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Release Date: September 29, 2009
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Discover New Music

  • De Nova

    • 10 out of 10
    • The Redwalls
    • Wow! Perhaps my 5-star rating is simply because the Redwalls are not only new and fresh (none of them older than 22!), or perhaps its because -- despite their ages -- they are able to totally capture
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More, with Feeling

    • 10 out of 10
    • Various Artists
    • Most musical episodes of TV shows frankly stink. They are usually little more than ill-conceived vehicles intended to let the stars show off what musical talent they have. Once More, With Feeling,

  • Modern Lovers

    • 10 out of 10
    • Modern Lovers
    • This timeless masterpiece is little known, but it has inspired almost as many bands as The Modern Lovers' own inspiration -- and only slightly better known -- The Velvet Underground & Nico.

  • The Printz

    • 8 out of 10
    • Bumblebeez 81
    • Part white rap, part alternative, part pop, and part rock, the Bumblebeez grabbed a hold of me with "Pony Ride," and didn't let go.

      This group does a marvelous job of moving seamlessly be

  • Playing the Angel

    • 8 out of 10
    • Depeche Mode
    • Oddly enough, Playing The Angel is a return to form for Depeche Mode, even though it may well be argued that they never truly deviated from their roots in their more recent offerings. In the

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News

Other Music Opens iPod-Compatible Digital Download Service

Other Music launched the Digital Other Music digital download store Monday, a music download service for Indie music that is compatible with Apple's iPod and any other digital media device that supports the MP3 format. The service is offering all downloads without DRM encoded as 320 kbps MP3 files, a higher bit-rate than the 256 kbps DRM-free downloads Apple will be offering from EMI in May*.

Other Music is a brick and mortar vinyl and CD store that opened in Manhattan in 1995. The company has specialized in independently released music, and the digital download store will do the same. Labels offered by the service include Warp Records, Sonic Youth Recordings (SYR), Mush Records, Kinderkore, Beggars Banquet, and other large and small independent labels.

Unlike Apple's iTunes Store, which offers largely uniform pricing, Digital Other Music has a wider range of pricing, with many albums ranging from US$9.99 to $12.99. The service also offers some tracks as album-only downloads, though the vast majority of tracks appear to be available as individual tracks.

Digital Other Music is Web-based, and the company is offering 30 second clips of each song, and a download manager for purchases. While the songs being downloaded are compatible with iPod and other digital media devices, the downloads themselves need to be added to iTunes (or other manager for other services) on your computer to be added to your iPod.

[Update: The story was edited to say that Digital Other Music's 320 Kbps is a higher bit-rate than the upcoming 256 Kbps DRM-free EMI tracks that will soon be offered by Apple. The story originally reported this as being of higher quality, but as noted in the comments below, comparing bit rates from different codecs is not a straight forward prospect. As of this writing, all of our readers have chimed in on the side that a 256 kbps AAC file will sound superior to a 320 kbps MP3 file. - Editor]

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