BMG Music Service Review

Bottom Line: If you are tired of paying high prices for CD's, you can't do better than BMG Music Service.

If you are like me then you long ago tired of the artificially high cost of music CD's available at your local retailers like Target, Best Buy, Tower Records, Borders, Wal-Mart etc.  But I love music of all genres, and I own hundreds of CD's but my passion was getting too expensive a habit to feed.  So I needed to find a new source for music CD's, and along came BMG Music Service.  I have been a member of BMG Music Service for almost eight years now, and in that time I have been able to feed my habit reasonable cost.    

BMG Music Service has been in the mail order music business for over 50 years. Launched in the mid-1950s, the Club was part of the RCA Victor family of music until the Club was purchased by the German entertainment conglomerate Bertelsmann in 1987. BMG Music Service can now lay claim the largest direct-to-customer distributor of music in the world and has millions of members across its various genre-based music clubs.  Only Columbia House Music rivals BMG in selection and price.

Today, BMG Music Service offers a wide variety of listening choices including pop, rock, R&B, adult alternative, easy listening, jazz, blues, classical, Latin, hip-hop, country, Christian, Sound Tracks, and much more. Members can choose from thousands of titles-produced by major music companies as well as hundreds of independent labels-through BMG Music Service's member website.

The Site

The BMG Music Service site is smartly laid out with all of your account information displayed on a pane along the left hand side, including your "MyCart" contents, how many music points (points collected whenever a CD is purchased and can be applied towards a free CD selection) you've collected, and help section.  Also included is the ability to respond to your Featured Selection.  Along the top music choices are displayed, including Rock & Pop, Country, Jazz, Classical, Latin, and Christian.  Within these groups further sub-divisions by genre are displayed; e.g. within classical, the genre is further broken down into Classical Orchestral, Classical Crossover, Classical Instrumental, and Classical Vocal.

While the selection of artists at the BMG Music Service site is quite large and impressive, there are some gaps in the coverage, if you will.  Much to my chagrin not all artists are represented at the site, the choice seems to be limited to those artist in the Bertelsmann stable of recording labels including, but not limited to: Arista Records, J Records, Jive Records, RCA Label Group-Nashville, RCA Victor Group, Provident Music Group, Zomba Music, BMG Classics, and BMG Japan.

Searching for artists is relatively straight forward.  Searches can be conducted by Artist, Album Title, Song Title, Composer, and Selection Number.  An Advanced Search feature is also available, under which you can also search by Record Label, & Year of Release. 

Shipping, Handling & Taxes:

As noted elsewhere in this review, there is a shipping charge for each CD bought.  Depending on the number of CD bought this can be turn out to be an expensive proposition particularly for your first shipment.

From the BMG website: For each order, a shipping and handling charge of $2.79 per CD will be added covering all associated costs and services, including labor, materials, processing and postage. An extra charge is applied to multi-unit sets. A separate shipping and handling charge will be added to non-audio merchandise orders. The shipping and handling charge is subject to change.

You can see where shipping can become a rather unforeseen expense.  For example, if you order a featured selection for 14.98, plus 4 CD's at $2.99 a piece, and pay $2.79 X 5 or $13.95, the total cost rises to $40.89 + tax.  However, if the same CD's were purchased for $13.99 - $17.99  (the going cost at most retail stores), a piece they would cost considerably more, so in the end even with the shipping costs, BMG still leaves you with a better overall deal on the purchase of CD's.  

The only downside is the default shipping method BMG uses: Parcel Post/Standard. With these shipping methods your selections will take 10-14 business days to arrive.  There are other shipping methods available for those who just can't wait for their selection(s); BMG offers:

• Premium Express, 2-3 Business Days @ $7.99
• Express, 5-7 Business Days @ $4.99

A tax charge will apply no matter where you live.

Payments

Payment methods include credit cards and gasp, a "bill me" option.  The CD's arrive with the billing statement intact, and payment is due upon receipt.  Note: music points are not credited to your account until payment is received. 

My Viewpoint

I like my BMG Music Service.  Having fulfilled my membership obligations years ago (I have been a member sine 1997), I now order all (well almost all) of my music CD's from the service using standard shipping (no I don't mind waiting), and the bill me option, at a substantial savings.  Occasionally, occasionally, I have to go outside the service to find a CD and usually do so at Amazon.com where in I combine it with another purchase and get free shipping. 

Despite the shipping charge per CD, BMG Music Service is a great deal.  Of course I haven't tried to disengage from the service, but my experience with the service thus far does not lead me in that direction.  I also belong to Columbia House Music Club, but their prices tend to be higher and the purchasing deals not nearly as rich as BMG.  If you are tired of paying high prices for CD's, you can't do better than BMG Music Service.