Various Artists – Stax 50th Anniversary (iTunes UK)

This has to be the easiest way to celebrate the birthday of a real legend: downloading 50 tracks for £14.99, or individual tunes for 79p each. Interesting to sort the content by ‘popularity’ too, which takes just one click, and has Booker T & The MGs’ Soul Limbo and Linda Lyndell’s What A Man coming out on top, with two tracks by the Soul Children, The Sweeter He Is and It Aint Always What You Do, bringing up the rear.

Steve Lawson - …And Nothing But The Bass (stevelawson.net)

This is a great download to familiarise yourself with one of the most gifted solo bass players on the planet. It’s his first album, recorded in 1999, now out of print on CD but back again on MP3 and with three extra tracks. One of the extras - the Inner Game - is a real piece of Lawson history: the first track he played at his first ever gig. If you’re new to his sound and amazing style, just type “Steve Lawson” into YouTube…

Future Sound of London – From The Archives, Vol. 4 (fsoldigital.com)

The Future Sound of London have thrown everything but the kitchen sink from their archives and back catalogue into a new download and CD store, FSOL Digital. The previous three volumes of their trawl through the DAT locker have been available on CD, but this one is currently download only and has some real gems, although they’re not annotated so which album sessions and eras they spring from is anyone’s guess. Either buy the album or pick a few select cuts - like Wookii and Mango Tree - which are available for €1.00 each.

Blancmange - Making Aeroplanes (MySpace)

“Oyez!! Oyez!!” reads the new, official Blancmange MySpace. “Now hear this! We are in the process of recording songs for a new Blancmange album…” And one of their new streaming demos is Making Aeroplanes, merging a stripped down, back-to-analogue backing from Stephen Luscombe with Neil Arthur’s northern ratings, and is an exciting taste of things to come.

Paul Simon – iTunes Originals (iTunes only)

This latest instalment of the iTunes-only compilation series combines interview snippets with back catalogue and exclusive live and acoustic recordings. There are 26 tracks in this set, including chatter on Brian Eno and Art Garfunkel and a great new rendition of My And Julio Down By The School Yard.

Richard Hawley – Live From London (iTunes only)

iTunes’ Live From London series underwent a face-lift last year but, musically, is still pretty much a yawn-a-thon with sets from the likes of Natalie Imbruglia, Kate Walsh and this 6-tracks-for-£4.49 session from Richard Hawley. His middle-aged crooning is a trial but he does start to deliver the goods with old age covers of songs by Ricky Nelson and Hank Williams.

Stephen A.J. Duffy – Because We Love You (Virgin, all platforms)

Duffy’s forgotten masterpiece is The Ups And Downs’ follow-up. Every track a winner and equalled (although not surpassed) by bonus B-sides and remixes, two of which - Cocksure and The Disenchanted - point the way to his adventures with the Lilacs. But as sugary pop classics go it’s hard to beat this album’s opener, Something Special, although its (hyper-rare) 12” ‘Inversion’ is tragically missing from the bonus tracks.

Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy – The Ups And Downs of… (Virgin, all platforms)

With his new Lilac Time album, Runout Groove, in the shops now, EMI have finally dug out Stephen Duffy’s first two albums and reissued them, although only online. So, no remastering, sleeve notes or artwork, but they have done well in digging out B-sides and remixes. This, his debut long player, is supplemented with eight extra tracks including the Mixe Plurale of Kiss Me and rare early 12” versions of She Makes Me Quiver and Hold It. But nothing surpasses the albums close-out track, The World At Large Alone.

George Harrison – Download Special (iTunes)

Back in November’s issue we assessed the arrival of John Lennon’s solo catalogue on iTunes, and now it’s the turn of George Harrison’s post-Beatles output. Although not his complete solo output by any means, Harrison’s is the last of the four solo Beatles to arrive online, not only on iTunes but all the major digital download platforms. As Olivia Harrison said of the releases, “George had begun the digital remastering of his albums, but had no idea how the digital world would change the way we access and listen to music…”

All Things Must Pass
The top selling Harrison song on iTunes is – unsurprisingly - My Sweet Lord, so and the album it comes from, All Things Must Pass is a great place to start exploring his catalogue. All the bonus tracks from the 30th Anniversary Remaster are available, including Beware of Darkness and the backing track to What Is Life. But you’ll find that the three songs that clock in at over five minutes (Isn’t It A Pity, I Remember Jeep and Out of the Blue) are available only when you download the full album. One thing you can download by itself though is the EPK for the album’s 2001 reissue which costs £1.89 for just over seven minutes of video.

Cloud Nine, Brainwashed
While middle-period Harrison catalogue might be an acquired taste, his later work – 1987’s Cloud Nine and his final, 2002 outing Brainwashed are both vital listening. The former houses his second-most downloaded song, Got My Mind Set On You and is bolstered by the addition of a little-heard title tune for the Madonna/Handmade Films clanger Shanghai Surprise. Stuck Inside A Cloud is a highlight of Brainwashed, as is the Grammy award-winning Marwa Blues.

George Harrison, Somewhere In England, Gone Troppo
These three albums from Harrison’s ‘middle’ period work well in the era of single track downloads. Because where they might not have hung together – or sold – particularly well as full albums, they contain scores of interesting songs and tracks which are well worth 79p as individual buys. Like the single Blow Away from George Harrison, which also contains Not Guilty (written for the White Album sessions) and a demo version of Here Comes The Moon. And if you only download one track from Somewhere In England, make it All Those Years Ago, his tribute to John Lennon. Coming fresh to 1982’s brilliantly-titled Gone Troppo, I found a whole set of songs that had a lovely Clapton, solo-Lennon feel to them, and am downloading several as I type.

Live In Japan
iTunes own write-up states this early 90s, 19-track live set “easily surpasses McCartney’s Tripping The Live Fantastic or Paul Is Live.” Highly contentious, but this is a must listen set if only to browse through the preview snippets of solo renditions of Taxman, Something and While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Living In The Material World
This 1973 album is well worth downloading for anyone that either doesn’t already own it or hasn’t got round to buying the 2006 expanded reissue. A full-album download includes the US number one single Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) and the two bonus tracks, Miss O’Dell and Deep Blue, previously issued as B-sides.

Thirty Three & 1/3
One of Harrison’s lost classic albums, this one includes two instantly catchy, long-forgotten singles, This Song and Crackerbox Palace, and first appeared on his own Dark Horse label in 1976. It makes a confusing appearance on iTunes as two versions of the album are listed, one as the original release and the other as a 2001 remaster. But neither version includes the hilarious videos for the singles, so you’ll have to go to RC’s official YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/group/recordcollector) to watch those. Also missing in action: three of Harrison’s biggest solo creative statements: the Wonderwall, Electronic Music and Concert for Bangladesh albums. Let’s hope these ones appear sooner rather than later.

Britney Spears – Gimme More (Junkie XL Dub) (iTunes)

Against all the odds, Blackout has been described as Britney’s best album to date. And it’s certainly the first to offer fans of bona fide mashed-up electro breaks something to get their teeth into. This remix by JXL is the best of three bonus tracks available exclusively on the iTunes version of the album.

Radiohead - In Rainbows (radiohead.com)

The most talked-about digital release of the year arrives just in time for our Christmas issue. As Time magazine said when the album was announced, “What makes In Rainbows important - easily the most important release in the recent history of the music business - are its record label and its retail price: there is none, and there is none.” So if you haven’t heard already, you can go to Radiohead’s website and pay what you want for the album, which comes as a 160kbps .ZIP file of MP3s. If you love physical product, there’s a very collector-friendly £40 box set version - or Discbox – available too. So, yes, you can download the new Radiohead album and pay nothing at all for it if you want to.

But there’s no such thing as a free lunch. They wont let you take it without handing over your name, email address, postal address and mobile phone number. And is the album actually worth download, even if you don’t pay anything for it? Tracks like Bodysnatchers, which has been in the works for several years, are interesting, possible classic Radiohead songs, but not quite. And while thumping pieces like Reckoner are surely going to go down well in the US, it’s climbing back into the fragile world of Radiohead in Nude, a ballad first heard on the OK Computer tour, that means that, yes, you should have a good listen to this album, regardless of what you want to pay for it.

Motorhead – Overkill (Exclusive Version) (iTunes)

This has been available on iTunes for much of the year so is well overdue a mention. It’s a three-minute update by Lemmy, Mickey Dee and - most notably - drummer Phil Campbell of a ‘head classic. As one iTunes user noted, “this is worth the 79p, after all that aint even half a pint these days is it!”.

Laguna Meth - Laguna The Puma (Island)

This is a digital-only release on Island records for an album recorded ten years ago by LA’s Michael Laguna. It was originally planned for release on Go! Discs but fell into No Mans Land when the much-missed label went into liquidation. Now the music of the man who, as a teenager, tripped on LSD while perusing Jim Morrison’s and poetry (his childhood friend was the son of Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek) can finally be heard and – as you might expect – it’s a suitably modern, Flaming Lips-style take on quality psychedelia.

John Lennon - Imagine (iTunes)

“John Lennon is one of the greatest artists of our time,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re thrilled to have his solo catalogue available on the iTunes Store for the first time.” And Yoko Ono is equally enthusiastic. “John would have loved the fact that his music will now be available in a format suited to a new generation of listeners,” she said of the launch. (Although someone should let her know that her credit has gone missing from Double Fantasy.) What constitutes a Lennon solo masterpiece is a matter of opinion and debate, but what has happened in the transfer to MP3 for the LP most regard as ‘definitive’, Imagine? In short, not a lot. There are no bonus tracks available and only one video to download (you can guess which), despite the fact that John and Yoko made an accompanying film for every single song on the set, back in the 70s... There is now some tremendous Lennon material on iTunes but you certainly have to be choosy. There are some treats in the packages they’ve put together, but there are some disappoints – and a surprising amount of sloppiness – too.

John Lennon - Lennon Legend / Working Class Hero (iTunes)

If you’re a collector, the Lennon compilations that have appeared in recent years have been pretty disappointing. The 90s’ Lennon Legend rode on the back of Oasis’ success and the 00s Working Class Hero claimed to be “definitive.” They added nothing to the early 80s John Lennon Collection or even the original and best compilation – the only one the man himself had a hand in – Shaved Fish. What’s surprising is that Lennon Legend and Working Class Hero are both available for doewnload when all they do is repeat tracks available elsewhere. Sure, they make good intros to new fans, but that’s what iTunes playlists are for!

John Lennon - Mind Games (iTunes)

It will be interesting to see how many people bother to download some of Anthology’s 20-second spoken work tracks as single downloads, but it will be even more interesting to see if anyone decides to pay 79p for a single-track download of Nutopian National Anthem from Mind Games… For those that don’t know, this was a lovely moment of Yoko-inspired performance art, consisting of six seconds of complete silence. While songs like Imagine and Give Peace A Chance have become completely overplayed, Mind Games is full of fantastic, lesser-heard gems like Bring on the Lucie and Meat City (both of which also feature here in home demo form).