Really looking forward to the blog on this!
Also, I notice a lot of demo's are using ADPCM for their tracks, which apparently has a lot less processor overhead to play than mp3, but similar sound quality. File sizes are about double. You might want to convert some of your music to this for the experiment.
eg: Lightshaft soundrack (by elude) zips down to 7,890K (16 bit, 230 kbps).