This is all happening at Macworld in San Francisco. Apple said it’s not going to show up for the conference after this year, since analysts and investors always leave unimpressed, according to Bloomberg. But who cares about them anyway? Let’s move on to the iTunes news. From Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. the most popular source of music in the U.S., stripped copy protection from all the songs in its iTunes music store and announced plans to charge as little as 69 cents a track.

Under a new variable pricing plan, songs will cost 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 starting in April, with most albums going for $9.99, Apple marketing head Phil Schiller said today at the Macworld conference in San Francisco. He spoke in place of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who said yesterday that he is undergoing treatment for a “hormone imbalance.”

Apple had drawn criticism for using so-called digital- rights management, or DRM, on most tracks, prompting Jobs two years ago to make a public plea to music labels to change their licensing terms. The protections prevented customers from listening to music on unauthorized devices and limited the copies they could burn onto CDs. The company also faced competition from Amazon.com Inc., which charges as little as 79 cents a song — with no copy protection.

Investors again scoffed that Apple had nothing to say and that lowering the price of iTunes was no big deal, according to Bloomberg.

Somehow, I don’t think music lovers will agree.

The decline is the continuation of a long trend of falling sales for CDs and albums as consumers download music online.

From the Journal:

Despite their languishing sales, CDs remain the most profitable and common medium for recorded music sales, accounting for nearly 85% of album sales. Their decline—to 360.6 million in 2008, from 449.2 million a year earlier—has hurt the four major record labels as they try to migrate to digital sales on services like Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store, which in 2008 surpassed Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as the world’s largest music retailer. U.S. album sales including digital downloads fell 14% for the year, while factoring in individual song downloads, sales were off 8.5%.

Here’s the music that did do well, according to the Journal:

The biggest album of the year was Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III,” which sold almost 2.9 million copies. Other top sellers included albums from Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida,” Taylor Swift’s “Fearless,” Kid Rock’s “Rock N’ Roll Jesus” and AC/DC’s “Black Ice.”

Just something to think about as you download a song from iTunes today to mitigate that hangover.

There was much argument and disputation as to what officially constitutes a Hooligan song.The basic consensus, in the words of one Hooligan, was that the company listens to “everything except Mariachi, and Diaz listens to that.” Others told me that the only way I’d capture the platoon’s musical taste is if I went by the gym at 2 or 3 a.m., and I have no intention of doing that.

With those caveats out of the way, here’s a reasonable approximation of a Hooligan Top Ten. The methodology was simple: I wrote down what they shouted out, pending that at least one other person seconded the choice and no one immediately shouted/laughed it down. Add the following to your iTunes library:

1. Van Morrison, “Domino.” Why? “Because it’s an awesome song,” said Staff Sgt. Rannalt Bahr, the only person I’ve ever met who recognized a tattoo I have on my back as being a quote from a Refused song — and who has his own Refused tattoo. (Bahr: “Every day I listen to ‘Rock And Roll’ by the Velvet Underground.”)

2. Ram Jam, “Black Betty.” You know that one? It’s like an oldie. If I sang it to you, you’d recognize it. You’ve heard it a million times, I promise. I had no idea whose song it was.

3. Killswitch Engage, “My Curse.” There was broad agreement about Killswitch, but this was only one of several songs proposed.

4. The Doors, “The End.” Despite the unfortunate Vietnam overtones.

5. Toby Keith, “The Taliban Song.” I hate Toby Keith and yet this song is indisputably awesome. Apparently Toby played a show over here not long ago and did performed “The Taliban Song” with special soldier-lyrics.

6. Core Blund, “I Wanna Be In The Cavalry.” No idea who this is.

7. Journey, “Worlds Apart.” No comment.

8. “The Sweeney Todd Song That The Mom Sings To The Kid,” Sweeney Todd official motion picture soundtrack. No one could figure out what this song is actually titled, and that’s probably for the best.

9. “Most Things On The Rock Band Soundtrack,” Rock Band official soundtrack. And may I say: Good choice. The Rock Band song selection features many top-notch 90s-era jams. I personally rediscovered Hole’s “Celebrity Skin” thanks to the popular video game.

10. “The Debbie Does Dallas Soundtrack,” Debbie Does Dallas official motion picture soundtrack. By popular consensus, at least one Hooligan was conceived while this played.

Amazingly, the Smiths’ “Sweet And Tender Hooligan” has been unfairly neglected.