From the strange bedfellows department

HMV is opening the first edition of its "store of the future" concept in downtown Toronto on June 17 (Yonge and Bloor location for the locals among you). Since CDs are a thing of the past, HMV's redesigned stores - about 20 or so Canadian stores are scheduled for renovation this year - will sell other items such as cell phones, video games and iPods. There will also apparently be computer stations set up in-store so patrons can log on to their favourite social media sites.

Hmmm...phones, video games, computers, iPods. It's incredible that no one has thought of putting all of these "store of the future" elements together in one place before. And, I don't know, maybe called it Future Shop.

But what I find most interesting about the story is that the store's opening bash will feature a performance by Billy Bragg. Not Nelly Furtado or Michael Buble or Feist or some other big-selling Canadian artist. Billy Bragg.

Because no one's going to sell more iPods to a tech-obsessed young target audience than a middle-aged, acoustic guitar-wielding, anti-capitalist British folkie.