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Entertainment, Music, and Musical Instruments |
Music123 carries a huge selection of musical instruments from
guitars, drums, and keyboards, to all types of
band and orchestra instruments including woodwinds, brass, and strings . They have discounts of 30% or more on most
items and also offer financing that is often much more favorable than the rent-to-own plans of local music shops. The website is well organized considering
how much stock they carry.  Music123 typically
offers good financing plus accepts PayPal payments (as
well as major credit cards, of course). As it
says on their logo, they have a low price guarantee
(see website for details.) The website says they
provide "free shipping on thousands of
items," but doesn't say what the criteria
is. Music123 is a sister company to Woodwind
and Brasswind, which has similar stock and prices
but whose website is more geared towards symphony and
band instruments, but basically carries the same stock. It is worthwhile to check both
websites when shopping since one or the other may have a
cheaper minimum for free shipping. |
Napster was once the poster child of illegal music downloading
but, forced with legal pressures, went legit. They now offer a subscription service for MP3
audio files and pay by the month to download  unlimited
tracks, with over three million titles from which to
choose. The first week is free and
afterwards costs about $15 per month. Note that
the MP3s are really just "rented" and will
expire and be unable to play if the subscription
ends. However, for those who listen to a wide
variety of music, paying less than the cost of a CD
per month to be able to download an almost unlimited
number of high quality tracks at will is a real
bargain and a much better deal than buying protected tunes from iTunes. Note, however, that Napster only works with standard MP3 players like Creative, Toshibas, Samsung, and a long list of other MP3 players and mobile phones, but not iPods. Of course, music can be listened to on a PC instead of a standalone MP3 player. Napster also has a sponsored section of free music (not downloadable). Look for the link below the main homepage graphic that says "Not ready to get Napster? Click Here." |
Wal-Mart is the one of the largest retailers of music in the
country, even though the selection is lacking at most
of their retail outlets. However, online Wal-Mart provides a very good selection of music in
both CD and downloadable MP3 format. Wal-Mart is
one of the internet leaders in providing legal
downloads of music in MP3 format, likely because the
downloads are only 88 cents for any song, with most
complete albums under $10, and it is from a merchant
that people know and trust. Walmart Music Downloads also has select titles for even less cash - 48  cent downloads with albums from $5.88. They offer
"over 500,000 songs" which means their
selection is wide enough for about 95% of the music
listening public. The music download pages of
the Wal-Mart site work fine with most browsers,
however, when entering the download section from the
Music tab, available from any page on the Wal-Mart
site, it will not allow one to progress unless
Internet Explorer is the browser. Once inside,
you can download a onetime plugin that allows easier
downloading and processing (including organizing,
playing, and burning the music), or choose the
"original service" to be able to purchase
the MP3s one at a time or to just browse around without downloading
anything. The standard CDs Wal-Mart
carries on their website are typically for a good
discount, too. Again, the selection is fine for
the vast majority of people ("over 80,000 CDs!" as they advertise). |
Tower
Records is a large retailer of music and was once
known for their comprehensive stock at many
brick-and-mortar outlets around the country, but now
mostly has an online presence. Prices on
music CDs are good to very good and are often on sale
in the $10 range. The best thing about the
website is the great amount of information provided
for  many of the works, including product notes,
editorial reviews, and customer reviews and ratings,
plus many offer 30 second samples of each of the
tracks. Tower also carries a good selection of
other media including DVDs (music and videos) and VHS
videos,
also at good prices, as well as a good selection on
cassettes and vinyl - real albums!. Shipping rates are based on
the number of items and they typically use USPS with
2nd business day shipping available for a flat rate of
about $7 for most orders. Tax is charged in the
20 states in which they still have retail outlets. |
simply audiobooks rents, sells, and allows downloads of audio books. The rent function is similar to NetFlix where a subscription is purchased to allow 1, 2, 3, or 4 books to be rented at a time where shipping back and forth to the company is free. The plans start at about $12 per month  prepaid for a year for the 1-at-a-time plan, $15 if paid monthly. They also have an Audio Book Download Club from $9.95 per month where books can be downloaded as a wma file and played on a computer, MP3 player, or burned to a CD. simply audiobooks also offers almost all of the titles, 20,000 of them, for purchase and has them in CD, cassette, MP3 CD, or downloadable formats. |
Guitar Trader carries the newest electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass guitars, amplifiers, effects, pro audio and more. They feature guitars by Fender, Dean, Ibanez, BC Rich, Jackson, Schecter, and others. On many of their more  expensive items, Guitar Trader offers financing with no payments for 12 months. There are often free shipping promotions with a minimum order such as $150. They offer good value for most of their products, and there is a 50% Off section - see the left side menu bar halfway down, as well as New Products and Package Deals sections. Service and shopping is excellent, rating a 4.5 out of 5 with Epinions. |
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Links
If you are new to online shopping or want to learn more, there is plenty of information offering pointers on shopping online.
The Safe Shopping org website, sponsored by the American Bar Association, provides information and tips to help you order safely when shopping online.
Clark Howard provides a great deal of information on the purchase of consumer products and services, online and off, on his website.
Epinions.com is an online ratings service of products, services, and businesses which provides a review forum for consumers. Note that people are much more motivated to find a place to vent their feelings when they are dissatisfied than when they are pleased, so the ratings can certainly be skewed towards the unfavorable, especially for the items or vendors that have the largest number of reviews, but it still provides a useful measure for comparison.
Bizrate.com is another online ratings service of products and vendors.
Online Shopping from M/Cyclopedia
Online Retailers Need to Overcome Shoppers' Concerns says Rutgers-Camden Researcher |
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