I Want My MP3

If you haven't noticed, all hell is breaking loose right now in online digital music sales. On the main stage: Last month Amazon announced its intention to enter the fray at the end of the year, challenging iTunes' hegemony in the market. Two weeks ago, after much hand-wringing anticipation, Apple debuted iTunes Plus, a service that sells high-resolution, restriction-free downloads — which launched in collaboration with one of the four major labels, EMI (home to Pink Floyd, the Beastie Boys and a few different Snoop incarnations). The label became the first major to offer Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free digital files.

More important for you than silly-ass love songs from Paul McCartney, this means that at iTunes (and soon at Amazon), you can now download N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton in a high-res, restriction-free format, for $11.99. You can burn it as often as you like; you can print a color copy of the booklet; you can pass an infinite number of high-def recordings of "Fuck Tha Police" to your buddies without having to worry about the Man chasing you down and dropping your ass in the clink. (Unless one of your so-called friends uses his copy to kill a cop, in which case — just like an Uzi — that weapon is easily traced back to you.) Ah, sweet freedom.

Amazon will sell only DRM-free files, which brings us that much closer to the reality that Apple kingpin Steve Jobs conjured in a February 2007 speech: "Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players."

That world, ahem, already exists, both at eMusic.com, where for ten bucks a month you can download DRM-free MP3s; and in the so-called "digital underground," where online indie shops and labels are thriving amidst the seeming chaos.

No longer the domain of a handful of powerbrokers, online digital retail's future is most clear in these little shops. The online equivalents of the High Fidelity-style record shop, the best of these businesses sift through the digital dust to find the diamonds. They offer amazing sound samples, dish out thoughts and opinions on their music, and toss in weekly charts to keep you in step with the rest of your subculture. While Universal's henchmen are holed up in conference rooms with their lawyers, the mom-and-pops are claiming a big chunk of the green that's in play now that the CD economy has collapsed. That green is just floating around, looking for a place to land. Take your time, Sony. We can party without you.

Bleep
www.bleep.com

Who: The online shop of Warp Records, the London electronic music label and longtime home to Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and Two Lone Swordsmen. In addition to nearly every track that Warp has ever released, Bleep sells music from hundreds of labels, including French house stalwart Ed Banger, Detroit hiss-and-pop techno label Ghostly International and Germany click-and-cut portal City Centre Offices.

What: Bleep deals in high-quality (320 kbps) MP3s, and sells them for $1.35 per track or $9.99 for the album. Bleep also offers a growing number of its releases as FLAC files for a higher price of $12.99. (FLAC is an open-source lossless compression format that's becoming the industry standard — although iTunes does not recognize FLAC files.)

Interactivity: Warp's biggest hit this year is the new Battles CD, Mirrored, which I only had as a shitty 192 kbps copy (don't ask). I ponied up $9.99 for an MP3 version at Bleep and within five minutes had a sturdy copy of the album. Its squirrelly instrumentals sound excellent, and I can now dub it for my pals with a clear conscience.

Downside: Site was created by Warp's annoyingly innovative design team, Designers Republic, who often choose form over function. That said, Bleep's very user-friendly. Click on an icon of, say !!!'s new album, Myth Takes, and a list of songs appears. Click on "Play" to sample it. Within seconds the song begins. The entire song loads, and then plays in 30 second increments. You can jump around to all parts of the song with a simple click.

Other Music Digital
www.othermusic.com

Who: In April, NYC record store Other Music, long a tastemaker in both its physical location in lower Manhattan and in a fantastic online mail-order division, debuted Other Music Digital. The shop's portal is overflowing with fringe jazz, psychedelia, electronica and rock.

What: The store offers high-quality MP3 files (320 kbps) from hundreds of labels across the globe, including the great Chicago label The Numero Group, longtime North Carolina indie Merge and Seattle's respected Light in the Attic. Cost: $1.11 per song.