CD Club fun!

March 16, 2005 5:26 PM

I've been thinking of joining a CD club, like Columbia House.

However, when I went to the Columbia House website and browsed around looking for 12 cds for the introductory offer, I was very disappointed to find that I could only find, at most six CDs that I wanted and did not have. I should point out that I KNOW Columbia House has a much wider selection than this, but it does not seem to be available for the introductory offer.

So, are there any recommendations for such CD clubs? Special caveat: it must be able to deal with Canadians.

I'm not necessarily looking for obscure stuff-- I see it more as an opportunity to fill out my collection of CDs with some of the "classic albums of all time," as the phrase goes.

posted by synecdoche to Shopping (10 answers total)

http://www.bmgmusicservice.com/

I don't know whether they deal with Canada but I can't imagine them not.

Every month, I get some kind of special deal. This month is 'buy one, get three free'. So, that's $18 + 4 * 2.49 shipping , or $28 for 4 altogether. This isn't one of the better deals I get. Usually about every third month, I get a deal where the average price is about $5.50 for each CD. (All prices in US$)

My only gripe about BMG is the clunky website, but even on dial-up, it's tolerable.
posted by mischief at 5:58 PM on March 16, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks mischief, but BMG shut down its Canadian service a few years back.
posted by synecdoche at 6:15 PM on March 16, 2005

I belonged to Columbia House once. I wound up with a lot of music I did not want, because they made me buy stuff periodically, even if all they were offering was crap. They supposedly stopped that, but I no longer wanted to deal with them.

Now I buy used CDs, mostly from Djangos. There are a number of places like that, and the savings are comparable to clubs.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:07 PM on March 16, 2005

Don't know if they cover Canada, but I am enjoying my new membership at Yourmusic.com. All the CDs are $5.99, you buy one a month but you get to pick which one, you just click to put it in your buying que. Each month they ship one CD and charge your credit card. You can buy as many more as you like, all $5.99. BMG owns the company. Their selection is a bit dated, but as a middle-aged white guy living in the midwest, I'm not exactly up on whatever it is you crazy kids are listening to anyway.
posted by LarryC at 7:17 PM on March 16, 2005

According to this faq, Columbia House is the only game in town (for Canada).

I second Kirth's recommendation. Or do what I do and borrow CDs from the library and *cough* make mp3s before returning them.
posted by O9scar at 7:22 PM on March 16, 2005

You used to be able to browse the complete catalogue, which is certainly much larger than what they're offering up for new members now, when you signed up online, but like you, I don't see a way of doing that now. How much of the problem is not finding what you want and how much is already having what they list? Because while it's a short list, it's pretty representative of the big label roster than they carry. If you can't find 12 discs you want, they may not have a lot of things you want. On the other hand, if you're just finding that you have a lot of what's in their selection, it might be okay.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:25 PM on March 16, 2005

Response by poster: I have plenty of MP3s, but I am one of those people who likes to own the damn thing, liner notes and all. :) I'll investigate Djangos, though.

Looks like YourMusic is US only, too. I wonder why there are no Canadian places like this.
posted by synecdoche at 7:48 PM on March 16, 2005

I was just poking around the US site for Columbia House, and it seemed like I was able to view the entire catalog.

The default position seems to be their best sellers.

But, after I selected alternative. It had a thing to click that had "A-Z". Clicking on that revealed the entire alternative catalog.
posted by szg8 at 10:50 AM on March 17, 2005

I just checked the Canadian site and the same options are NOT available....
posted by szg8 at 10:51 AM on March 17, 2005

I used to do Columbia club...occasionally I'd get CDs in the mail that I didn't want because I'd forgotten to return the silly card. I wrote "return to sender" on the unopened package and dropped it in the mailbox. No problems and no bills for unwanted CDs.
posted by duck at 12:03 PM on March 17, 2005