The Future of Online Music has become clear

Shit. Alive.

This you won't believe. Watch and curl into a foetal position, shaking your head and breathing hard. Microsoft developers have created SongSmith. A true challenger to Garage Band, this product that allows you to just sing into a PC and the programme will then create the backing track and produce your song - much as Mighty Mouse or Brian Eno would if you went to them with a vocal.

Thing is... Microsoft don't think this is such a great product. So they won't push it out there. BUT the developers - they know better, so they have put together their own commercial and put it out there. Enough from me - just watch. And remember - you can buy this:

So, that's clearly a turkey. The worst advert of all time for the worst product ever shat out of a programmer's fuzzy noggin.

The natural reaction is - what were they thinking??? Indeed Adam and Joe on 6Music found this and have pretty much made the point that this is either a work of such sophisticated irony that it transcends humanity's previous boundaries - or... or... Or it's the biggest pile of shit EVER made.

But look again. Look around YouTube. Look and you will see the masterplan unfold. This has tapped into the fun market unlike any product since Twister, and the parodies are streaming in. This is going to be HUGE!

Watch Radiohead's opus Creep - as played through Songsmith:

Now witness The Police's Roxanne

Are you beginning to get the picture? People are going to BUY THIS so they can make whole Songsmith tribute albums! Imagine OK Computer entirely revisioned and remastered by SongSmith. Imagine Jay-Z's Black Album; imagine Sgt. Pepper's Lonley Hearts Club Band.

Actually - you don't have to. You can hear it here: