Buying classical music CDs in the UK

January 4, 2008 2:09 AM

Best place to buy classical music CDs online, preferably both new and second-hand titles? I'm in the UK.

Amazon.co.uk are OK but not entirely comprehensive, and tend to sell at RRP, rather than discount.

I really want sleeve notes so am not keen on buying MP3s/iTunes.

posted by deeper red to media & arts (7 comments total)

Crotchet and MDT are two of the biggest UK online classical retailers, but both sell only new CDs.
posted by misteraitch at 2:35 AM on January 4, 2008

In 2002, I bought a rare twofer of Rozhdestvensky's complete Swan Lake (1969). I didn't get it anywhere else at the time, but from MDT (UK). I also found this page.
posted by Gyan at 2:37 AM on January 4, 2008

MDT looks like it's going to get my business, so thanks. It has good prices, including reasonable P&P, and a decent search tool, which lets me search by catalogue number.

I found Crotchet while Googling yesterday but its search facility is hard to use, with a tendency to dump a million unfiltered results at the user's feet. I also refuse to use any online shop that features MS Comic Sans. Doesn't fill me with confidence.

Others might be interested to learn that I found this site while searching yesterday, which features second-hand sales. No idea if it's any good and it appears to be in a state of ownership transition right now.
posted by deeper red at 3:32 AM on January 4, 2008

Note that Amazon.co.uk can be extremely good for used as many people use their Marketplace feature. Other than that, eBay, of course, although the selection is poor.
posted by wackybrit at 4:55 AM on January 4, 2008

Note that Amazon.co.uk can be extremely good for used as many people use their Marketplace feature.

I looked into the marketplace on Amazon but it seems you can't combine orders -- if you order two items from the same seller, you get charged two lots of P&P, as if buying separately. Additionally, the P&P charges are a little stiff, especially compared to the more honest 75p per CD charge of MDT. So the marketplace maybe good for one-off purchases.
posted by deeper red at 5:41 AM on January 4, 2008

The Comic Sans & the iffy search are off-putting, but I can vouch that Crotchet are reliable & professional: I've ordered from them many times and have had no problems.
posted by misteraitch at 9:26 AM on January 4, 2008

The Comic Sans & the iffy search are off-putting, but I can vouch that Crotchet are reliable & professional: I've ordered from them many times and have had no problems.

Encouraged by your words, I had another look at Crotchet. It turns out you can search via catalogue number using the Advanced Search feature. Incidentally, the Comic Sans typeface is hardwired into the HTML — no CSS for these boys! I had thought maybe they intended to use a cursive font that ended-up coming out as Comic Sans.

I've already placed my order with MDT but I inputted the same items into Crotchet and it came out about £10 more expensive. But it happened that two items I ordered were in a sale at MDT. I suspect the difference between the two if the sale hadn't been on would be almost negligible, although I pushed the order over £50 and ended-up paying just £1 P&P at MDT.

One irritation of MDT is that I can't track my order, and there's no indication of stock levels. Crotchet give a delivery indication of 3-4 working days for seemingly every item.
posted by deeper red at 9:52 AM on January 4, 2008