BMG Music On-Line Store; Who Needs Wal-Mart, or Best Buy, or Tower Records…?
Written: May 15 '04
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If you are like me then you long ago tired of the artificially high cost of music CD’s available at your local retailers like Target, Best Buy, Tower Records, Borders, Wal-Mart etc. But I love music of all genres, and I own hundreds of CD’s but my passion was getting too expensive a habit to feed. So I needed to find a new source for music CD’s, and along came BMG Music Service. I have been a member of BMG Music Service for almost eight years now, and in that time I have been able to feed my habit reasonable cost.
BMG Music Service has been in the mail order music business for over 50 years. Launched in the mid-1950s, the Club was part of the RCA Victor family of music until the Club was purchased by the German entertainment conglomerate Bertelsmann in 1987. BMG Music Service can now lay claim the largest direct-to-customer distributor of music in the world and has millions of members across its various genre-based music clubs. Only Columbia House Music rivals BMG in selection and price.
Today, BMG Music Service offers a wide variety of listening choices including pop, rock, R&B, adult alternative, easy listening, jazz, blues, classical, Latin, hip-hop, country, Christian, Sound Tracks, and much more. Members can choose from thousands of titles—produced by major music companies as well as hundreds of independent labels—through BMG Music Service's member website.
The Deal
To draw you in BMG Music Service swings before your eyes an offer—usually in the form of an unsolicited email, or a mailer insert with your credit card bill—that is hard to resist: literally 12 music CDs for the price of one to join the club. All you pay is a nominal shipping and handling charge per music CD, which calculates out to a cost per CD of about $5.00, far less then music CD’s found at retail outlets. But of course you can also surf to the website on your own and sign up there as well.
Not so fast, there is wrinkle. The offer is really for 7 free CD’s now, then after purchasing 1 CD at the regular club price ($14.98 and up), within a year you can pick out 4 more “free,” although shipping and handling plus tax is added on to each. If you sign up for the service at the website, it will keep track of how many CD’s you have chosen.
Once that that painful (1 CD) purchase is complete the deals begin in earnest—more about that later. BMG Music Service will mail you a Featured Selection CD every three weeks or 16 times a year based on the musical preference you specified when filling out the form to join the club. If you signed up at the web site, you can elect to have this emailed to you, and you can accept or decline on-line via the website.
Note: Once you pay for your one regular Club-priced selection, you may cancel your membership at any time, simply by writing to BMG. Also note that BMG Music Service membership is available only to individuals residing in the United States, its possessions and APO-FPO addresses.
Once you receive your CD’s BMG will allow you to return them—at BMG’s expense—up to 10 days after receipt; a preview period if you will. You must be thinking there is a catch. Well there is and there isn’t. A disorganized person might tend to forget that (s)he has gotten an update either through e-mail or regular mail—again your choice—which will ask you to pick the Featured Selection, another selection or nothing. If you do not act within 15 days you will be sent the Featured Selection; there the catch. However, if the Featured Selection is mailed to you without your knowledge, remember you have 10 days in which to return it. But if you are out of town, or on vacation for an extended period of time, be prepared to keep a CD you may not want. And with shipping and handling + tax the total will be some $22.50!
The Site
The BMG Music Service site is smartly laid out with all of your account information displayed on a pane along the left hand side, including your “MyCart” contents, how many music points (points collected whenever a CD is purchased and can be applied towards a free CD selection) you’ve collected, and help section. Also included is the ability to respond to your Featured Selection. Along the top music choices are displayed, including Rock & Pop, Country, Jazz, Classical, Latin, and Christian. Within these groups further sub-divisions by genre are displayed; e.g. within classical, the genre is further broken down into Classical Orchestral, Classical Crossover, Classical Instrumental, and Classical Vocal.
While the selection of artists at the BMG Music Service site is quite large and impressive, there are some gaps in the coverage, if you will. Much to my chagrin not all artists are represented at the site, the choice seems to be limited to those artist in the Bertelsmann stable of recording labels including, but not limited to: Arista Records, J Records, Jive Records, RCA Label Group-Nashville, RCA Victor Group, Provident Music Group, Zomba Music, BMG Classics, and BMG Japan.
From the BMG website: New selections are being added to our collection every day. However, we can offer only those selections recorded by artists and labels with whom we have negotiated contracts. Rest assured that we are doing everything we can to offer you the best music. Enough said…
Searching for artists is relatively straight forward. Searches can be conducted by Artist, Album Title, Song Title, Composer, and Selection Number. An Advanced Search feature is also available, under which you can also search by Record Label, & Year of Release.
Let the Bargains Begin
Once you have fulfilled your membership obligations BMG Music Service offers a wealth of lures to keep you coming back for more. If you order the Featured Selection for instance BMG Music Service routinely proffers additional CD for a substantially reduced price, for instance unlimited CD’s for $2.99 a piece, plus tax and shipping and handling. The current deal on the site for instance is for unlimited CD’s for 70% off the list price! Not too bad in my estimation, despite the shipping per CD added cost.
Other site features
• If either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player is installed on your computer you can listen to a clip—if available—of a song you might wish to preview. Those songs that provide listening clips will have headphones placed next to the song titles.
• By referring friends and family you can earn free CDs.
• By ordering CD you can earn music points toward free CDs; the more CD you buy the more points you earn, typically one music point per CD ordered. But, from time-to-time the site does offer double music points on purchases.
• You can keep track of your orders as soon as you place one from the website. You will receive an order confirmation email. You can keep track also of when your CD was shipped by signing up to get shipment confirmation e-mails at My Account on the website.
Shipping, Handling & Taxes:
As noted elsewhere in this review, there is a shipping charge for each CD bought. Depending on the number of CD bought this can be turn out to be an expensive proposition particularly for your first shipment.
From the BMG website: For each order, a shipping and handling charge of $2.79 per CD will be added covering all associated costs and services, including labor, materials, processing and postage. An extra charge is applied to multi-unit sets. A separate shipping and handling charge will be added to non-audio merchandise orders. The shipping and handling charge is subject to change.
You can see where shipping can become a rather unforeseen expense. For example, if you order a featured selection for 14.98, plus 4 CD’s at $2.99 a piece, and pay $2.79 X 5 or $13.95, the total cost rises to $40.89 + tax. However, if the same CD’s were purchased for $13.99 – $17.99 (the going cost at most retail stores), a piece they would cost considerably more, so in the end even with the shipping costs, BMG still leaves you with a better overall deal on the purchase of CD’s.
The only downside is the default shipping method BMG uses: Parcel Post/Standard. With these shipping methods your selections will take 10-14 business days to arrive. There are other shipping methods available for those who just can’t wait for their selection(s); BMG offers:
• Premium Express, 2-3 Business Days @ $7.99
• Express, 5-7 Business Days @ $4.99
A tax charge will apply no matter where you live.
Payments
Payment methods include credit cards and gasp, a “bill me” option. The CD’s arrive with the billing statement intact, and payment is due upon receipt. Note: music points are not credited to your account until payment is received.
Conclusion
I like my BMG Music Service. Having fulfilled my membership obligations years ago (I have been a member sine 1997), I now order all (well almost all) of my music CD’s from the service using standard shipping (no I don’t mind waiting), and the bill me option, at a substantial savings. Occasionally, occasionally, I have to go outside the service to find a CD and usually do so at Amazon.com where in I combine it with another purchase and get free shipping.
Despite the shipping charge per CD, BMG Music Service is a great deal. Of course I haven’t tried to disengage from the service, but my experience with the service thus far does not lead me in that direction. I also belong to Columbia House Music Club, but their prices tend to be higher and the purchasing deals not nearly as rich as BMG. If you are tired of paying high prices for CD’s, you can’t do better than BMG Music Service.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Music CD''s
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vemartin
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Member: Vincent
Location: Aurora, IL
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