civiclx

1. Where do you buy your cds from?

2. Where do you LEGALLY download your music from?

3. Have any US residents ordered from shops or sites based in the UK?

Jason

http://www.guitar9.com/

http://news.theomegaorder.com/index.php

www.half.com

www.lala.com (occasionally some really good prices if you want to buy instead of trade)

roughdraft_zero

Amazon for a good majority. Typically have the best combination of selection, pricing, shipping and customer service, and even when looking for more obscure or rare things, they can still surprise you at what they keep in stock (plus the Marketplace helps that too).

CD Baby for a lot of the more localized or, "underground," if you will, bands and artists. The samples they provide are 2 full minutes for every track that the artists wants to allow to be sampled, and in decent 128-bit quality. Plus, there are detailed reviews and descriptions for everything they stock. 95% of the items I buy from them are not things I had in mind in the first place; I so often just go there with a certain mood or type of music I want to hear, and browse the respective genres and sub-genres, taking advantage of their generous samples until I fill up my cart with a good 10 CDs or so. Their shipping is excellent, though a tad pricey, but the prices of the discs themselves more than makes up for that. Highly recommended if you're feeling a bit adventurous.

The End Records: The Omega Order for most your metal needs. Excellent selection, good prices, and still decent shipping (they did downgrade a bit, though it's understandable considering the spike in gas and shipping costs). Great customer service and specials too. Coupons up to 17% (on anything) have been known to come out once or twice a year. One that works year round for 8% off any order is epoch888, if you're feeling antsy.

Deep Discount is one whose anti-bandwagon I most certainly am hopping on, but I still can't totally put them out. Their customer service and flubs of orders seems to happen more than 50% of the time with my experiences with them over the past two years, and their new website, tracking and inventory systems are all worse than the last one. But damn it all if they don't have good prices. They're basically my go-to site if Amazon is out of stock of something or has an inexplicably high price on an item or two.


I also buy a lot of stuff from bands' and artists' and labels' websites/myspaces. It can sometimes be even cheaper, if not the only way that you can, than buying from another store. I no longer go to record stores, because I don't have a car and now live in Central Florida. Though back in California I used to go weekly, and even occasionally to the famous Amoeba and Rasputin record stores. Now I might go to Circuit City or Best Buy each once a year, but the overwhelming majority for me is online only.

GuessWho

this local store. prices beat best buy & they have imports and album autograph events.

http://rollingstonesmusic.com/

shizawn

Metropolis Records for all your industrial/EBM/synthpop/darkwave needs.

Back when I was really into drum and bass, I ordered from Drum & Bass Arena all the time, which is based in the UK.

The Bus

I always, always supported local record shops. Eventually, one changed formats and became a bookstore/café. They're now back as a regular record store but damn it if they didn't keep their café prices. The other one, Bert's Music, shut down when their lease expired and some restaurant gobbled up their space.

So now I buy online, using Amazon for my regular as well as my MP3 needs. If I need something right away, I usually get it at Best Buy or, if I'm desperate, Wal-Mart. (Last CD I bought there was DangerDoom though).

mh4268

I usually use amazon because of decent prices nd free shipping (amazon prime) and no sales tax. I buy at bestbuy or other BM if they have bonus tracks or other exclusives.

I hate when iTunes has exclusive tracks like for Weezer red. I want the tracks but also want the bonus cuts.

Hollowgen

1. local record stores (trip to seattle), www.lala.com, best buy (for day-of-release sales)
2. i don't [....] Off topic/DVDTalk rule-breaking comments noted & deleted by benedict
3. several times. if i don't mind the steep prices & shipping for rare things, it's worth it.

hawk

Vintage Vinyl in Evanston,IL,Border's,Barnes And Noble,Dr Wax and 2nd Hand Tunes.

Giles

I buy my UK music almost exclusively from Action Records

I buy music here in the states, from Amazon, well since I have an Amazon Visa Card

I have a ton of CD's that were part of a magazine - Uncut, Paste, occasionally Q, The Word, Mixmag - the UK one's tend to be the best.

Josh-da-man

1. BMG Music Club is it's available there. Otherwise, it's Amazon, DD, Best Buy, Circuit City, or The Omega (previosuly TheEndRecords). (The Omega is awesome, and I'm pleased to see them getting love in this thread. Great prices, great service, free shipping.)

2. I don't buy digital downloads at this time, but I'd probably get most of them Amazon when I start. Mostly because they don't have DRM or other onerous protection.

3. Not in ages.

FatTony

For physical CDs, I usually go with Best Buy (new releases) or a local shop (for used and older CDs). If I can't find something in stores, I'll usually order directly from the band/label or buy it at a show.

Amazon gets all of my (legal) downloading business. DRM-free is the way to go, but downloading still only makes up a very small portion of my purchases.

EdTheRipper

I tend to get my cds from Amazon. Occasionally, I'll pick up a cd or two at Wal-Mart but that's pretty rare.

Da Thrilla

Haven't bought a CD in about a year in a half, got an iPod and download from iTunes. That's all you really need!

Numanoid

Amazon.co.uk since almost all the music I care about enough to buy is from British or European artists. Otherwise it's Best Buy for the occasional big domestic release, like Neil Diamond's new one. And I've downloaded maybe two albums in total from legal pay sites, both from iTunes, I think.

[email protected]

80% of my music purchases are at Newbury Comics (an independent chain in the Boston area). The rest is split between a wide variety of sources, including Best Buy (when they have those $6.99 new artist specials), half.com, and other random places.

Similar to Hollowgen, I download a lot of music to listen to. But I don't keep the downloads - if it's something I like, I'll buy it on CD. If not, it eventually get deleted.

I've never bought a single song through i-tunes. Don't like the way the program takes over your files, I don't like the proprietariness of the downloads, and I don't like the quality vs. price issue.

DaveWadding

lots of places.

Best Buyfor new releases usually...Couple of local places for used... Wal-Mart/Target for impulse buys...iTunes and emusic when I have free stuff from them. Amazon etc when they have a good deal.

spinning plates

i buy records, not cds.
mostly from fingerprints in long beach, or vinyl solution in huntington beach.
online purchasing is mostly from ebay, insound, music stack, aural exploits, or through the label's themselves.
i also buy off other users on DF or VLV, the links are in my sig.
i don't legally download music.

JOE29

I buy from Amazon.com or my local FYE store ( although FYE are usually more expensive, but they have a better selection )
I live in the South Jersey area, if there are any non-chain cd stores that anyone knows about please let me know. I would love to find a few, if there is any, to spend my money in.
I'm not looking for the popular, Top 40, American Idol crap that is available almost everywhere. I'm looking for older, hard to find , classic rock / metal cd's that are mostly not present in the chain stores.

Oliver Clothesoff

insound.com online.

Princeton Record Exchange locally.

chino77

rolling stones is awesome. i used to livea few blocks from there. great prices and some good artist signings.

ive bought over 1000 cds in my day...i dont buy anymore. i go to concerts and get cds online for free. i dont understand why people buy subpar quality cds and songs from itunes.

Tscott

Amazon or the local Borders and Best Buy.

When I hear of a CD I want, I'll check the in-stock status at both Borders and Best Buy online and compare prices at Amazon. If it's in stock and I've got a coupon or rewards, or just I can't wait, I'll get it locally. Otherwise, I'll order it at Amazon.

There's no good local record shops around me, otherwise that'd be my first pick.

As for music downloads, I go mostly through eMusic, but occasionally will do Amazon downloads if it's an online only release. Only in very rare cases will I do Itunes.

civiclx

thanks for all of the replies. If I'm going to buy an album from a retail store, I'll go to Best Buy. Walmart has good prices but normally I would just have Best Buy price match. I started going to Itunes so I could stop buying cds but I'm now going through a phase where I'm looking to buy as many cds as I can. Well, good quality cds that is. When it comes to online shopping, I stick with amazon. I have 100 percent trust in using the site and the two experiences I've had with their 3rd party sellers have been very positive.

thanks for the suggestion for action records Giles. do you US guys know of anymore sites from the UK that are reliable? I'm looking to purchase a few Bap Kennedy cds.

wendersfan

Used Kids, a local shop. I also buy stuff from Amazon now and again.

MetalGator311

Ticketmaster - the live experience cannot be replicated and the band sees more money

Amazon - usually for music DVDs, and I still buy Tool, NIN, and Pink Floyd CDs

iTunes - get a lot of "free song" codes from Ticketmaster, so I download some iTunes exclusive stuff or a single here and there

Fanclubs/Official Shops - Bands themselves usually sell the exclusive hard to find stuff