The Wall (2011 Remaster), $5.99. Really? Well, OK, then. Not one of my favorite Floyd albums so I hadn't seen the need for the remastered, until now. Hit that Deluxe Nevermind too - I only had the original 1 disc CD.
Yeah, they're going straight for the pop-hits crowd. Can't blame them too much, it's a big job to pry those dollars away from iTunes. Not so much market share to be had from music con-oh-sewers such as us.
Today on Amazon, Craig Finn of the Hold Steady's solo album, Clear Heart, Full Eyes $3.99
Also looks like the latest Coldplay album is .25. Not my thing, even after seeing them perform some songs from it live last year at ACL. Some really silly lyrics and concept.
I got the Lady Antebellum and the Coldplay. Everybody in my wife's family likes Antebellum, so I thought she might, and I heard a song by them once that I found to be not bad. My wife also likes Coldplay; and I will admit that at times I have enjoyed listening to Coldplay, and find them to be generally nice people...
I think there is not much that I wouldn't buy for a quarter. Keep 'em comin'!
OK, even I had to go for the Stones bootleg for a quarter.
Now, do you really have to set up the "Music Manager" to DL the full album? Kind of not comfortable with Google "scanning this location" for music. I see that I can DL one track at a time.
That Trane (40 Tracks Remastered) now shows as "Not Available." The $0.25 deal today is Take Care by Drake. Some of the samples were intriguing, but in the end I decided that at two bits it was probably overpriced.
Random thoughts provoked by the top 20 best selling albums at Amazon.
1. Lady Antebellum holds places 4 and 5, with and without the digital booklet, same price. Does this really mean they sold twice as many copies of that album as the next place down on the list, split roughly 50-50 between the two versions and half the customers didn't get the whole package but paid the same? Emusic is not the sole preserve of odd pricing practices and behaviors that could be interpreted as ripping folk off. (Is any of that driven by folk downloading to portable devices that don't handle the PDF?)
2. Close to 30% of the top 20 is "best of" compilations based on the fame of older material. Another 10% are NOW compilations. Add in a couple of re-release editions, and albums of new material by current artists are actually in a minority. That doesn't seem healthy. Granted, this list is driven more by what Amazon chose to discount than by anything else, still, that shows what Amazon think they can make money from shifting volume on, or what they think will attract people to shop, or something.
3. Given the overwhelming proportion of sale albums in the list, daily discounts clearly drive traffic more than any other factor. MP3 buyers are mercenaries and opportunists. I'm quite curious about how long the tail is. In other words, presumably when an album goes on sale a lot of people tell their friends and the album gets exposure and a bunch of people buy it after the price goes back up anyway (the list is updated hourly, and Mylo Xyloto is still at #3 at $9.49). I guess as well that it causes mini-surges of sales of an artist's other albums as folk take a chance on the sale item and find they like it and go looking for more. I wonder how the income curve actually works, to what degree these are massive loss leaders, to what degree Amazon has it in its contract that it can put stuff on sale and remunerate the labels at a lower rate (I remember noticing a line like that in the Amiestreet agreement for uploaders), and to what degree it actually generates follow-on income.
There's a deal at Amazon (local in Austin...there's no "local" for my locale) where you can buy a $10 gift card for $5.00. It's supposed to be good for another 11 hours from when I post this. http://local.amazon.com/austin/B007KCX25Q
I tried this, and it seemed to work (it asked for my Amazon log in and did not seem to care that I am not anywhere near Texas), although they said that due to the overwhelming popularity it might be hours for them to confirm. 2-for-1 seems good.
As far as the iTunes card, it depends on what you plan to buy with it. Musically speaking, they still have higher prices than amazon and elsewhere so that five dollar savings doesn't make it great deal. If you plan to buy apps (or if you have a mac software) or maybe even movies or ebooks, it is probably a good deal.
I saw the Amazon offer, will probably do it...I am always buying something or other from them. Lately I've been cashing in my change jar at the Coinstar machine for AMZ credit, with no counting charge. (To get cash, they charge you like 10%...what a racket.)
The iTunes thing is noteworthy if only because they rarely if ever discount. I think even at Costco, $50 in iTunes cards costs you $50.
Well, Happy Birthday JSB. Thanks for the tip, and I'm just going to blow the $0.99 instead of wasting my time trying to figure out how much duplication this will bring about.
Edit - Very happily the Bach Smart Playlist did not indicate any duplicates from this set (in terms of piece and performer) so far out.
Comments
Craig
Slightly tempted by the 2 disk deluxe Nevermind for 3.99...
This is a double post, but since my lead is narrowing:
40 tracks of John Coltrane according to an amazon reviewer, this contains the following albums:
1. Dakar, Apr '57 (20,22,26,36,31,18)
2. Blue Train, Sep '57 (3,6,33,8,28)
3. Soultrane, Feb '58 (24,35,37,17,15)
4. from Complete Savoy Sessions, May,Jun '58
(14,25,30,38,39)
5. Coltrane Time, Oct '58 (5,40,21,32)
6. Giant Steps, May,Dec '59 (2,23,10,34,12,13,16)
7. My Favorite Things, Oct '60 (4,27,11,9)
8. Ole Coltrane, May '61 (1,29,19,7)
Craig
I did sign up to get free Robert Glasper song. Setting up payment and navigating to your music seems a little buggy.
Also looks like the latest Coldplay album is .25. Not my thing, even after seeing them perform some songs from it live last year at ACL. Some really silly lyrics and concept.
I think there is not much that I wouldn't buy for a quarter. Keep 'em comin'!
Now, do you really have to set up the "Music Manager" to DL the full album? Kind of not comfortable with Google "scanning this location" for music. I see that I can DL one track at a time.
I got the Drake too. I didn't see any Rolling Stones bootleg at amazon though.
1. Lady Antebellum holds places 4 and 5, with and without the digital booklet, same price. Does this really mean they sold twice as many copies of that album as the next place down on the list, split roughly 50-50 between the two versions and half the customers didn't get the whole package but paid the same? Emusic is not the sole preserve of odd pricing practices and behaviors that could be interpreted as ripping folk off. (Is any of that driven by folk downloading to portable devices that don't handle the PDF?)
2. Close to 30% of the top 20 is "best of" compilations based on the fame of older material. Another 10% are NOW compilations. Add in a couple of re-release editions, and albums of new material by current artists are actually in a minority. That doesn't seem healthy. Granted, this list is driven more by what Amazon chose to discount than by anything else, still, that shows what Amazon think they can make money from shifting volume on, or what they think will attract people to shop, or something.
3. Given the overwhelming proportion of sale albums in the list, daily discounts clearly drive traffic more than any other factor. MP3 buyers are mercenaries and opportunists. I'm quite curious about how long the tail is. In other words, presumably when an album goes on sale a lot of people tell their friends and the album gets exposure and a bunch of people buy it after the price goes back up anyway (the list is updated hourly, and Mylo Xyloto is still at #3 at $9.49). I guess as well that it causes mini-surges of sales of an artist's other albums as folk take a chance on the sale item and find they like it and go looking for more. I wonder how the income curve actually works, to what degree these are massive loss leaders, to what degree Amazon has it in its contract that it can put stuff on sale and remunerate the labels at a lower rate (I remember noticing a line like that in the Amiestreet agreement for uploaders), and to what degree it actually generates follow-on income.
4. Not much genre diversity really.
I tried this, and it seemed to work (it asked for my Amazon log in and did not seem to care that I am not anywhere near Texas), although they said that due to the overwhelming popularity it might be hours for them to confirm. 2-for-1 seems good.
Oh, and I heard that Best Buy is offering a $25 iTunes gift card for $20.00. Just checked, all iTunes cards are 20% off. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Misc/Deal-of-the-Day/pcmcat248000050016.c?id=pcmcat248000050016. 8 hours left from when I post for this deal.I'm not much of an iTunes shopper, so I' don't know how good a deal this is.
The iTunes thing is noteworthy if only because they rarely if ever discount. I think even at Costco, $50 in iTunes cards costs you $50.
Edit - Very happily the Bach Smart Playlist did not indicate any duplicates from this set (in terms of piece and performer) so far out.