As a vinyl collector, I've always held Sub Pop in high regard. Not only does the iconic Seattle-based label release a lot of LPs, it doesn't charge an arm and a leg for them--I've bought some records from Sub Pop bands for the same price or less than the CD costs.
Last week, Sub Pop began selling MP3 downloads, and its catalog has rapidly expanded, now encompassing more than 200 full-length albums. The price is $9.90 and the format is 192kbps MP3, meaning they can be played on any application or device, unlike downloads from iTunes or the Zune Marketplace.
No single-song downloads yet, and these album downloads are not exclusives--the latest Kinski record, Down Below It's Chaos, is not only offered in higher-quality AAC format (and DRM-free) on iTunes, but it's only $8.91. But the Sub Pop download store will get more exciting, with rare, out-of-print titles becoming exclusive downloads on the site.
This strategy won't work for most of the major labels, as listeners probably aren't even aware which label holds their favorite bands. But for indie labels with strong brands that connote a certain sound--think Matador, K Records, or Constellation --this could be a smart way to do business.
(Credit:
Nintendo)
Pretty soon the Wii's online store won't be just for Virtual Console games and Opera. Nintendo just announced WiiWare, a Wii software creation service for indie developers. Smaller game companies will be able to use WiiWare to produce downloadable games to distribute and sell over Nintendo's Wii Shop Channel.
Nintendo's move has shades of Microsoft's initiative, in which the Xbox community can create games and potentially make them available for play on the Xbox 360 or on Windows machines.
This is more than welcome news for Wii owners, who have been experiencing a bit of a quality-game drought in the last few months. Besides Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition and Pokemon Battle Revolution, summer has brought precious few high-profile Wii games for Nintendo fans. Just like the Xbox 360's Live Marketplace and its downloadable content helped 360 owners get through its initial dearth of quality titles, WiiWare will hopefully give Wii owners a similar break from the doldrums. Virtual Console has helped a great deal, giving nostalgic Nintendo fanboys plenty of classic games, but new titles have been sorely lacking.
Unfortunately, Nintendo says that WiiWare won't start releasing new games until early 2008. Since the next major Wii title is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, slated for release this August, Wii gamers still have a few months to wait before getting anything big.
The 'Tux car' during a qualifying round.
(Credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway)When the pale blue "Linux car," also known as car #77 from Chastain Motorsports, was the first car to crash in the 91st Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, we can imagine hordes of geeks wishing it had been a "Vista car" instead. Imagine the "blue screen of death" jokes that could have resulted!
The Linux car, as you probably know already, was the result of a campaign called Tux 500, jump-started by two enthusiasts named Bob Moore and Ken Starks. They solicited donations from fellow Linux fans in a "community powered Linux marketing program" to make the open-source operating system a household name by putting its logo on a race car. Unfortunately, it's likely going to be remembered as "the car that placed last."
The race fared better for the "Joost car," car #2 from Vision Racing. While we've heard from more than a few beta testers who say Joost's downloadable software has a tendency to crash on occasion, that didn't happen for the Joost-branded car in the Indy 500, which ended up placing seventh. Mashable speculates that the car may have been a result of the deal between the peer-to-peer video start-up and Indy 500 parent organization IndyCar Series. There's an IndyCar branded channel on Joost, which features footage from Sunday's race (tip: use plenty of slow-mo and pausing when Marco Andretti's car bites it) as well as from all Indy 500 races dating back to 1990.
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