IPC subeditors no longer dictate our youth; no longer IPC subeditors

IPC is IPC no more. The NME publisher is rebranding as Time Inc UK.

It's unlikely the new brand will ever inspire anything as glorious as this Clinic track, though:

Comes With Music now comes without Nokia brand

Comes With Music - you remember, it killed iTunes a couple of years back - is no longer going to be branded with Nokia. They're lobbing it under the Ovi brand, instead.

The Register rightly snorts at the move here:

A spokesperson explained the move:

"The new name is also simpler for music fans around the world to understand, and when presented in local language, will better communicate our truly local service proposition in each market. In doing so, we are giving our users a simplified, Ovi-branded experience."

Quite right.

People often ask, "What's a Nokia? - is it some new kind of yoga or a fashionable new diet?" Then you remind them - it's the platform for the Ovi mobile services experience - and the fog of confusion quickly clears.

Nokia had previously had some fun branding a service that only allowed you to download a certain, unknown amount of music as "unlimited" on the basis that it was unlimited, until you hit the limit.

Oh, and goodbye MTV2, too

Unlikely to gather quite large enough a crowd for Ed Vaizey to throw his weight behind saving it, but MTV2 is being dumped.

In its place, a new channel called MTV Rocks. No, not in an ironic way.

Zane Lowe has said he's getting out of there as fast as his contract will let him.

Switching channels: TMF is dead, viva Viva

MTV is dumping its Freeview-centric channel TMF (or The Music Factory as nobody ever called it) and rebranding it as Viva:

The channel, aimed at 16-34 year olds, comprises of a mix of content from the US, including The Hills and Two and a Half Men, as well as established music programming.

Heather Jones, executive VP of content, creative, music and comedy at MTV Networks, says: “Viva is not simply a new-look TMF but instead a completely new channel. TMF has, for a long time been about more than simply music so it deserves an identity that reflects its output.”

Not just dodgy rap videos, but hoary old reruns of painfully unfunny sitcoms and faux-reality too.

Still, brave of MTV to choose Viva as its new name - the title doesn't actually have an auspicious history in the UK. Those of you with longer memories might recall short-lived London radio station aimed at women of the same name. Still, they didn't have Two And A Half Men to fall back on.

Ringo Starr: Now I'm confused

In the first batch of weak ads marking the rebranding of Norwich Union to Snickers, Ringo Starr was featured, muttering that it was only by changing his name that he was able to unleash the power of fame. Or words to that effect. "Would any of this have happened", he asked, "if I was still Richard Starkey?"

In the new batch of even weaker ads, Ringo pops up, looking grim-faced, insisting that he doesn't want to be called by his stage name.

Eh? So he rebranded successfully to Ringo, and yet doesn't want to be known as Ringo, believing that his actual name is still Richard Starkey? So if his name is Richard, then his question in the original advert, 'would this have happened if I was called Richard' would be answered 'yes, because I am.'

And if he's Richard sometimes, and Ringo at others, isn't the message from this that you can be flexible with your name according to circumstances? And doesn't that mean that, actually, Norwich Union could still be Norwich Union when it's drumming for the Beatles, and Aviva when it's at home?

Or... did nobody really think the adverts through at all?