The real music store we claimed was going to sprout online has finally done so, at digital.othermusic.com, where people who don't have access to the store's brick-and-mortar location in Manhattan's East Village can now shop for music in the unprotected 320 Kbps MP3 format.
Albums generally cost $10-$13, with individual tracks on many albums available for $1.11 a piece. I think this is a decent price, considering that the tracks are compatible with more devices than EMI's unprotected AACs, which Apple sells in its iTunes store for $1.29 a pop.
The other reason I'm so encouraged by this development is that Other Music generally stocks only good music (to my ear anyway). If Apple's iTunes is the digital music equivalent of Tower Records, Other Music is equivalent to... well, independent stores like Other Music's location on East 4th street, which remains even after Tower Records, located right across the street, was forced to shut down.
Other Music's digital store doesn't offer nearly as much as iTunes, but everything in the store has been approved by store staff, and comes without the format and DRM problems that plague other services.
