The Cheap Completist II
December 23, 2011 7:55 PM
The recent AskMeFi question asked "Which albums on Google Music's sale are cheaper if you buy them by the song?". This is the opposite of that. Which albums on Google Music are a steal 'cause the album at $4.99 (or a multiplier) are awesome deals that are worth adding to your collection because you get a very good $/song price? For example, The Police's Message In The Box gives you 78 songs for $20, or $.26/song.
Well, as I said in my comment there, Double Nickels on the Dime by the Minutemen (43 songs = $.12 a song!) and Pink Flag by Wire (21 songs) will get you a whole lot of bang for one album, but the songs are all pretty short. Meat Puppets II has 19. If you notice a trend here, we're looking at all punk bands.
The flip side is if you want to get something that's broken up into a bunch of little pieces, like St. Matthew's Passion by Bach, which consists of 3 discs in physical form, each with 20-30 tracks, and is kind of proto-opera.
Otherwise you're looking at compilations, greatest hits collections like the Police thing you mention, or things where two albums have been put on one disc like Big Star's Radio City/#1 Record, with 24 tracks, or a Flying Burrito Brothers album that combines The Gilded Palace of Sin with Burrito Deluxe (there's a couple on there, but in the end you don't really want Burrito Deluxe anyway).
posted by LionIndex at 8:26 PM on December 23, 2011
The flip side is if you want to get something that's broken up into a bunch of little pieces, like St. Matthew's Passion by Bach, which consists of 3 discs in physical form, each with 20-30 tracks, and is kind of proto-opera.
Otherwise you're looking at compilations, greatest hits collections like the Police thing you mention, or things where two albums have been put on one disc like Big Star's Radio City/#1 Record, with 24 tracks, or a Flying Burrito Brothers album that combines The Gilded Palace of Sin with Burrito Deluxe (there's a couple on there, but in the end you don't really want Burrito Deluxe anyway).
posted by LionIndex at 8:26 PM on December 23, 2011
This Hank Williams collection has 84 songs for $14.97, which comes to $.18/song. Or you could get The Complete Hank Williams: 225 tracks at $.22/song.
posted by Knappster at 8:27 PM on December 23, 2011
posted by Knappster at 8:27 PM on December 23, 2011
The deluxe version of Florence and the Machine is clocking in at 20+ songs for $4.99.
posted by jadepearl at 8:28 PM on December 23, 2011
posted by jadepearl at 8:28 PM on December 23, 2011
Well, crap - 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields, which is 3 cds, costs only $9.49, so you're getting more than a cd for free there. $.14/song
posted by LionIndex at 8:29 PM on December 23, 2011
posted by LionIndex at 8:29 PM on December 23, 2011
The Residents: Commercial Album
40 songs for 4.99 = $0.12 per song.
Each of the tracks is only 1 minute long, but the liner notes of the album say that each 1-minute track can be played three times in a row, resulting in a three-minute pop song.
posted by ManInSuit at 9:22 PM on December 23, 2011
40 songs for 4.99 = $0.12 per song.
Each of the tracks is only 1 minute long, but the liner notes of the album say that each 1-minute track can be played three times in a row, resulting in a three-minute pop song.
posted by ManInSuit at 9:22 PM on December 23, 2011
Also, apparently:
Altered States of America by Agoraphobic Nosebleed has 128 tracks. Google charges $7.99 for it, even though it is only 40 minutes long. Still, at that high per-album price, it's just 6 cents or so per song. Note, though, that many of the songs are less than 10 seconds long, and that according to wikipedia, a number of tracks consist only of someone speaking the song's title.
posted by ManInSuit at 9:29 PM on December 23, 2011
Altered States of America by Agoraphobic Nosebleed has 128 tracks. Google charges $7.99 for it, even though it is only 40 minutes long. Still, at that high per-album price, it's just 6 cents or so per song. Note, though, that many of the songs are less than 10 seconds long, and that according to wikipedia, a number of tracks consist only of someone speaking the song's title.
posted by ManInSuit at 9:29 PM on December 23, 2011
Chopin - 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces: Rise of the Masters is $0.99 for all 99 tracks. So, about 1 penny per track. Most are quite long, a small handful are under a minute, the shortest is 33 seconds, but many more are over 10 minutes long. Amazon says "Album Savings: $98.01 compared to buying all songs".
posted by marsha56 at 4:42 AM on December 24, 2011
posted by marsha56 at 4:42 AM on December 24, 2011
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posted by limeonaire at 8:17 PM on December 23, 2011