onotob

Warp Records have opened their online music store Bleep. I’m having to avoid it at the moment because I need to save money for a trip to Europe this summer, but oh my fucking god it’s awesome!

The layout was designed, of course, by the Designer’s Republic so it’s a little unwieldy at times (e.g.: the little list of all available artists is a pain to navigate), but it also has some really cool features. The song preview is very cool. It shows you a waveform of the entire song and you can click along it listening to any part 20 seconds at a time.

Songs are priced at $1.35 a piece with albums costing $10 and EPs around $4. (interesting side note: all the prices are in US dollars, not Euros). All tracks are in MP3 format with no digital rights management (copy protection) which is a huge plus. Tracks are encoded with LAME using the “–alt-preset standard” VBR setting. Translation: you will not be able to tell the difference between these MP3s and a CD.

If you are a fan of Warp and have not already been digging around in this archive you are doing your self a great disservice. The entire catalogue is here, including all the rare EPs and b-sides. This is a company that sees the future of music distribution and is not afraid to embrace it. If you’re a fan of the label make sure to support them by buying tracks.

Money talks, yo.

Posted at 10:09 am.