's pound.

Asked by the BBC at the Cannes convention this weekend what he would do if he was starting out as an artist in 2010, Williams said: "I would probably build a site, a home for my music, a destination where people could come and see me and what I do and what I'm thinking about. And then I'd probably assemble a team of kids that would go and bug the hell out of advertising agencies and marketing companies to use my music".

While he conceded a major label deal, and the money it delivers, still has an important part to play in launching many artist' careers, he said that new talent should consider approaching advertising and marketing agencies as much as traditional music companies. He told the Beeb: "I would want to establish myself and show the world that I have interesting music, but I would create that world. The more dimension that you give your music and your website, the more creative it becomes".

Williams was one of three big name artists appearing at MIDEM this year to basically speak out in support of the file-sharing community, despite many on the label and management sides of the industry being more hardline than ever about the evilness of the file-sharers.

As previously reported, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien said in a video message to the conference that he had a problem with those who say file-sharing is killing the industry, arguing that file-sharers pump money into the business through ticket and merchandise purchases. Williams, meanwhile, said he thought of file-sharing networks as a bit preview service for music fans. He mused: "I think it's cool that people [can] test [music] out. I think that's a good thing".

Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz, speaking about fan engagement, didn't deal with the file-sharing issue quite so head on, but implied that he saw file-sharing communities as another tool through which artists can develop their fan relationships, which will in turn pay dividends. According to the BBC, he told the conference: "To me, the more the fan is interacting with you and feels part of the community, the more interested they will be in buying your music or coming out to your shows".

He continued: "I think it's a great time to be in music, and a horrible time to be in music, because a lot of things can go wrong. But it's kind of the wild west, and as long as you've got a pistol and you're ready to shoot somebody, it's going to be OK".

Talking of fan engagement and artist empowerment, artist manager Mark Wood of Radius Music made an interesting point in another session, when the conversation moved to the role of Twitter.

Referencing one of his artists, Imogen Heap, he said Twitter was a great tool for artists in that it gives them a real connection to and insight of their fanbase, which enables them to make better choices when entering into business relationships with labels, merchandisers or marketing partners.

According to Billboard, Wood observed: "[Thanks to Twitter] Imogen's more in tune with her fans than I am. You can't pull the wool over her eyes (not that I ever would) about a t-shirt design or something, because she's already polled it and 5,000 people have said they don't like it".

CMU's Andy Malt and Chris Cooke look back at a year of digital music innovations and developments, and at the big stories and trends in the media industry.

1. THE PIRATE BAY
Oh The Pirate Bay, how ye entertain us so. After years of amusing those of us who pay extra attention to the world of file-sharing - with their contentious press statements, constant evading of the piracy police and grand plans to buy their own country (well, Sealand) to avoid litigation - the Bay entered the mainstream consciousness this year as the three men behind it, and their financial backer, faced both civil and criminal copyright infringement charges in the Swedish courts. They were initially bullish about their defence, especially when the prosecution dropped half its charges. But their legal arguments were weak, and they promptly lost the case. Mega-damages and prison sentences were ordered.

Not that they paid the damages or served the prison time. Claims of judicial bias and various appeals were launched. Defendant and Bay PR man Peter Sunde resigned. Then, in another court case in the Netherlands, the Bay's lawyers denied any of the four defendants had ever actually owned the infamous BitTorrent tracker and search service anyway. For a while it looked like the Bay would be bought by a company called GGF, who were going to turn it all legit. It was a bold plan that never quite happened and nearly caused GGF to go broke. The Bay did turn off its BitTorrent tracker in the latter part of the year, though for technical rather than legal reasons. Despite everything, in a year in which illegal file-sharing of all kinds continued to grow, The Pirate Bay still operates and dominates.

2. YOUTUBE V PRS ETC
But what about the legit online content providers? Well, as 2009 started one of the biggest, YouTube, was busy blocking access to content owned by Warner Music, having failed to negotiate a new licensing deal with the major. Then, in March, the Google-owned video platform cut UK access to all "premium music content" after failing to reach a new deal with publishing rights collecting society PRS (or PRS For Music, as it renamed itself this year). A similar squabble followed with PRS's German counterparts GEMA.

The issue? YouTube thought the labels and collecting societies were overcharging for their content. The music bodies thought they were being underpaid, and demanded a bigger share of the multi-billion dollar profits Google were making. Both sides were right and both sides were wrong. Record companies and music publishers always overvalue their content, and fail to see that charging less money now might result in more streams and downloads later, resulting in more cash overall. However, Google and their like undervalue content, while their business models, based around providing low-cost net services and selling bargain basement advertising, can't really support it. Still, agreements were made between Google, Warner and PRS, so for now music videos are streaming on YouTube (outside of Germany that is).

3. SPOTIFY
Although music videos disappeared from YouTube, 2009 was still the year of the streaming music service. And one in particular dominated. Spotify only publicly launched in October last year, but by January it had already started a mini revolution in digital music. After years of being told that what we needed was browser-based, Flash-powered music players with all kinds of features, it turned out what we really wanted was a simple standalone program that was quick and easy to use. Who'd have thought?

The other major attraction of Spotify was the size of its catalogue, aided by the fact that they launched with all four majors and indie digital rights body Merlin already on board. Much of this year has been taken up with debates over whether or not the company can actually make enough money to survive and if they're paying artists properly, but the catalogue continues to grow, the player remains popular and mobile apps for premium account holders have upped subscriptions income. One day the venture capital funding all this will run out. Let's hope together the record industry and Team Spot can ensure their business is viable before that day.

4. MYSPACE MUSIC
Talking of streaming music, this year also saw the roll out of MySpace Music, the social networking giant's expanded music platform, another streaming music service. When the new service launched in the US last year it was instantly hit with all kinds of criticism. A major sticking point was that it had gone live without the aforementioned Merlin on board, meaning most indie label content, which was arguably what got MySpace where it is today, was not available on the site. Negotiations continued this year, but still no deal had been done when the service arrived in Australia in October.

However, by the time it all kicked off in the UK this month, Merlin were in the mix, having been given sufficient benefits to justify joining the MySpace Music party. The service still came in for some criticism though. That said, CMU Daily's Business Editor Chris Cooke noted that it was "not as shit as you might expect". Though whether that's enough for MySpace Music to both succeed, and save the flagging social network to which it is attached, time will tell. I'm guessing not.

5. GATELY, MOIR & TWITTER CAMPAIGNS
MySpace may be floundering, but 2009 was definitely the year social networking came of age and it was all down to a service so simple that it's nearly impossible to explain - Twitter. Now social networking really did make us socially network with friends and like-minded individuals. Twitter linked together Facebook, YouTube and the blogosphere, and empowered the people who used and generated them. The first real proof of this power was seen when a certain boy band star died and a Daily Mail journalist declared "there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death".

Columnist Jan Moir called Gately's lifestyle into question and, seemingly, suggested that it was his homosexuality that ultimately caused his death. Outrage spread across Twitter within hours, blog commentaries followed, a Facebook group explained how best to complain, and within days the Press Complaints Commission had received over 25,000 complaints - more than they'd had in the whole of the previous five years. Moir was forced to apologise, though also found column space to portray herself as a victim of the newly empowered Twitterati. Though, ironically, given the PCC can only act if a family member complains, it was actually the one complaint that arrived last week, from Gately's widower Andrew Coyles, that potentially had real power.

6. SUBO
Social networking doesn't just generate complaints, however. It can also turn a contestant on a British talent show into an overnight global superstar. It may have been Simon Cowell's TV adventures that brought her to our attention, but it was the uncoordinated internet that caused this year's biggest pop phenomenon - the rise and rise of Susan Boyle. Thanks to YouTube, Twitter, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, the fact Boyle could deliver a belting tune, despite lacking the pop star physique, was world news overnight. Cowell, not exactly the most net savvy of men, was still able to hear the 'kerr-ching' as the world flocked to the YouTube video of this Scottish spinster's 'Les Mis' warblings.

In the end, she lost the final 'Britain's Got Talent' viewers vote, and started to lose her mind under the tabloid glare. Still, combine that momentum, Simon Cowell and a decently produced covers album and the world is your oyster. Within three weeks of releasing debut album, 'I Dreamed A Dream', Boyle had sold over six million copies worldwide, over a million of them in the UK, smashing all kinds of records along the way. Even Cowell surely couldn't have predicted just how big a goldmine his 'BGT' franchise could become thanks to the power of social networking. Though, of course, the social networkers turned against him when it came to his other TV show - and so the 'stop X-Factor getting to number one' campaign began - but presumably Cowell's interest in social media next year won't be in stopping future 'anti-X' projects, but in trying to repeat the SuBo phenomenon for a second time.

7. OBSERVER MUSIC NEVER
But what about the traditional media? It's all very well talking up the bloody internet and all this social networking whatnot, but what about the good old fashioned music magazine? Well, it's not good news, people. With only a couple of exceptions, all music magazines lost readers this year, in print at least. One industry favourite - the Observer Music Monthly - was closed down completely, though more because of the crisis in the newspaper industry than anything else, more of which in a minute.

Conor McNicholas may have surrendered the NME editorship this year (so that both rock weeklies - NME and Kerrang! - now have ladies in charge, which is nice), but his strategy of brand extension will have to stay on the agenda of any music magazine wanting to survive the next decade. Web-TV services, radio stations, club nights, tours, books, you name it, diversification is the name of the game. We've all known that for a while, of course, though I'm still not sure anyone has cracked how to ensure there's consistent editorial identity across all the spin offs. Conor got close, but, frankly, we could all do better.

8. DAB DISAGREEMENTS
Radio ratings remain high in the UK, even if the commercial radio sector has been struggling to sell enough advertising to make ends meet. Still, with the aforementioned Spotify competing for both listeners and advertisers, the radio sector (whose internet adventures outside the BBC have been pretty mediocre) should probably have a serious rethink to ensure future survival. With back-to-back streams and music-on-demand all over the net, radio could do worse than refocus on good presenters, quality specialist shows and close knit listener communities. 

In 2009, the radio industry focused more on battling to get rid of industry regulation from OfCom, and agonising over what to do about digital audio broadcasting, the flagging digital radio network into which the radio industry has pumped millions. Still theoretically the most efficient way to broadcast in the digital age, the BBC is still backing DAB, even though many commercial digital-only stations have been closed and sales of DAB receivers, while up, are still slow. The commercial sector is still split over what to do about DAB, so much so its trade body, RadioCentre, has lost two of its smaller but significant members, who fear big boy Global Radio's thoughts on the issue are getting too much attention. These are squabbles set to continue, distracting radio types from the real challenges at hand.

9. EVERYONE HATES THE BBC
God, the bloody BBC, eh? Wasting all our money with their overpaid execs and money-guzzling star turns. Still falling over themselves to apologise over last year's Sachsgate scandal, and with both Labour and the Conservatives calling for radical cuts, and maybe the shift of some of their licence fee money to other broadcasters, the BBC has had a difficult year.

It's a tricky one. We all love to diss the Beeb, despite most of us probably thinking they make most of the better British telly programmes, operate the superior radio stations, and provide one of the best websites on the internet. One hopes that, especially if the Tories win next year's General Election, BBC top brass can get Corporation spending back into the real world, but without letting the politicians and commercial media moguls cut its services into pieces.

10. IT'S END OF THE MEDIA AS WE KNOW IT, DO YOU FEEL FINE?
Of course, one of the reasons the commercial media - the big TV operators and especially the newspaper owners (who increasingly compete with the Beeb in the internet age) - have been so vocal in criticising the BBC this year, is because they're all fucked. This was the year when the big media firms all began to properly admit they were in a real mess. The internet meant they were probably talking to more people than ever before, but no one had managed to turn that fact into substantial sums of money.

All of which means that the media industry, who have been reporting on the plight of the music business for years now, have suddenly realised they are facing exactly the same issues as their record company counterparts. The public is more eager to access music and media than ever before, and it's easier and cheaper to provide it. But the internet has conditioned everyone to want all of this for free - either because that's how content owners have been providing it so far, or because others have been distributing it illegally. This is all well and good, but with a limited amount of advertising money available, and content still costing a sizable sum to make, how can this all add up?

The future is surely subscriptions. Whether that be Spotify's premium service, or Rupert Murdoch's planned pay-to-read Times website, or Virgin Media's add-premium-content-to-your-ISP-bill proposals, somewhere out there there's a model that will work. If you find it on your travels, do dust it off, it'll be worth a fortune. Will we find that dream business model in 2010? Possibly, though it'll take a good few years to hone, I suspect. But, as 2010 approaches, I'm more optimistic than ever that - while the big music and media firms may, in some ways, be fucked for now - the future for all of this looks rather rosey. This, people, is the big period of flux. It's risky, but it's fun. And it's certainly great to write about. Hopefully you like reading about it too. So keep it CMU for another year, and let's see how it all turns out together, shall we?

It's not entirely clear, but I have a feeling Dave Grohl doesn't like Twitter. Here's what he had to say about the social networking site: "Fuck Twitter! That's the biggest waste of time. If people got their head out of their ass, they might fucking get out and accomplish something".

Perhaps he's just upset that since Courtney Love closed down her Twitter feed he can't keep track of what she's accusing him of this week.

Trent Reznor has been discussing his decision to delete his Twitter account. As previously reported, the Nine Inch Nails man recently decided to take a step back from the social networking site, but after a brief return to regularly updating fans on it, he completely deleted his account earlier this month.

Writing on the Nine Inch Nails website, he said: "Yes, I deleted my account and I'll explain why since somehow someone apparently thinks this is newsworthy. Twitter seemed like an interesting way to quickly reach a large number of people, and people that seem to exist outside of the nin.com world of fans. Then... around the time news broke of my engagement, a faction of troublemakers showed up whose sole intent was to disrupt, harass, insult and incite...In a reasonably moderated community, these people can be made to vanish - on Twitter, it's a free-for-all - hence they flock there. It depresses me to think my art and life's work can attract this kind of scum... if that was your intention you trolling, cowardly pigs - you've succeeded".

Twitter is "gay"... "Twitter this shit, motherfucker". Or so said David Cameron when asked about the popular micro-blogging service on the Absolute Radio breakfast show yesterday. Oh no, hang on. He said "twat" didn't he. No, it was Kid Rock who said the other stuff.

Asked about the Twitter phenomenon by Rolling Stone, Rock said: "It's gay. If one more person asks me if I have a Twitter, I'm going to tell them, 'Twitter this shit, motherfucker'. I don't have anything to say, and what I have to say is not that relevant. Anything that is relevant, I'm going to bottle it up and then squeeze it onto a record somewhere".

An interesting set of minutes from a management meeting at the Twitter corp seems to suggest the company is considering finding a way of rewarding the more famous tweeters who bring the service significant amounts of traffic, though if at all possible they'd prefer to not have to reward celebrity micro-bloggers with cash. You can understand why - that's not really a floodgate you want to open.

The minutes, reported on by TechCrunch, centre in particular on Diddy who, ever the entrepreneur, seems to have suggested to Twitter that he should be paid for sharing with his fans via the platform. Some execs at the meeting suggested making shares in the company available to celebrity tweeters, and also suggested pandering to Diddy's ego by offering him a seat on some sort of celebrity tweeters committee.

But the minutes do add that "Diddy [is] not so strategic" and "Diddy values his contribution higher than we do", while questioning whether a business partnership between them and the hip hop mogul would work, noting "It would be hard to explain to him what we would be doing wrong since he thinks about business differently".

Even if Twitter do successfully start to monetise their service through more advertising, one would think they'd be advised to maintain a 'take it or leave' approach with celebrities demanding payment for the intellectual property in their idle thoughts and status updates, even if a rival were to start signing up c'lebs to exclusivity deals on such things. Because once you start paying out to one ego, a queue is going to start appearing at the door. Though if a well-funded rival was to arrive on the scene, you could see why Twitter might want to meet more demanding famous tweeters half way.

Britney Spears Twitpic account was hacked a couple of days ago, and whoever did it posted a message claiming that the singer was dead. "Britney has passed today" it read. "It is a sad day for everyone. More news to come".

Presumably the hacker's hope was to kick off the latest incorrect net-based dead celeb rumour, perhaps aided by the fact the last but one dead celeb rumour on the net turned out to be true (the subsequent Jeff Goldblum was, of course, fake). But I'm not sure the Britney one gathered much momentum, because it was quickly followed by a tweet from what was presumably a legitimate contributor who wrote: "Britney's Twitter was just hacked. The last message is obviously not true. She is fine and dandy spending a quiet day at home relaxing".

Elsewhere in fake Twitter messages, a couple of recent graduates who created a false account claiming to be that of Foreign Secretary David Miliband say it highlights the importance of verification on the internet. Many, including journalists from major newspapers, thought that the account was real, and reported the fake politician's slightly odd tribute to the late Michael Jackson as fact. The duo who created the account, Rory Crew and Knud Noelle, said they wanted to bring political comedy to Twitter, but have now stopped because it wasn't really their intention to mislead anyone. Crew said: "I'm not happy about duping the media, but they learned something".

Twitter has said it will introduce a 'verified accounts' programme to combat the issue of individuals pretending to be celebrities on the service. While some fake celeb Twitter accounts are obviously a joke, some are normal or tedious enough to be believable. Some agents and managers are now complaining that the social networking phenomenon isn't doing enough about people pretending to be their clients on the service, and one prominent baseball manager filed a lawsuit when a Twitterer started pretending to be him. It's not entirely clear how the verified accounts system will work, and whether it will be a formalisation of the existing celebrity verification system here in the UK, whereby Jonathan Ross phones a celeb in question to ask them if it's genuinely them tweeting.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Which wasn't very long.

A Twitter user pretending to be Phil Spector admitted that he wasn't the real deal yesterday after some media reported that the convicted producer was somehow Tweeting from prison. Launching the Spector Twitter feed just as the legendary producer was sentenced to 19 years in jail for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003, the pretender posted a serious of rambling posts, some referencing Spector quotes from the past, and many focusing on his new friendship with a cockroach named Wilson.

But yesterday the imposter posted: "I am NOT Phil Spector. I made this account as a joke. Befriending a cockroach? C'mon folks... even Phil's not that crazy". Concluding his week tweeting as Spector, the mysterious tweeter remarked: "I even fooled many media outlets. It was fun but I feel it has ran it's course". Unfortunately the faker has now deleted the account so you can't go and relive the glory of that week of made up Spectorisms.

Google, News Corp, Microsoft and Apple are all being rumoured as possible buyers for Twitter, as the social networking phenomenon of the moment continues to boom, despite the churn of those who sign up, realise neither they nor their friends have anything interesting to say, and soon tune out.

Some gossipers say one of those congloms could pay between $600 million and $700 million for the popular service, despite the almost universal failure across the board to actually monetise the social networking phenomenon; well, not at any serious level that could justify a $700 million investment.

Before we all decide that Twitter is everything the internet was ever intended to be, and stop using MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Google, iTunes, Wikipedia, email, across the desk conversation and any sentences constructed of more than 140 characters, new research in the US suggests that the micro-blogging website, while certainly the big internet phenomenon of the last six months, could be just another passing internet fad.

Based, I think, on US Twitter usage, Neilsen Wire reports that "currently, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter's audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month's users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention".

So quick people - sign up and enjoy the CMU Twitter feed now before the whole phenomenon becomes yesterday's jam. www.twitter.com/cmu

So, forget about the singles chart and the album chart, and even those all import t-shirt and calendar charts, here's the stats poll that matters this month. The Musical Tweeters top ten, as compiled by internet monitoring types BigChampagne.

Yes, following the news that movie star Ashton Kutcher had beaten news network CNN in getting a million followers, here are the most followed pop stars on the micro-blogging network.

1. Britney Spears (995,807)
2. John Mayer (760,522)
3. Diddy (612,586)
4. Coldplay (542,764)
5. Sara Bareilles (424,737)
6. A Fine Frenzy (394,429)
7. Soulja Boy (350,114)
8. Jimmy Eat World (281,989)
9. Heidi Montag (247,120)
10. Ashlee Simpson (222,548)

I'm not sure what constitutes 'pop star' for the BigChampagne team, because Nine Inch Nails man Trent Reznor has 357,334 followers, which would put him at number seven, and 50 Cent has 450,680 followers, which would put him fifth, and while Reznor isn't really pop, I'm not sure why Fiddy would be excluded if Diddy and Soulja Boy are in. Perhaps he was excluded for admitting he had an assistant post his updates.

In case you're wondering who the hell Heidi Montag is, well she's one of the people featured on MTV reality show 'The Hills' who has been trying to get a pop career off the ground for two years now and who has, I think, finally got a deal with Warner Music, which is why she appears on the pop Tweet list. Digital Music News reckons she's only got so many followers because her boyfriend, 'The Hills' co-star Spencer Pratt, has been telling the media how he plans to get more Twitter friends than the aforementioned Kutcher, and that he and Montag have been winning new followers as a result.

So there you go. Have we ever mentioned the CMU Twitter feed in the Daily? I think we keep meaning too but never quite got around to it. Well, go follow www.twitter.com/cmu people. We'll let you know the big music news stories as they break.

Ice-T has revealed that when he acted on friends' advice and went and signed up to Twitter, he discovered that there was already someone on there posing as him and saying stupid things he'd never say. People pretending to be celebs on Twitter is quite common of course. Our favourite pretender is the Notorious BIG. Well, we assume he's a pretender - I'm not sure Twitter's been launched in hip hop heaven yet.

Anyway, on his pretender, Ice-T says: "I went on Twitter... I found a dude on there named Ice-T, and he aint even cool. Dude's got my name and he's got a picture of me from Law & Order, but I'm looking at what he's writing and it's real corny and whack. And I'm like, if you're going to represent me, at least have some flavour player".

On the drawbacks of using the site, he adds, "I get on Twitter and it's kind of like, there are people stalking me now? Because I'm saying stuff like, 'I'm going to the movies.' And then I'm like, 'Why did I just do that?'"