Next Up on Digital Downloads: Tower Records

Tower Records is unveiling their very own digital download service tomorrow. Why bother? Well, here are the features (and my comments):

~Initial prices are 99 cents and $9.99 for albums. (Ok, sounds familiar, so far so good)

~"The depth of catalog will be another difference between Tower Records Digital and its competition, Munyon said. "There's a gigantic gap in the market," he said. "Everyone's going for the big hit titles and the best-known names and not focusing on the true music fan consumers. We have a broad and deep catalog in all genres -- we're known for this, and we're experts at it." (Really? not sure about that one)

~"All of the music is in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format, encoded at a higher bitrate than most other online stores to provide better audio fidelity. It also can be moved to most digital music players, with the exception of Apple's iPod." (Ah genius, now the 20 "true music fan consumers" that don't own ipods can enjoy this great service - sell, sell!)