EMusic.com sells MP3 singles for 99¢ and entire albums for $9.
Riffage.com, a combination community-commerce site specializing in artists on independent labels.
CDNow.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com and SamGoody.com offer the occasional digital music download (often exclusives) through partnerships with record companies. The songs are in proprietary formats that restrict users to one copy to store on a PC or burn onto a CD.
MusicMaker.com has said it will expand its online music store to include 500,000 songs from the EMI catalog (Cher, the Beach Boys ...). Customers will be able to buy and download secure (piracy-proof) tracks for $1 apiece. The site already offers hundreds of thousands of songs from independent labels and sells custom CDs.
SonyMusic.com plans to start selling $3.50 "virtual singles" recorded in MS Audio, another restricted format.
a2bmusic.com is home to a proprietary format used by some record companies mainly to promote new albums and drive traffic to online CD stores. Join the e-mail list for links to the latest a2b downloads. It's nice to get a sneak peek at, say, Weird Al Yankovic's latest parody, but 18-sec. snippets of songs don't exactly improve your playlist.
NEWS & RELATED INFO
SonicNet.com This self-dubbed Online Music Network covers all the bases: music news, concert tour dates, upcoming releases (see "The CD Report"), artist profiles and album reviews, with links to streaming-audio snippets of the songs mentioned. The site also posts streaming-video clips and serves as an Internet-radio hub.
RollingStone.com Music news, artist profiles, CD reviews, videos and instructions on how to view them. The "MP3s and More" section is Star Search for the digital age. Unsigned artists are invited to upload songs for feedback from professional music critics.
CDDB.com Searchable database on all commercial music that exists on compact disc. Provides links to several free downloadable CDplayers programmed to recognize audio CDs in your PC's cd-rom drive and display artist, album and song names automatically.
Lyrics.ch This site's voluminous database will clarify once and for all that the Go-Go's Our Lips Are Sealed wasn't a tribute to Alex the Seal and that Jimi Hendrix did not sing "Excuse me, while I kiss this guy." Warning: you'll have to jump through some hoops to gain access.
