Apple introduced new iPod models today in an invite-only press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. CEO Steve Jobs, recent recipient of a liver transplant, was on hand to deliver the lowdown.

For those of us who grew up dissecting lyrics and poring over liner notes, the new iTunes 9 introduces iTunes LP, a feature that allows users to download information along with albums. Photos, liner notes, album art, lyrics and extra content are available from artists such as The Doors, Dave Matthews Band and Norah Jones, who also performed at today’s event.

Making the biggest splash is the iPod Nano 5G, featuring a video camera, microphone, an FM tuner, voice recorder application and a pedometer. If you’re watching your wallet these days, the iPod Touch has dropped in price. The 8GB model now costs $199, what senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller calls a “magic price point.”

Marketing dudes and tech specs aside, who do you predict is going to be the next artist featured in the next Nano commercial? Remember last time? Or the time before?

Welcome back to Almost Famous, where we select one lucky Uncensored Interviewee who we deem to be on the verge of spreading beyond our illustrious tastemaking boundaries and taking over the cultural zeitgeist at large in the coming months.

Last time, we rang in the New Year with buzzworthy etherealists School Of Seven Bells, and this time we make our way to the world’s greatest metropolis.

Primarily known for Caroline Polachek’s distinctive woo-hoo-ing on a recent iPod TV ad (a hot-button issue these days thanks to the latest groundbreaking iTunes news), the Brooklyn-based, electronic pop three-piece, Chairlift, will soon be having Columbia Records (the label that just signed the act) doing a little woo-hoo-ing themselves.

The group, which also includes Aaron Pfenning and Patrick Wimberly (who cheekily accepted the Almost Famous honors on behalf of the group by declaring, “The cover of Rolling Stone. Crazy.”) gently separates themselves from other equally keyboard-y acts by with a distinctly organic sound. “Bruises,” their catchy iPod-popularized song from their Kanine debut, Does You Inspire You?, tells the tale of someone who does handstands until she’s black and blue, just to please another.

So you might say, just as Boy George and Culture Club once promised the then MTV-dominated music world, Chairlift wants to tumble for ya. (Ah, but without all the bad makeup, of course.)

As you may have heard round the Web-o-sphere, in a deal with Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, Apple announced its decision yesterday to ditch both its anti-copying measures in iTunes as well as the famed price of 99 cents per song download.

Eight million songs are now available free of digital rights, with the remaining catalog of two million jams to be added in the next few months. By April, older songs will go for 69 cents per download, while newer, more popular songs will cost $1.29.

Now, none of this applies to you if you’re a master music pirate who’s been sailing the torrent seas. But those who frequent the iTunes store are now free to share songs with whoever and whatever devices they like, which is great since digital rights management always kind of sucked for consumers.

But this move speaks volumes about the ever-changing industry–even a seemingly untouchable music giant of the digital age like Apple has to bend its own pricing rules to adapt. In fact, since Apple is adapting, so will everyone else in the equation. Consumers will be paying more or less than they’re used to, and labels have to ease up on their long-held paranoia that unrestricted music will lead to increased piracy.

So what about the artists? While their music may be distributed more freely thanks to new found portability, they should really focus their efforts on cashing in via Apple’s iPod commercials.

Today I am filled with hope as a new day dawns in America. Okay, yeah, I’m being overly dramatic. Yes, I am happy and inspired that Barack Obama will be our next President (though maybe not as happy as Yo Majesty).

However, Obama’s victory was not the only thing that gave me hope and pride in America.

The non-stop news coverage meant that each network had a lot of time to kill between polls closing and results coming in, which meant they had to fill that time with inane analysis, shots of Chicago and Phoenix and tons of high-tech toys, the latter providing for some of the most entertaining moments of the night.

(READ MORE AUDACITY OF HOLOGRAMS HERE)

Girl Talk’s latest release, Feed The Animals, was released online a few months ago in a pay-what-you-want model. A physical version of the record will be released on October 21. Like many, I downloaded the record from Illegal Art’s website and I’m not afraid to admit I didn’t pay a cent for it. (I actually downloaded it twice–once I lied by picking the humorous response, “I don’t really like Girl Talk” and confessed to being a member of the press the other time).

I’ve seen the whole pay-what-you-want idea praised for innovation both in terms of a sales model and a technological achievement. Isn’t a big part of technology advance supposed to be the fact that it makes things easier, quicker and simpler?

(READ MORE INCONVENIENCE OF TECHNOLOGY)