Fun_People Archive
11 Jun
Fun_People_Reports -=- World Wide Web CD Buying Guide

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 96 18:17:29 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: Fun_People_Reports -=- World Wide Web CD Buying Guide


		The Fun_People_Reports WWW CD Buying Guide

    Recently I had occasion to buy a few compact discs (a rare event for
me) so, naturally, I needed to waste as much time doing it as humanly
possible.  How to do that?  Simple!  Buy the CDs through the WWW, having
first made sure that the vendor has the best prices of those available and,
in the process, having created a little comparison of all the pertinent
features of all the known vendors.  This is the result.

THE VENDORS
    There are probably many more, but these are the seven I had collected
in my miscellaneous CD vendors bokmarks list...

  Emusic			<http://www.emusic.com/browse>
  Music Connection		<http://www.inetbiz.com/music/>
  Pentagon CDs & Tapes		<http://www.butterfly.net/pentagon/>
  CDnow				<http://www.cdnow.com/>
  CDworld			<http://www.cdworld.com/>
  Compact Disc Connection	<http://www.cdconnection.com/>
  Firefly			<http://www.ffly.com/>

THE TESTING TECHNIQUE
    So I picked four artists in whose material I'm interested (I "need"
these for a Party Guitar class I'm teaching at the Puget Sound Guitar
Workshop later this summer) and went looking.  After browsing and comparing
the ratings given by the web sites (particularly those of CDnow, Firefly,
and Emusic) I settled on the following 10 units (the word used in the music
biz to mean Record, Tape, CD, CD set, Wire recording, boxed cassette set,
or anything sold "as a unit.")
    After a little more browsing I discovered many of the recordings on the
"Very Best of the Everly Brothers" CD aren't the original ones (so I'm not
really interested in it).  I wonder if I would have found this out at a
record store.  Having already collected the numbers, I left it on the list.

 Chuck Berry	After School Session [32:26] 1958 - MCA
 Chuck Berry	The Great 28 [69:57] 1982 - UNI/MCA
 Chuck Berry	Chess Box Set [3 CD] 1988 - UNI/MCA
 Everly Bros.	Very Best [28:26] 1964 - WEA/WARNER BROS
 Everly Bros.	Cadence Classics [20 cuts] 1986 - WEA/ATLANTIC/RHINO
 Everly Bros.	Heartaches&Harmonies [4 CDs] 1994 - WEA/ATLANTIC/RHINO
 The Coasters	Very Best of [16 cuts] 1993 - WEA/ATLANTIC/RHINO
 The Coasters	Ultimate Coasters [20 cuts] 1986 - WEA/WARNER BROS
 The Coasters	50 Coastin Classics [129:59] 1992 - WEA/ATLANTIC/RHINO
 Buddy Holly	Collection [2 CD - 50 cuts] 1988 - UNI/MCA

    I then collected prices from the seven vendors.  In the process I kept
track of conveniences (e.g. album cover graphics, the ability to search for
individual songs, extra information) and annoyances (rigid or counter-
intuitive search requirements, limited stocks, rotten color schemes) and
made up the following chart of prices (note that I used '<' to indicate the
best price for each particular unit)


THE RESULTS
			Emusic	Music	Pent.	CDnow	CDworld	C.D.   Firefly
				Conn.	CD/Tape			Conn.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Berry
After School Session	 6.66	 5.33<	 5.49	 8.77	 5.97	 7.22	?
The Great 28		13.46	13.98	11.99<	14.37	12.47	13.09	12.88
Chess Box Set		38.47	?	35.99	38.77	34.77<	36.43	?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everly Bros.
Very Best		11.66	11.05	 9.99<	11.77	10.47	10.63	?
Cadence Classics	13.46	13.98	11.99<	14.37	12.47	13.10	?
Heartaches&Harmonies	56.47	?	50.99	55.97	49.77<	52.04	?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Coasters	
Very Best of		11.66	11.05	 9.99<	11.77	10.47	10.63	?
Ultimate Coasters	11.66	11.05	 9.99<	11.77	10.47	10.63	?
50 Coastin Classics	24.47	-	23.99	25.77	23.47<	24.33	?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buddy Holly
Collection		28.47	29.90	27.99	29.77	26.47<	26.74	?
================================================================================
Best price		0	1	5	0	4	0	0
Ease of search		3	1	3	3	3	4	2
Efficient display	5	5	2	3	3	4	5
Extra info provided	5	0	2	7	0	2	3
Graphics		5	0	4	0	0	0	3
Notes			3,6	1		6,7		1,4	2,5,6
	1. limited stock (apparentle)
	2. broken, one way or another
	3. both front & back covers on many, as well as a thumbnail summary
	4. can search for individual songs
	5. rotten color scheme (on a B & W monitor)
	6. useful ratings
	7. cool "roots & influences" & "similar artists" info

+ "Best price" is the number of times that vendor had the lowest price.
Note that in some case the differences are tiny (e.g. $5.33 vs.  $5.49).
+ "Ease of search" measures how easy it was to find the CD I wanted.  Being
able to type "buddy holly<CR>" was my favorite, having to click a button is
a pain; having to type "holly, buddy" is a pain; having to type
"holly,buddy" is a pain (subtle, eh?); having to type "holly*buddy" is a
pain; but being able to search for all the CDs that contain a particular
song is terrific!
+ "Efficient display" gives my rating of how much info the search results
fit onto each page.  The ideal is to show the title, a rating, the length,
the price, a date, and a link to the complete track and album notes info,
all on one line.
+ "Extra info provided" includes liner notes, track info, cover graphics,
reviews, links to related artists, etc.
+ "Graphics" is pictures, natch.
+ "Notes" are explained right under the chart.

SUMMARY
 Emusic is great for browsing.
 Music Connection has okay prices and okay browsing.
 Pentagon CDs & Tapes has great prices on single CDs.
 CDnow is the best for browsing.
 CDworld has great prices on collections & boxed sets.
 Compact Disc Connection excels at certain searches (e.g. by song)
 Firefly will probably be very cool once it's really running...

All this is as of 6/11/96.  Tomorrow, who knows?

			- Peter Langston <psl@acm.org> Seattle, WA
prev [=] prev © 1996 Peter Langston []