Vodafone goes DRM-free with music that's just plain free

Hands up who likes music. Keep your hand up if you like free stuff. Everybody? Smashing! Now keep your hand up if you're a Vodafone customer. If your hand's still up, read this and then get yourself over to Vodafone Music to download eight free tracks. If you've put your hand down, get yourself a cup of tea and read about a watch phone, see some pictures of the Nokia N97, or watch a video about the Palm Pre.

Still here? Lovely. The eight free tracks are Ciara and Justin Timberlake working some Love Sex Magic, Daniel Merriweather making a Change, Lady GaGa pulling a Poker Face, Lily Allen lying in the wet patch in Not Fair (Style Of Eye remix), Pixie Lott rolling like a Rolling Stone, Simple Minds launching Rockets, and Tinchy Stryder and N-Dubz aiming for Number 1. Another option is a Clubber's Guide 2009 Mixtape.

Sadly, we couldn't download the tunes using Firefox, or indeed any browser except Internet Explorer. We really, really wanted to hear that Clubber's Guide 2009 Mixtape, so we checked that we had Windows Media Player installed -- a system requirement -- and fired up IE. Now it asks us to install Microsoft's ActiveX DRM plug-in. Ironic, considering this giveaway is to celebrate the launch of DRM-free music on the Vodafone Music Store...

Anyway, we want our Tinchy and N-Dubz! Plug-in plugged in, we now have to register with Vodafone Music, for which you need to be a Vodafone customer. Then, finally, you'll be able to get Lady GaGa and Lily Allen's sweet-voiced but frankly filthy musings on your very own computer. Of course, if you're already a Vodafone Music user you'll have none of these problems. You can also access the music via Vodafone Live on your handset, or text 'music' to 97886 for a direct link. They're only available for today, so get going.