Unless it's an obscure micro-genre, the Godzillas of online music shopping are a safe bet. CDNow.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble post huge catalogues and low prices, and you can read reviews and demo songs before you buy. The prices vary widely, though, so take the time to comparison shop.
Need Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue"? On a recent day, CDNow was selling it for $11.49, while at Amazon it went for $8.38 and at Barnes & Noble for $9.99.
Keep in mind shipping costs. The going rate is about $3 for the first disc and $1 for each additional disc, so ordering one CD at a time will get costly. Shipping times vary from disc to disc, depending on availability, and the time listed next to the item refers to when the CDs are put in the mail.
If you like to listen before you buy, try CDNow first. It has the most streaming song clips. Usually, the snippets are only a half-minute long. To hear more, check the record label's site. Many labels, such as Studio K7 (www.studiok7.com) and Matador (www.matadorrecords.com), have longer excerpts or full songs. There's also Napster, of course, notwithstanding the song-swapping network's legal and ethical issues.
Among the three retailers, only Amazon shares information on other customers' spending habits. Creepy perhaps, but it's a good way to find closely related music. Amazon and CDNow let you build "wish lists," which you can save online as hints to friends and fans.
One standout no-frills bargain site, Cheap-CDs.com, undercuts the major sellers by a dollar or two an order, but has limited stocks. For secondhand discs, try Half.com (an offshoot of eBay), Wherehousemusic.com or SecondSpin.com, for starters. Also be forewarned of their skimpy selections.
- Seth Hamblin
Other Category Comparison Charts:
Dep't Stores |
Beauty |
Books |
Clothing |
Computers |
Electronics |
Food |
Movies |
Music |
Toys
Online Holiday Shopping Stories:
Return to the Lead story, or read about:
Decking the Halls With a Mouse;
Avoiding Pitfalls;
Shopbots;
Foreign Purchases;
Online Greetings;
Customizing Gifts;
Comparison Shopping
