An UNBIASED review of Great places to buy CD's
 A review of **** cdnow.com, *** ubl.com, and **** virginmega.com.
Scale: **** Bookmark this site now1x *** Worth a click ** Barely surfable * Web site equivalent of junk e-mail
With the growth of electronic commerce, access to the Internet has become the veritable equivalent of having a shopping mall in your own home. And as more businesses put their products online, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by this giant and ever-expanding shopping center ? especially when it comes to music. The number of on-line music sellers seems to be growing exponentially, so it's important to know where you can find the best selection and the best deals.
Arguably the best Web store, CDNow seems to offer it all: great selection, competitive prices, and one of the quickest search engines that I've come across to help you find what you want. Once you find the selection for which you're looking, CDNow lets you listen to the first few tracks on the album before you buy it. Your selections will ship out the next day, and sometimes arrive as soon as one day after that.
Additionally, CDNow offers a great "Rewards" program, which uses your on-line customer profile to tally the amount of money you spend there and rewards you accordingly. CDNow also offers you the "MTV CD Lounge," which features MTV's musical suggestions, as well as a similar page featuring recommendations from VH1. If CD's aren't what you're looking for, you can also enter some cool CDNow contests, find out the latest music news, or just listen to CDNow's most popular selections. The site also features movies and music videos for your purchasing pleasure.
Catching up to CDNow in terms of customer satisfaction is the Ultimate Band List, a site whose prices are only marginally higher than CDNow and which even lets you download free MP3's. The Ultimate Band List is also a virtual repository of musical information, featuring news and links that take you all over the musical spectrum. The artist spotlight highlights a musical up-and-comer, and leads to biographical information and related links. You can even listen to selections, and are not limited to just the first few tracks as you would be at CDNow. And if none of this strikes your fancy, you can always enter to win concert tickets, or bid on such things as Green Day's musical instruments at their on-line auction.
But without a doubt, the site that will soonest catch up to CDNow, if it has not already, is the one run by Virgin Records ? an on-line version of their ode to freedom of choice, the Virgin Megastore. The Virgin Megastore is a comprehensive and aesthetically amazing site that lets you do a lot more than just buy music. You can learn the latest news on your favorite musicians and the industry, chat with fellow music buffs, vote in interesting on-line polls or just get lost browsing in the Megastore ? the way you would if you were in the real deal. But if you do want to music, you're at the place to do it. Like its tangible counterpart, the site features music from all over the world. If it exists, you'll find it here. And since the tangible counterparts are located only in large cities like San Francisco and New York, the site makes the marvels of the Megastore accessible to all.
So if you're not in the mood to brave the mall, check out the one that's waiting for you at your fingertips.
By Urmila Rajagopal
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