What is your source for new CD's? Online or local? I had been just buying stuff from BMG or Columbia House, but they no longer offer anything I want. I am interested in popular, mainstream sorts of music primarily. Thanks for any tips.
For new stuff I buy pretty much exclusively from Best Buy, as they are very near me, and they have terrific prices on new releases.
Having said that though, the majority of my CD purchases are used cd's off Ebay. I've found a treasure of CD's at outstanding bargains that way.
Lastly, if you're in the Los Angeles or San Fran area,
Amoeba Music has TONS of used CD's at great prices as well.
I'm trying not to buy cds any more, until the RIAA gets its head out of its ass. That said, I used to get them at amazon.com. It's just ... convenient. I'll have to check out the ebay thing, though.
I love Amazon for cd's. Often great deals can be found buying new and like new in the used listings. Also good for selling those cd's you end up not playing. Easier than ebay, no waiting for bidding to close. Often cheaper than ebay buy it nows. Cheaper shipping.
One new music source I have been playing with is magnatune.com. They sell downloadable music for independent artists.
All the music is available to listen at any time in its entirety for free via high quality streams. When you buy an album, you can download it in a variety of formats, including full uncompressed WAV files. There is no digital rights management.
You can choose from a sliding scale how much you want to pay for an album. The artist get 50% of every sale.
It is kind of the complete opposite of the RIAA. I recommend you check it out. I have found quite a few really good indepent artists this way.
-Sean
Hey Tom, check out the music stores that sell used CDs with a no-questions-asked return policy. "Wherehouse"s in CA still have that deal. Personally, I like to check out the stores in the rougher neighborhoods. Not only do the folks down there steal more CDs and then sell them to the Wherehouse (creating a greater selection), they tend to not share my musical interests - resulting in an even greater selection. Sometimes I find the original owners personal info inside the disc case. Oh well.
I also use Amazon. They have separate stores for SACD and DVD-A now. Also, their "AI" system (if that's what you'd call it), provides pretty decent music selections. If you choose an album, it'll suggest music that others have bought as suggestions. I've found several of their suggestions VERY good, like Jazzyfatnastees (neo Soul). Also, you can sample many of the tracks too.
Thanks so much for the replies. I think I'm going to start shopping for used a bit more aggressively. I appreciate the suggestions!
Hey Tom, forget plain CD's. Just try 1 DVD-Audio disc and you'll never go back! I did this recently when I got the Eagle's Hotel California DVD-A and the 2 guitars seem to have a conversation. The first one "speaks" from the front right M60 and the second "reply's" from the left rear QS8....beautiful!
Bob
I used to get a lot from CDNow, but when the evil Amazon bought them out, I boycotted it and went to
www.cduniverse.com. Decent prices, nice wishlist feature. Good stuff.
Wow...Peter and I think way too much alike. I was just about to type that same question.
I admit I usually prefer to shop with smaller businesses, but Amazon has made shopping so affordable and easy, I can't help but love them. Am I missing something?
The only reason I can conceive of them being evil is that they are pretty patent-happy. Remember the fiasco over them patenting 1-Click shopping? I never use that feature anyway. It would be too easy to click away happily and pile up a large CC bill...
Perhaps duffin is simply anti-corporate, seemingly the fashion for northern climes.
I'm just pissed they ruined my CDNow shopping experience.
Not to say that CDNow wouldn't have gone out of business anyway, but the shopping experience at Amazon is woeful in comparison. Granted, they have everything, but when I want to look at Pink Floyd's CD catalog, I expect just that, with albums and dates and a place to store my wish list, not a smattering of records by Pink, along with "things you might like" which relate to Pink, not Pink Floyd, which is all I really wanted to begin with.
So I found CDuniverse, which bascially gives me what I wanted.
Why is Amazon evil?
My recent experience with AMAZON,
placed an order on 12-5-03, recieved an e-mail on 12-6 saying package had shipped via Airborne Express, a tracking number was included so I went to Airbornes web site to track package, but there was no tracking info, so today I gave Airborne a call, thier rep said they had recieved no package from Amazon. Next call went to Amazons cust. svc. Got one story stating that package had shipped on the 8th, when I inquired if it was shipped on the 8th or 6th rep had me hold for a supervisor, after a 30 min hold super says he is not sure when it shipped but it had shipped. Called Airborne again to verify previous info and was assured package had not been recieved. At this point I was highly confused (and getting pissed) so I called Amazon's corparate office where I was told by the gent. answering the phone to call customer service. When I tried to explain my dilemma with customer service this IDIOT said he really didn't care and hung up. In my book this speaks highly of this company and there attitude towards their customers. There are just to many other places to get a good deal, and when a problem arises, good customer service... DOWN WITH AMAZON
You placed an order 4 days ago and you're freaking out? Did you need to change the shipping address or something? Granted, you weren't treated very nice, but I'll bet your package arrives safely and timely.
(BTW...Airborne Express could very well be at fault, they're quite possibly the worst delivery company in the country.)
Not freakin', just confused by all the conflicting stories from Amazon. Where I live I like to try and stay on top of deliveries because they just happen to appear at the door.