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Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
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iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
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Discover New Music

  • Zooropa

    • 10 out of 10
    • U2
    • This record is perhaps U2's finest hour, yet it has been forgotten as a strange by-product of the ZooTV tour's overload, and is generally regarded by most fans as a poor effort. It is this sentiment t
  • Supermodified

    • 10 out of 10
    • Amon Tobin
    • The genius is in the beats. Amon Tobin creates fantastic, groovy beats behind beats. "Supermodified" rolls through your expectations of breakbeat music, and turns them up a bit. It's a mellow album, p
  • The Dresden Dolls

    • 10 out of 10
    • The Dresden Dolls
    • The energetic duet of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione that make up the Dresden Dolls have created a wonderfully haunting sound in their self-titled album. They have been able to construct an imme

  • Aretha Sings the Blues

    • 6 out of 10
    • Aretha Franklin
    • While she didn't always have the best taste in song selection, Aretha Franklin is a must-study for anyone with interest in the human voice. She has the kind of powerful, recklessly passionate deliv

  • Guero

    • 10 out of 10
    • Beck
    • Beck is the modern master of the groove, and Guero is merely the latest example of this. From the opening power chords of "E-Pro," to the Pac-Man cuteness of "Girl," to the dirge-like lullab

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News

Sony BMG Working on iPod-compatible Music Subscription Service

Sony BMG is apparently working on an online music subscription service designed to be compatible with a wide range of portable music players including Apple’s iPod product line. The news comes from Sony BMG Music Entertaiment CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, according to Yahoo! Finance.

While Mr. Schmidt-Holtz was willing to say that Sony is developing a subscription service, he wasn’t willing to share when consumers should expect the service to launch.

Pricing for the service hasn’t been set yet, either, but Mr. Schmidt-Holtz said the "simplest option would be a flat rate." That rate will likely fall somewhere between Û6 and Û8 (about US$9.334 to $12.46) per month for unlimited access to Sony BMG’s complete music catalog.

The record label may also be considering other music distributors in its subscription plan.

So far, music subscription services haven’t been able to compete with the popularity of Apple’s iTunes Store which lets users purchase songs instead of rent them. Sony may, however, have a twist that could help its subscription service compete with the iTunes Store. According to Mr. Schmidt-Holtz, it’s possible "that clients could keep some songs indefinitely, that they would own them even after the subscription expired."

Just how Sony’s rent some, keep some plan would work remains to be seen, especially since consumers seem to be more interested in digital music purchases instead of rentals right now.

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