Bleep was launched initially on 14 January 2004 as a download store for releases on
Warp Records. The website quickly expanded its catalogue to include releases on other labels, gaining enough popularity to receive nomination for a
Webby Award in the music category on 7 May 2004 alongside
iTunes,
Beatport,
Live365 and musicplasma. In 2006, Bleep passed the million downloads threshold and in October of that year won the UK Digital Music Award for "Best Music Store". Bleep provides music encoded as
MP3 files,
FLAC files, or
WAV files, all of which are free of
digital rights management (DRM) technology in addition to vinyl and cassette records. In November 2008, Bleep merged with Warpmart, which had been Warp's store for physical releases. This has resulted in Bleep being not only a download store, but a full mail order retail service. Entire tracks and albums can be previewed prior to purchase. A large catalogue of rare titles has been acquired from many small labels from all over the world. Ochre, the direct to consumer music retail platform that evolved from Bleep.com, is used to power Bleep.com as well as the sites of various independent labels. ==See also==