Via Tiny Mix Tapes comes word that Merge is now selling mp3/flac digital audio file. I don’t really understand this move. Why now? 8 years ago or even 3 years ago, maybe I would have been impressed. Hasn’t most of the Merge catalog been on eMusic for years? I guess they’ll be cutting out the middleman (amie st., iTunes, eMusic, etc.), but couldn’t they have done that years ago? This weird balkinization of music commerce continues to get stranger by the day.

And on a semi-related note, WTF is the deal with the ID3 tagging at Amie St? No wonder they have to give away their mp3s. yuck.

I’ve yet to try Amazon’s mp3 solution. Perhaps they will be the ones to get it together and lead the way.