Buying CDs

CD sales are in the toilet. Every year, in every genre (except Country and Jazz (really, Jazz?)) CD sales continue their downward spiral with hears now having a billion other options to listen to their fave hits; myspace, youtube, cell phones, itunes, rhapsody, aolmusic, vinyl, burned copies, illegal downloads, etc, etc. Record Companies, in my personal opinion, have been sloth slow to answer this problem (it's only been an issue for like 10 years now) refusing to make CDs a fair price, while thier record stores go under and they prosecute single mothers for downloading Nickelback; fucking stupid.

Even big box retailers are turning their nose up at CDs. Every time I go into a Wal-Mart these days it seems like their Music Section is getting smaller and smaller; barely carrying any new releases (outside of country and big name sellers) and instead increasingly pushing classic albums and best of compilations. I've seen less of a section downgrade at Target, instead their Music area is a ghost town of unstocked shelves. Unless the your looking for a band's (they better be a popular band) latest release or best of, buying CDs at Target is increasingly pointless. Even mighty Best Buy is slimming down the CDs for other electronic gadgets and low priced DVDs. It's a sad state.

For those music lovers still out their buying CDs it can be a hard landscape. Buying a new disc in many cases becomes a planned out operation, and for those not doing their homework, let me be the first to tell you, the Music Industry is fucking you over friend (even if you did said homework, just not as hard and nasty). How? I'm gonna get to that in a minute. Why? They want your money retard.

Alright so beside making it incredibly hard to locate new cds (if your looking for an album form a non popular band you may be forced to seek out one of the few still existing record stores, itunes, or the Internet), the first thing you need to figure out when buying CDs is the cost. Walmart, Best Buy, and Target usually lower the price of new CDS to around $10 (if it's not a double album) and a quick glance at their weekly flyer can tell you who has the best deal; though they should all be within a dollar or so of each other. Buying a new release at a book store like Barnes and Nobles or a mall chain like FYE, will in hurt your wallet. Their CDs are almost always way over prized (though FYE does occasionally have good CD deals) and while their overall selection my be superior, the damage to your wallet could prevent a multiple CD purchase.
(Note: Hot Topic is a good place to find metal, emo, and punk new releases other locations are less likely to carry for $10)

Think we're done? Nope, the real homework hasnt even been offered yet. While buying CDs at the best price is something to strive for (especially if your poor like me) but general rules of thumb will keep you from having to actually look shit up (Wal-Mart is cheaper). Unfortunately, in today's world buying music at different locations not only yields different prices but shockingly different products. WTF? Well let me explaining with an example. Saying your out shopping at Barnes and Nobles and you happen to spy the new Eric Clapton album for sale. You think to yourself, "My, my, it appears that my old friend Mr. Claption has a batch of new recordings for sale. It has been many moons since I heard a tasty tune from my old six-string master, I think I will purchase this enchanted disc and give it a hearty listen. But wait just one minute, a tiny message ajoined to the package informs me that by stacking my purchase here, instead of some competitor's shoppe, I will receive an exclusive bonus song. By Jove, bonus Clapton eh, well say no more and let me get out my coin purse, because I will certainly be making this purchase now. All doubt of buying has been expelled from my mind thanks to his wonderful free gift from the very fair and kind folks at Barnes and Nobles. Cheers."


Back in the day a CD was a CD in much the same way a Cassette was a Cassette, and a record was a record. Now every CD breaks down into a million versions, and if you dont know what your buying, or what others are offering, you may not end up with the version you want. This goes even beyond material CDs, different websites have different versions of the same CD as well. So let's look at the newest Clapton CD again, ingeniously named Clapton. If you buy it at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or Target you get a 14 track CD, but if you purchase it at Barnes and Nobles, iTunes, Amazon, or on ericlapton.com you get a bonus song. If you dont care about the bonus song than the Wal-Mart version will work, but if your a big Clapton fan and need to hear his every release than you'll want to get the bonus track. Here's where you get fucked again, the bonus track at Barnes and Nobles is not the same bonus track that they are offering on iTunes, Amazing, or ericlaption.com. Each location has a different bonus song, and none of them will allow you to purchase the bonus song separately. Fuck. If you want all the bonus song you either have to purchase the CD four times, or illegally download the tracks you need.

This situation only gets further complicated. Sometimes a realtor or website, will try to entice your purchase their with a bonus DVD, or an exclusive poster, or any number of band related trinket a die hard fan may want for their collection, and will be super pissed if they buy it at a location that doesn't offer it. So you have to do research, what versions of this CD exist, where can I buy it, how much, and is there any place offering any additional free bees with a purchase (offten these giveaways are only advertised in the stores themselves).

Sounds aggravating doesn't it (I still dont have the fucking bonus song off the last White Stripes album because I didnt buy it on iTunes), but it can get worse. Often times really popular albums will be re-released only a few months after they come out. If you bough the album the first time around this can be extremely frustrating as now you are wondering is the bonus DVD and 2 new songs worth $12 for a CD I essentially aready own. It sucks man, but at least the dying CD business has made classic albums somewhat cheaper.....so there's that....