Jacob Ganz

We're still in the final stages of making our list, but we agree enough on a few albums to share this preview of NPR Music's favorite albums of the year. Audie Cornish talks to Frannie Kelley, Stephen Thompson and Tom Huizenga.

How the tiny digital file took down the mighty CD and came to dominate the music industry.

Guitar technician Shane Timm is one of the many people who make the band fun.'s tour possible. Timm is in charge of the 45 pieces of musical equipment that travel with the band on its summer tour.

The Nova Scotian stalwarts attribute their longevity to a tight code of democracy and avoiding the spotlight.

In rock and roll terms, the Portland-based band is a veteran act. When they started playing together 17 years ago, they had no idea the gig would last. Now, Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss have put out their eighth album, called American Gong.

In 1989, two members of the rock band Superchunk launched a tiny record label. Twenty years later, amid the struggles of the music industry at large, Merge has become one of the most respected and successful companies in the business.

Forty-five years after the debut of Terry Riley's IN C, the composer and his son, guitarist Gyan Riley, talk about performing the minimalist classic together.

Last year, the band Grizzly Bear earned the acclaim of critics with Yellow House, recorded in and inspired by the childhood home of frontman Ed Droste. The Brooklyn band's songs are warm and comfortable, yet somehow strange and new.

Radiohead shook up the music industry last week, when it announced that its new album would not be released as a CD, or as a download through iTunes. Instead, it is offering In Rainbows through its own Web site for whatever price each customer decides to pay — even nothing.

In Rainbows, Radiohead's first album since 2005, will appear online Oct. 10, with a specially-boxed CD/LP set to follow in December. The band is working without a label and the album will debut on the Radiohead Web site.