[LobsterSan]

I've seen threads before for Columbia House DVDs in which people list the best values, deals, and all the movies that are available through CH. I feel like the same can be done for BMG music (although the stock seems to rotate a bit more frequently over at BMG).

This would also be a good chance for all those people contemplating doing the 12 for 1 startup deal, but can't figure out for the life of them what to purchase. The selection at BMG is limited; make no mistake about that. However, they do still have a fair number of quality albums, and the savings on these albums can be quite good if you hunt for the right bargains.

The typical retail CD price at BMG is 17.98, atrocious. However, they require that you only make 1 full price purchase ($14.98 or above) before quitting. So that's 1 full price CD, plus 11 "free" CDs. I say "free" because they charge a ludicrous amount for shipping on each CD -- $2.79 a piece, regardless of how many CDs you purchase or have shipped. That comes out to a total of $51.46 for a total of 12 CD's (calculating for one $17.98 CD shipping on 12 CDs -- 12 x 2.79), no further obligations. This in turn comes out to $4.29 per CD. Not a bad deal, as long as you can find 12 CDs that you desire, and you are disciplined enough to quit the club once fulfilled. It will take a little bit of time, since they require you first get your 7 free CDs, then you get a coupon voucher when you purchase your full-priced CD for 4 free CDs. After that, you should quit. They have good deals from time to time, but it never approaches the $4.29 per CD pricing point. I have not tried it out yet, but it may be possible to quit and rejoin like it is with Columbia House (I've known people to do this up to 90 times or more).

It takes a little discipline and time and patience to quit right after, but it might be worth it if you can find enough CDs you'd be willing to pay $4.29 for.

The purpose of this thread is to compile a list of CDs that people deem worthy of purchase and that are available through BMG, as a reference to choose 14 or so CDs from. This is so you don't have to go searching and can have a list right in front of you to browse and select.

CDs are searchable here:
www.bmgmusic.com


***** UPDATE 4/13/2004 -- 15-for-1 DEAL IS DEAD! >_< *****
There used to be a promotion that allowed you to receive 15 CD's for the price of 1, as opposed to the normal 12 CD's for the price of 1.
************************

The list follows. I will try to keep them somewhat obscure or of CDs that I (or you) really really like -- I mean, to the point that some CDs you know BMG will have, like most of the real popular MTV-type stuff. Give me suggestions and I will add it to the master list (Selection #'s included for easy reference) I will also keep adding to this list as I do more research:


=================
$14.98 RESTRICTED LIST
=================
#D1650076 Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon *

============
RESTRICTED LIST
============
#D2651008 Krauss, Alison - Live w/ Union Station
#D2509735 Bela Fleck & The Flecktones - Little Words (3 CDs)

=======
FREE LIST
============
Pop/Rock/Folk
============
#D1350610 10,000 Maniacs - MTV Unplugged
#D1001262 10,000 Maniacs - Our Time in Eden
#D1255306 Amos, Tori - From the Choirgirl Hotel
#D1503820 Amos, Tori - Little Earthquakes
#D1218502 Apple, Fiona - Tidal
#D1404359 Beach Boys, The - Pet Sounds
#D1509728 Bela Fleck & The Flecktones - Ten From Little Words
#D2641371 Berry, Chuck - The Great 28
#D1056639 Blur - Parklife
#D1413079 Cake, Comfort Eagle
#D1262427 Cardigans, The - Gran Turismo
#D1162742 Cardigans, The - First Band on the Moon
#D1350776 Carpenters, The - Singles 1969-1981
#D1018860 Cars, The - The Cars
#D1361054 Cash, Johnny - At San Quentin Prison
#D1326149 Cash, Johnny - At Folsom Prison
#D1236900 Clapton, Eric - MTV Unplugged
#D1233857 Clapton, Eric - Timepieces - Greatest Hits
#D1330851 Clash, The - The Clash
#D1330869 Clash, The - Combat Rock
#D1388818 Cohen, Leonard - More Best of
#D1105444 Cohen, Leonard - The Best of
#D1368349 Coldplay - Parachutes
#D1407550 Creedance Clearwater Revival - Creedance Clearwater Revival
#D1407576 Creedance Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poor Boys
#D1480292 Delaney & Bonnie and Friends - D&B Together
#D1225770 Dylan, Bob - Bringin' It All Back Home
#D1105774 Dylan, Bob - Highway 61 Revisited
#D1110063 Dylan, Bob - Blood on the Tracks
#D1417013 Dylan, Bob - Love and Theft
#D1449834 Flaming Lips, The - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
#D1310713 Flaming Lips, The - The Soft Bulletin
#D1019546 Guthrie, Arlo - Alice's Restuarant
#D1080662 Harvey, PJ - To Bring You My Love
#D1133610 Hot Tuna - Hot Tuna (Remastered)
#D1218510 Jamiroquai - Travelling Without Moving
#D1448687 Kaukonen, Jorma - Blue Country Heart
#D1300888 Kottke, Leo - One Guitar, No Vocals
#D1058163 Led Zeppelin - IV
#D1058312 Led Zeppelin - III
#D1065077 Led Zeppelin - II
#D1063551 Led Zeppelin - I
#D1016799 Marley, Bob - Exodus
#D1126044 Matthews Band, Dave - Crash
#D1059989 Matthews Band, Dave - Under the Table and Dreaming
#D1200526 McLachlan, Sarah - Surfacing
#D1025360 McLachlan, Sarah - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
#D1737964 Mitchell, Joni - Blue
#D1332675 Mitchell, Joni - Both Sides Now
#D1027598 Modern Lovers, The - The Berserkley Years, Best of
#D1418961 Modest Mouse - Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks
#D1360536 Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
#D2012474 New Order - Substance (Counts as 2 CDs)
#D1062843 Nirvana - MTV Unplugged
#D1156009 Nirvana - Nevermind
#D1482892 Orton, Beth - Daybreaker
#D1283712 Orton, Beth - Central Reservation
#D1052687 Pearl Jam - Ten
#D1404524 Radiohead - Amnesiac
#D1365352 Radiohead - Kid A
#D1200575 Radiohead - OK Computer
#D1082999 Radiohead - The Bends
#D1218262 Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
#D1100940 Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
#D1020486 Raspberries, The - Collector's Series
#D1001213 R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
#D1247626 R.E.M. - Out of Time
#D1020643 Simon, Paul - Paul Simon
#D1183375 Simon, Paul - Graceland
#D2257293 Skynyrd, Lynyrd - The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd
#D1257120 Sugarcubes, The - A Collection: The Great Crossover Potential
#D1014208 Talking Heads - Remain In Light
#D1251743 U2 - Achtung Baby
#D1535012 U2 - The Joshua Tree
#D1126721 Velvet Underground, The - White Light/White Heat
#D1127133 Velvet Underground, The - The Velvet Underground
#D2070191 Velvet Underground, The - Peel Slowly and See
#D1126713 Velvet Underground, The - The Velvet Underground and Nico
#D1206804 Violent Femmes, The - Add it Up (1981-1993)
#D1423912 Vega, Suzanne - Songs in Red and Gray
#D1029909 Vega, Suzanne - Nine Objects of Desire
#D1834068 Vega, Suzanne - 99.9 Farenheit Degrees
#D1020932 Waits, Tom - The Heart of Saturday Night
#D1214352 Weezer - Pinkerton
#D1059435 Weezer - Weezer
#D2221778 Who, The - Live at the Isle of Wight Festival, 1970
#D1132158 Who, The - Who's Next
#D1135789 Who, The - The Who Sell Out
#D1431683 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
#D1289065 Wilco - Summer Teeth
#D2160034 Wilco - Being There
#D1232529 Williams, Lucinda - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
#D1333780 Wonder, Stevie - Music of my Mind
#D2349058 Wonder, Stevie - Songs in the Key of Life
#D1211457 Yardbirds, The - Live at the BBC



============
Electronic/Alternative
============
#D1169903 Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album
#D1262765 Beck - Mutations
#D1214113 Beck - Odelay
#D1416585 Bjork - Vespertine
#D1369321 Bjork - Selmasongs
#D1205152 Bjork - Homogenic
#D1089192 Bjork - Post
#D1600212 Bjork - Debut
#D1119700 Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman
#D1225333 Mono - Formica Blues
#D1262336 Portishead - PNYC
#D1210129 Portishead - Portishead
#D1460773 Sigur Ros - ( )
#D1416650 Stereolab - Sound-Dust
#D1323054 Stereolab - Cobra and Phases
#D1213065 Stereolab - Dots and Loops
#D1126515 Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
#D1002211 Tangerine Dream - The Private Music of Tangerine Dream
#D1358423 Towa Tei - Last Century Modern
#D1089440 Tricky - Maxinquaye


============
HipHop/RnB/Soul
============
#D1169663 Badu, Erykah - Baduizm
#D1247170 Beastie Boys, Ill Communication
#D1024934 Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill
#D1124643 Busta Rhymes - The Coming
#D1205640 Busta Rhymes - When Disaster Strikes
#D1333384 Common - Like Water for Chocolate
#D1218460 Fugees, The - The Score
#D2409126 Gaye, Marvin - The Very Best of Marvin Gaye
#D1458454 Jurassic 5 - Power in Numbers
#D1352400 Jurassic 5 - Quality Control
#D1347137 Public Enemy - Apocalypse '91... The Enemy Strikes Back 1991
#D1347186 Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
#D1080555 Roots, The - Do You Want More?
#D1459510 Stone, Angie - Mahogany Soul
#D1315746 Stone, Angie - Black Diamonds


============
Jazz
============
#D1182302 Coltrane, John - Blue Train
#D2459782 Coltrane, John - A Love Supreme (Deluxe)
#D1218585 Davis, Miles - Kind of Blue
#D1218569 Brubeck, Dave - Time Out
#D1224765 Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club
#D1186899 Getz & Gilberto - Getz & Gilberto
#D1208248 Guaraldi, Vince - A Charlie Brown Christmas
#D1426105 Jones, Norah - Come Away With Me
#D1457589 Krall, Diana - Live in Paris
#D1414564 Krall, Diana - The Look of Love
#D1289636 Krall, Diana - When I Look in your Eyes
#D1088889 Marsalis, Ellis - Joe Cool's Blues
#D1258508 Medeski, Martin & Wood - Combustication
#D1348226 Medeski, Martin & Wood - Tonic
#D116124 Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola, John McLauglin - The Guitar Trio
#D1329168 Simone, Nina - Quiet Now -- Night Song
#D1359785 Simone, Nina - Nina Simone's Finest Hour
#D1120880 Wilson, Cassandra - New Moon Daughter


============
World
============
#D1404847 Evora, Cesaria - São Vicente
#D1309509 Evora, Cesaria - Café Atlántico
#D1441419 Evora, Cesaria - Miss Perfumado
#D1366616 Piazzolla, Astor - Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night
#D1219591 Piazzolla, Astor & Yo-Yo Ma - Soul of the Tango
#D1366624 Velano, Caetano - Orfeu


============
Classical
============
#D2122414 Bohm, Karl - Mozart, Symphonies No. 35-41
#D1134030 Bohm, Karl - Beethoven Sym. No. 6 "Pastorale", Schubert, Sym. No. 5
#D2216067 Puccini - Callas, Maria - Tosca
#D1204254 Kronos Quartet - Ghost Opera
#D1431287 Kronos Quartet - Nuevo
#D1413368 Kronos Quartet - Requiem for Adam
#D1319888 Kronos Quartet - Dracula (Philip Glass)
#D2458305 Segovia, Andres - The Art of Segovia
#D1148329 Segovia, Andres - The Romantic Guitar
#D1054154 Williams, John - The Seville Concert
#D1266196 Williams, John - The Guitarist
#D2080943 Williams, John - The Great Guitar Concertos


============
Soundtracks
============
#D1106699 Braveheart - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
#D1049451 Elfman, Danny - Music for a Darkened Theatre
#D1352251 Gladiator - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
#D1002971 Schindler's List - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

 

[LobsterSan]

Added a few titles. Your suggestions would greatly help. This can be a very useful thread for us cheap-asses -- it takes a little time to search, but if everyone contributes 2-3 titles, we can compile a pretty large master list.

 

[john_jcb]

I have found that if you take your time almost everything goes on sale sooner or later. They recently ran a promotion where all single CD's were 4.44 plus the 2.79 shipping. $7.23 per CD is not a bad price. Never buy at full price though.

 

[LobsterSan]

NOTE!

I just read the fine print again.. turns out you are only obligated to purchase ONE full price CD for the 11 free ones! This works out to be much cheaper -- a total of $4.29 per CD (assuming your full price purchase is a 17.98 CD, of which most are... if you can find one at 14.98 that you want, more power to you -- 14.98 and above fulfills a "full priced CD").

People, this is an outstanding bargain. If you are disciplined enough to quit after joining, this is 12 CD's for $51.46, no further obligations -- that's an average price of $4.29 per CD. You will have to get your first 7 free, than order one, than get your next 4 free -- probably take a about a month in total for that to happen. But then you can quit and possibly rejoin (i'm going to try this out later this week to confirm if it works).

It makes most sense to quit after joining. Even with all the promotions they run, they will never get it down to $4.29 a CD.

 

[LobsterSan]

For all you DVD shoppers out there, here is the Columbia House DVD club thread that got me thinking about BMG Music.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/forumdi...php?forumid=13

They just had a code there that you could get 5 DVDs for $5, no further obligations, no shipping. Man, I'm kicking myself for missing out on that one.

 

[brent_mr2]

I joined BMG about 5 years ago, I still haven't sent in the voucher for the 5 free after buying one at regular price. I'm sure BMG probably thinks I lost it, but that's not the case. I just haven't seen 5 quality CDs I'd want to get all at once.

They stop sending those monthly mailers after a while, now they send something maybe 2-3 times a year. I'm sure if I ordered something, they'd put me back on the monthly cycle. I do get one day only special notifications in my inbox every now and then.

 

[akar]

#D116124 Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola, John McLauglin - The Guitar Trio

#D1300888 Leo Kottke - One Guitar, No Vocals

 

[LobsterSan]

acousticy goodness... yum! i've been looking for something along those lines since getting a random chesky records compilation entitled "the guitar collection" a while back. thanks akar, added your picks to the list.

hopefully we'll get a large enough pool assembled here for you to finally use your voucher, brent! through researching a bit, i've found at least 15 CDs i'd be willing to plunk down for (that i don't already own).

 

[carlo]

Dylan:

Bob Dylan, Freewheelin, The Times They Are A'Changin', Bringing It All Back Home*, Highway 61 Revisited*, Blonde on Blonde, Nashville Skyline, Blood On The Tracks*, Bootleg Series 1-3, Time Out of Mind, Live 1966/bootleg series 4*, Love and Theft

Joni Mitchell:

Ladies of the Canyon, Blue*, Court and Spark, Turbulent Indigo, Misses/Hits (was originally a set, separate here), Both Sides Now*

Check Berry - The Great 28

Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant

The Cars - The Cars*

Tom Waits:

The Heart of Saturday Night*, Nighthawks at The Diner, Small Change, Used Songs

Stevie Wonder:

Talking Book, Music of My Mind*, Innervisions, Fufillingness' First Finale, Songs in the Key of Life*, Hotter Than July

The Velvet Underground:

The Velvet Underground & Nico, White Light/White Heat*, The Velvet Underground*, Peel Slowly & See set*, The Quine Tapes

PJ Harvey:

Rid of Me, To Bring You My Love*, Is This Desire?, Stories From The City Stories From the Sea

The Who:

The Who Sell Out*, Live at The Isle of Wight Festival*, Live at Leeds, Who's Next*

The Clash - The Clash*

The Modern Lovers - The Beserkley Years

Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs

The Yardbirds - Live at the BBC

Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road*, Essence


* = if I met someone who hadn't heard the artist before this is what I'd play them. Definitive albums so to speak.

 

[brent_mr2]

Well, I haven't looked at what they have lately, Lobster. I consider a good CD to have more than 3 good tracks on it. Most CDs nowadays have maybe 2 good tracks and the rest are filler junk.

 

[pennylane]

this is a good idea. one question? lobstersan, are you updating the original topic as this goes along? i think that'll help.

anyway... i'd add on

john coltrane - blue train
(plus plenty of others)

dave matthews band - crash
dave matthews band - under the table and dreaming

u2 - joshua tree
u2 - achtung baby

i also got some karl bohm conducted beethoven symphony cd's... but i forget which symphonies go on which cd's. i think it was the 6th and 9th plus some overtures. and i think i got karl bohm conducting mozart's later symphonies as well (i think 35-41)

 

[LobsterSan]

yes, i'm updating the first message, so that will be a master list of what everyone replies with. i'm a little backlogged with stuff right now, but i'll try to update at least twice a week or so.

 

[LobsterSan]

added the lovely and thoughtful suggestions by carlo and pennylane. carlo, i only added the essential picks. i will only keep the "essential" or hard to find-type albums up, or at least one as a representative for the artist. people who are interested in the artist should check and see if there are other albums by that artist at BMG.

 

[pennylane]

I would like to know what other good classical CDs are available at BMG... particularly Mahler recordings...

 

[dave-the-rave]

I've been in and out of BMG for years. If there is a lot of stuff that you want, then join, fulfill your obligation, and then enrol a family member as your referral. The "family member" gets the 12 for the price of 1 deal, and you get 4 CD's free (+p&h). Then you quit. You can keep cycling around for a good long time.