The Peter Gabriel-curated B&W Music Club is now providing music downloads in 24-bit FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files. Subscribers now have a choice of three formats for download. The new 24-bit FLAC format, a 16-bit FLAC version and a 16-bit Apple Lossless version. The new file format is also available for people on a free trial, who can download an EP of 24-bit lossless music. Full membership runs $59.95 for a year and $39.95 for six months. You can download one new album a month, which comes to $5 an album with the annual membership. Sometimes there are bonus downloads, making the membership even more valuable.

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If you love world music, you need to head on over to MondoMix for a touch of Cuban rhythms, Jamaican reggae, Indian Vedic chants, or beats from the Balkins. Explore the world of music in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Delve into the different genres that include Pop/Rock, Jazz, Sacred, and Hip-Hop along with the traditional sounds of the region.

For the past ten years, MondoMix has been bringing its audience an exclusive look at the sounds and images which are moving and grooving the planet. Since 2005 they have been offering MP3 (265kbps) DRM-free downloads. They make it easy for you to sample songs with a quick thirty-second snippet. Individual tracks are $.99 and albums run around $10.00. While the quality and price is more or less the same as iTunes, you'll be treated to one of the widest selection of world music I've encountered online.

You probably haven't heard of Susan Laurenzi before but that's not surprising since this is her first CD. I don't usually use this blog to review or promote new music, however, this album is a breath of fresh air among the morass of digitized, heavily compressed, overly produced, and lyrically insignificant tunes that is the staple of today's music industry. And I admit it's a shameless plug because Susan is a close, personal friend and I have watched what she has gone through the last several years in an effort to deliver this baby. Indy artists need a lot more than good songs and talent, they have to have serious perseverance and sacrifice, especially of the monetary kind.

Rich in the Soul is comprised of 11 well-crafted songs with lyrics that are identifiable to all of us, as they weave through the human experience of love, yearning, desire, betrayal, and just trying to figure out how to be a good person in this crazy and complicated world.

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HDGiants unveiled their new HD MediaStore application during CES. While HD Giants has an online presence accessible to anyone (with Microsoft IE only), this new application was specifically designed for easy integration with top media servers running the Vista Media Center. It allows Media Center customers to purchase and download music in the WMA lossless format directly from their MCE Vista entertainment centers.

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According to the Nielsen Co.'s year-end figures, music purchases — from all mediums — of entire albums including digital single track downloads and music videos totaled 1.5 billion, up 10.5% over 2007. However, more than 70% of that figure was attributed to digital downloads. Moreover, total album sales were down, as people tend to buy just the tracks they like.

Next week, the industry descends on Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). I'll be there and blogging for Ultimate AV. My beat, as we call it, will focus on digital media, convergence products, and the trends associated with this transition to a totally digital world.

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As usual, there are plenty of celebrity Christmas albums you can purchase as a CD or through the various music services. However, I was curious what holiday musical tidbits might be residing on the web that there were outside the mainstream.

The first thing I came across was feelslikechristmas.com. Primarily populated by Indie artists (no surprise there), FLC offers free downloads from a variety of musicians, some who have enjoyed mild commercial success in the past such as Jars of Clay and Sixpense None the Richer. I recognized a couple of other names but no one that ever burned up the charts.

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Sling Media, makers of the Slingbox that lets you watch your home TV from any internet-connected computer in the world, has now become a content provider. This week they rolled out a "beta" version of their very own video-streaming site, Sling.com.

While similar to other streaming sites such as Hulu.com, the company has a unique edge over the competition since you can control your Slingbox directly from the site. The Slingbox allows users to control and watch TV from any Mac or Windows-based computer equipped with high-speed Internet access.

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It may be awhile before feature length films in HD are downloadable from the Internet, however at Vuze.com, you can download or stream high definition movie trailers, hot new music videos, and Showtime episodes like Dexter, Weeds, the Tudors, and more.

Download the VUZE software, then search for a variety of HD content. You can watch a 30-sec low resolution preview to make sure its something you want or verify it's what you were searching for. Then stream it or download the file to your hard drive.

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I've always been a big fan of Peter Gabriel, so I was intrigued when I heard about a new music service he co-founded called We7.com. The site allows members to listen to songs and albums in their entirety for free. They can create a playlist to share with friends and colleagues. If you like the song well enough, then you can buy and download it.

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FEARnet.com is the perfect online destination for you hardcore horror fans, offering free movies of Halloween classics, and original web shows such as the 30 Days of Night series produced by Sam Raimi. Every Thursday the website swaps out 10 new movies that you can view for free. Of course, its on the small screen and only available as a stream, not a download. For Halloween, FEARNet is premiering Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train.

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Maybe you already know what a mashup is and even if you don't know the proper terminology, you've definitely heard one. A mashup is one or more songs mixed together to create an entirely new song. Technically, these new tracks are bootlegs, as they are not authorized remixes by the artist or sanctioned by the record labels. That said there are hundreds, if not thousands, of these unique hybrid tunes out there.

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I'm currently in Brazil and had the opportunity to attend a HiFi show in São Paulo. It was incredibly small, at least by comparison to the shows I attend in the US. However, it did provide some insight as to what products are being introduced into the Brazilian market and how they compare to the North American equivalents.

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There was a time if you didn't tape (or TiVo) your favorite TV shows, you would have to wait for the re-runs or even syndication to catch that episode you missed. Today, there's an abundance of free websites providing recent and older episodes of your favorite TV shows. Some of these sites offer movies, but most are older flicks. So, pull up a chair and your laptop to check out some TV…on the Internet.

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What really stood out at this year's CEDIA in Denver was the number of companies showing media servers. They have certainly grown in popularity, especially within the custom-installation world. Not that many years ago, media servers were the exception, and now they are the norm for those ultra-high-end, multi-zone, music/video systems. As high-resolution downloadable media (audio and video) become more available, then media servers are likely to be our main, if not our only, source device.

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I just returned from the annual CEDIA Expo in Denver. Media servers and Windows-based media centers are nothing new for this event, but this year it was apparent that the category is growing with more choices than ever before.

UAV editor Scott Wilkinson has decided to expand and dedicate more coverage to this important and evolving category. In the near future, look for in-depth reviews on a variety of products that are designed to organize, manage, and play all your music and movies, whether they are from hard media or already stored on your computer.

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If you are at all familiar with "audiophile music," then you've heard of Chesky Records, which was founded by David and Norman Chesky all the way back in the last century. Their philosophy was to capture the spaciousness of "live music" in their recordings. If you want to know more about their history, go to Chesky Records, which is still alive and well.

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Is classical music your thing, specifically the works of Norwegian composers and musicians? Then you have to check out 2L, a Grammy award-winning Norwegian label that offers recordings in 24-bit/96kHz, mixed in 5.1 surround sound.

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I came across a unique website this week called Magnatune. They specialize in musical styles such as ambient, downbeat electronica, and world music. While these are hugely popular genres, especially the sub-genre of electronica known as "chill," there are a limited amount of outlets available for finding this type of music.

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I had an opportunity to meet Mark Waldrep, owner of AIX Records, yesterday in his studio here in Los Angeles. Mark is probably the most out-spoken advocate for high-definition audio in the industry. As he points out, all too often high-definition audio is associated with lossless tracks that are downloaded from services such as MusicGiants, HDTracks, and the B&W Music Club. However, Mark vehemently disagrees with this definition.

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It may be a crazy download world, but buyers still need to be diligent and know what it is they are buying. Last week, I wrote about all the various mainstream services selling music downloads. Competition is fierce, and the latest fallout is the Yahoo! Music Online Store, which will discontinue operations on September 30.

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