Crave

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.

Today only, freebie-software site Giveaway of the Day is offering Wondershare Music Converter, normally $29.95, free.

True to its name, the program converts music files from one format to another--great if you have, say, some WMAs you want to turn into MP3s. But it can also remove the DRM protection from AAC, WMA, and other popular protected formats.

Wondershare Music Converter can strip the DRM from just about any audio file.

(Credit: Rick Broida)

Now that stores like Amazon, Rhapsody, and even iTunes sell DRM-free music, this is less of a big deal than it used to be. But if you still have DRM-infested tracks in your library, here's your chance to liberate them once and for all.

Wondershare is an admirably easy program to use: Just queue up the tracks you want to convert, choose an output format and destination, and click Start. For DRM strip-jobs, you'll first need to point the program to the folders containing your protected files, and then use the DRM Finder option to add them to the queue.

Wondershare can also extract the audio from DRM-protected video files: M4V, WMV, and so on. I used it to turn Weird Al Yankovic's "White & Nerdy" video, which I bought from iTunes, into an MP3. It worked like a charm!

In case you're unfamiliar with Giveaway of the Day, the only catch is time: You must download and install the software before the day is out. Other than that, it's a bona fide freebie for life (or at least until you move to a new PC).

Does your iPod really need a steering wheel remote?

Donald and Jasmine are back and ready to catch up on FLAC-compatible MP3 players, speakers that use "twoofers," headphones that use speakers, and a handy way to control your iPod while keeping your eyes on the road.

Plus, Jasmine offers some tips for taking your iTunes music collection to a non-Apple MP3 player, and Donald reviews an oldie but goodie.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

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The Sony S-series Walkman wants to be your AAC-friendly iPod rebound.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)

Apple's iTunes store is offering more and more of its music catalog in the DRM-free iTunes Plus music format (256Kbps AAC). There's no question that DRM-free music purchases are better for consumers than the aggravations of FairPlay and computer authorizations. Still, it also doesn't hurt Apple that its unique allegiance to the AAC music format leaves people with few non-iPod choices when it comes to compatible MP3 players for their iTunes Plus music collections.

You do have options, though. In fact, most of Apple's iPod competition has at least one AAC-compatible model for sale (I think someone forgot to give SanDisk the memo). To see our favorites, check out our list of AAC-compatible iPod alternatives.

Update:

On a related topic, Blues News has wrapped up a few stories today regarding DRM-related installation issues with the PC versions of Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3. It seems that alternate installers are required in some cases. While we remain grateful to Ubisoft for helping us out, it's plain that current DRM methodologies continue to place an undue burden on legitimate consumers.

Original post:

For providing us with the means to use Far Cry 2 as a PC gaming benchmark for the next year or so, we'd like to give game publisher Ubisoft and its Ubisoft Montreal development division a quick shout-out today.

The game's DRM limits you to installing the game on only three systems out of the box, but we run our gaming tests on roughly 120 desktops and laptops each year. Ubisoft graciously worked with us to find a way to accommodate so many installs. You can expect to see the first reviews using Far Cry 2 as a benchmark next week (Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3...it's been a good run, sort of).

Far Cry 2' amazingly useful benchmark software.

(Credit: CNET)

We'd also like to point out that unlike pretty much every other graphically advanced PC game of the last year, Far Cry 2 does indeed include an extremely robust, easy-to-use benchmarking tool. Dig into the bin directory in your Far Cry 2 folder and you'll find the .EXE file. The game comes with three fly-throughs of various lengths, and it also lets your record your own runs. The settings options also provide all of the necessary toggles for adjusting the image quality, the physics, and the enemy AI. It's also well-designed enough so that any curious PC gamer can play with it

So again, thanks Ubisoft, both for enabling us to adopt Far Cry 2 as a test, and also for making the tool so easy to work with. DRM may remain an annoying reality for consumers, but for review purposes you've set an example for other PC game makers (and yes, Electronic Arts, that means you).

In a bid to help novice downloaders jump-start their digital-music collections, Universal Music Group is offering "curated" playlists to Dell PC buyers.

The Dell Inspiron now comes with music.

(Credit: CNET)

Starting at $25, selected bundles 50 or 100 DRM-free songs can be added while building a custom PC on Dell's Web site. The songs will come preloaded on the computer, ready to play as soon as it's booted up.

The music option is available only on the Inspiron 1525, Studio 15, and XPS 1535 laptops and Inspiron 530, 530s, Studio Desktop, and XPS 420 desktops. The XPS One and Dell Mini 9 netbook are excluded from the offering.

The songs, all by Universal artists, are then playable on any device. You can see what bundles are available on Dell.com/musicandmovies. Track bundles include thematic playlists such as "Rock Titans," "The Classics," "Blues Masters," and so on. The lists will be "refreshed" on a regular basis in the future, and available for purchase on Dell's site.

Dell already does this with downloaded movies, but it's the first time a major label has struck a similar distribution deal with a PC company. Universal's tracks are already offered through a similar service on phones with Nokia and its Comes with Music program.

Quite a bit happened Tuesday at T-Mobile's conference introducing the G1, the world's first Android-based phone. Sure, it offers GPS, apps, and an open platform to make every iPhone lover cringe, but one major announcement that many have glossed over is the inclusion of Amazon.com's DRM-free MP3 store pre-loaded on each Android phone.

On October 22, thousands of people will be introduced to DRM-free music and Amazon's store. Many of those people won't know the value of owning DRM-free songs and others may wonder what Amazon's MP3 store is. But once they find out for themselves by downloading songs onto their G1, you can bet that they'll never look back at iTunes again.

Why? It's simple really: iTunes is a locked-down service that will only let you play your songs on Apple devices. Quite the contrary, Amazon's DRM-free store will let you download songs online or now, on the G1, and let you take that song to any other device you wish. Want to add it to your iTunes library? Go for it. Want to put it on your Zune? What are you waiting for?

Sure, we've known about this for quite some time--the store already has 6 million songs, you know--but there is a huge base of people who have used iTunes for so long that they don't even know what's out there. Some may not want to switch and will continue using iTunes, but now that Amazon's store is slowly gaining some of the limelight, Apple should start paying more attention to Amazon's offering.

Spore isn't the only new PC game from Electronic Arts to come with a frustrating DRM scheme. Crysis: Warhead, the follow-up to last year's Crysis, has a similar five-install limit. We know PC gamers hate DRM, and you've certainly not been shy about making your complaints known. As gamers ourselves, we share your outrage. We're also feeling the pain as reviewers.

We've negotiated frustrating Windows DRM in the past, but our PC testing efforts have never been thwarted by an individual gaming title. Our problem is that in order to use an application as a system test, we need to install it on every PC that comes through CNET Labs. As much as we'd like to stay current and adopt a Crysis: Warhead benchmark, we can't take the chance that on the sixth, twelfth, or eighteenth system some random EA customer service rep will deny our reactivation request.

Our hopes and dreams, as represented by Crysis: Warhead.

(Credit: Gamespot)

After the job the original Crysis did on even high-end gaming PCs, it didn't surprise us when we heard from PC vendors requesting that we adopt the supposedly optimized, more forgiving Crysis: Warhead as a high-end gaming test. We've also heard from EA that it recognizes the problem for testers and that a solution could be forthcoming. In the meantime, we'll be scouting for other new games that aren't quite as high maintenance. Far Cry 2, we're looking at you.

(Credit: DLNA)

At CNET we've reviewed and covered a number of products designated "DLNA-certified," from game consoles to HDTVs, and in our experience the standard's idealistic vision, "to be able to easily and conveniently enjoy this content using any electronic device, and from any location in their home, and beyond," according to the DLNA's FAQ, sometime fails to come to fruition.

This failure can be blamed on numerous factors, including competing standards, Digital Rights Management issues, or manufacturers not entirely following the DLNA standard or eschewing it for their own. Confusion over what DLNA means can put buyers of media devices in a precarious situation: will my DLNA-certified Nokia N95 digital camera connect to my DLNA-certified Sony KDL-46Z4100 HDTV so I can share my photos of my trip to Maui for my family to view? In this blog I'll unravel some of the mysteries around DLNA and try to make sense of what it actually means.

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