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Oxford, England - that's right - home of Radiohead, Supergrass, Ride, Talulah Gosh, The Anyways and Mr. Big - the list goes on and on. Here is the shop front of the organisation providing the dark force behind so many of Oxford's success stories.
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CD Baby was the original on-line store for underground CDs. Now it collaborates with all the major players like iTunes and MSN Music, but still looks after the musicians.
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Twee Kitten - it's a record label, and it's a record shop. Some of our best friends are releasing records here. Underground left-field stuff, and some jangly indie-pop too. Charming. They sell blue kite CDs too.
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Tower - it's a big one. And they really do sell blue kite CDs. Seek and ye shall find.
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Rhapsody - turn your P.C. into a jukebox! Well, that's what it says. You can stream and download here. (Owned by RealAudio you know).
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Fopp - here's an old fashioned one for you. They run a chain of independent record shops in the UK. There are about 15 branches, from Glasgow to Reading. The idea is, you physically go to the shop and buy the CD. They also run the 'unsigned' network, and sooner or later you'll be able to stream from their website. Meanwhile click the link to read all about it.
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AudioLunchbox - this one is really easy to use! You can stream and download blue kite from here.
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Viztas - another place where you can stream and download blue kite, apparently.
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Another downloading/streaming type of place ...
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Aha! this one involves walking. Nothing virtual about this record shop in the hippest part of Oxford - Cowley Road. Go there now, you know it makes sense.
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Napster - hey! it's no fun now it's legal eh? Anyway - you can stream and download blue kite from here, apparently. You need to download and install some software first though.
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iTunes. Apple beat all the majors to the punch with a usable, friendly downloading/streaming portal. But can it stay at the front of the game? Just because you've got a better product doesn't mean you get market share - RE: MAC versus P.C. - here's hoping. Anyway - you can stream and download blue kite from here, apparently. You need to download and install some software first though.
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MusicMatch - it's owned by Yahoo - another big player. You can stream and download blue kite from here, apparently. You need to download and install some software first though.
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MP3.COM the grandaddy of them all - used to be a fantastic service for the unsigned musician, giving hundreds of thousands of bands a web presence (free!). Then it got bought by Vivendi Universal, then they sold it off, now it's like so many other places, the little guys get squeezed out. However, blue kite can still be streamed/downloaded from there, if you are patient enough.
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A combination of 'Peoplesound' and some of the other pioneers. Kind of a European version of MP3.COM (see above). You can stream or download a couple of songs from here, if you can get past the ads for eBay and so on. Was mainly a resource for 'European' unsigned artists. Now it does digital distribution for BMG, Emi, Sony, Universal, Warner, edel, Roadrunner and V2.
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This one specialises in Spanish & Latin American music, and as far as I can tell you have to register before you can download (my Spanish isn't up to much - sorry). You can download blue kite.
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Another one where you have to register before you can download. You can stream and download blue kite from here, apparently.
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Here's one where you can buy the blue kite CDs as well as downloads.
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I confidently predict that in 5 years time there'll only be one or two mega-corporations dominating the download market. Be interesting to see if any on the above list survive...