The Audiophiliac

Other Music isn't the sort of place you'd go to pick up the new U2 record; its primary mission is to turn its customers onto, well, other music. Now, some of Other Music's titles are available as MP3 downloads.

The physical and download Other Music stores are an attempt to classify the unclassifiable; there's "In" (indie rock); "Out" (experimental, free jazz, noise, 20th century composers, and early electronic pioneers); "Electronica" (new electronic music including ambient, electro, and underground hip-hop); "Then" (influential artists from the '60s, '70s, and '80s); and "Groove" (classic soul, dub, and rare groove).

The store also stocks unsigned local bands' CDs and a lot of stuff from small labels, rarities, and a generous selection of new indie-oriented vinyl. Too bad you can't download vinyl, but Other Music has a mail-order department.

I recently spoke with Other Music's Josh Madell to learn more about Other Music Digital. First, the download store offers only high-quality 320kbps, DRM-free MP3s. The store has long-term relationships with a ton of indie labels, and that has helped Other Music tackle this sort of venture. I haven't heard of any other indie record store that sells MP3s in significant numbers.

Madell quickly acknowledged that going up against Amazon and iTunes wasn't easy, but Other Music scores occasional exclusives and some stuff appears first as an Other Music MP3 before it comes out on CD.

Looking around the site I found a lot of music I liked, and sure it's also on iTunes, but I wouldn't have found it there. If you like underground, cutting-edge stuff, check out Other Music. Most download albums are $9.99, or $1.11 per track. There's some free downloads too.

Do you know of any indie brick-and-mortar stores that sell MP3s? Please let us know.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

We're getting close to the day when a major artist or group releases a download-only album. Maybe it'll be the next Rolling Stones or Sufjan Stevens album. That'll be a dark day.

Just last week, I went to my local record store to pick up "Hemispheres," the new release of Bill Frisell and Jim Hall, a jazz guitar duo. I left the store empty-handed.

Next, I checked on Amazon.com. It stocked the album in MP3 format only. Great, but I refuse to pay $17.98 for a crappy-sounding MP3.

Next, I checked the record label's site, and yes, you can buy the CD there, but I wasn't in the mood to navigate the trials and tribulations of its order form. I already own a lot of Frisell and Hall CDs; I guess I don't need another one.

Tower Records shuttered its doors a few years ago, and now another big record chain, Virgin Megastores, is closing down, so there are fewer and fewer places that sell CDs.

These days, I'm buying more and more CDs from Amazon.com, but even Amazon may not move enough product to justify the labels pressing CDs. And local record shops are an endangered species; here in New York, the better ones are barely hanging on.

Still, the fact is that people buy more CDs than downloads, and download sales aren't expected to surpass those of CDs for another couple of years. There's a lot of conflicting information floating around.

Then again, LP sales are on the rise, so maybe we'll wind up with the choice of low-quality iTunes, MP3s, or vinyl. That would be strange.

If you couldn't buy CDs anymore, would you care?

Would you buy vinyl instead?

Do iTunes sound about the same as free downloads? If they do, why buy them?

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

It's some kind of weird contradiction, but for some reason I really loved Tower Records. I say that because I have a long standing thing about indie record shops, and I never bought much at Virgin or HMV, but when Tower opened its two Manhattan stores I became an even bigger vinyl junkie. I lived just a few blocks away from the uptown one and would spend many nights there just looking at music and talking with music buyers. The social scene was part of the trip.

Tower's two gigantic shops were initially filled with groovy records, and later in the 1980s the CDs started to eat away, aisle by aisle, at the vinyl paradises. It must have taken three or four years before CDs occupied most of the bins. Granted, vinyl's decline was mostly market driven, but remember CDs typically sold for double the price of LPs, so Tower, like most stores figured that even if the vinyl title was still available they'd rather you bought the CD. If the LP wasn't there you'd have to pony up the extra dough for the CD. During that time I'd get my vinyl from indie shops.

One rainy spring day walking through Central Park I was listening to a classical radio station when they played Aaron Copland's "Concerto for Clarinet, Strings, Harp and Piano." It so perfectly framed the misty day and green grass I had to buy the music. I exited Central Park, walked a few blocks over to Broadway and bought the CD. That was twenty years ago and I still have the CD to trigger those memories.

They're fast disappearing in my neighborhood. The Blockbuster shuttered a while back and only two of the five independent shops are left, but their days are numbered. For me it's like deja vu all over again, I remember in the '80s and '90s when record stores were dropping like flies. The real death knell came last year when Tower Records slid into oblivion, and I really miss the two NYC stores.

(Credit: Blockbuster)

I think it's sad when local businesses whither and die, and we customers send our dollars and those lost jobs out of state. NYC is turning into a city of Starbucks, chain stores, fast food joints and lots and lots of banks. Sure, I Netflix most of my movies nowadays, but for me DVDs aren't precious the way music is. I have no idea why so many people regularly buy movies they rarely watch. Do they think having a copy of "Hitch" or "Ocean's Thirteen" on the coffee table will impress anybody?

As you can guess I'm no collector of DVDs (except for concert DVDs, which I watch on a regular basis), but I have thousands of CDs and thousands more LPs. I listen to them all the time--movies, even ones I really love aren't repeatable experiences. One viewing is pretty much all I need. When I buy a CD I like I might listen to it ten times in the first month, and still go back for more months and years later. I'm sure I've listened to my Beatles and 'Stones albums hundreds of times, and that's not going to stop. Same deal with certain jazz artists like Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus, I can't get enough of their music. I regularly find gems lurking on my shelves and discover great music I bought years ago and forgot.

Here in New York City there are still lots of great independent record shops, so I'm pretty much set. For you video guys, well, it's Amazon and Netflix. That's kinda sad.