Your Music Review

Among my many internets purchases, the pieces of merchandise I have acquired in the greatest quantities are the various forms of media: books, DVDs and music CDs. I am (or have been) a member of many different clubs, too, like BMG Music, Book of the Month, and others. Most of these clubs offer a large number of books, DVDs, or CDs up front with the agreement that you will purchase a fixed number of additional units over a set period of time. But one web service that offers a different approach is Yourmusic.com, a web service that offers music CDs at a low, flat rate cost.

Web Site Commentary:

Yourmusic.com is a web service for buying music CDs. This service offers roughly 14,000 titles that include all genres of music with CDs from both the past and present. There is nothing else offered for sale in this site other than Music CDs. The only other service offered is the ability to listen to music from your computer. Once you have selected a CD in the site, you can listen to snippets from some (but usually not all) of the songs on the disk.

Buying music CDs from Yourmusic.com requires that you first establish a membership. Setting up a membership is fast and simple and it requires entering your contact information and credit card. A credit card is necessary to setup a membership and the reason is because Yourmusic.com needs to have it so that you can be charged for your monthly CD. It works like this: You join the site and proceed to establish a queue of music CDs that you would like to own. Each month, Yourmusic.com will automatically ship you the CD that is at the top of your queue and it will bill your credit card. There is no obligation and you can cancel at any time.

Yourmusic.com is a fully- owned business of BMG music and it offers members an alternative to the traditional music clubs that have been in existence for several decades. I have been a member of BMG and Columbia House on and off for many, many years. I usually play the game with music clubs the same way I play it with book clubs: Join, wait for sales, make the minimum purchase required to fulfill the membership, cancel the membership, and then rejoin at a later date.

Traditional clubs have generally suited me fine with one exception: The dreaded "selection of the month" and all of the hassle it can bring. This is one nice feature of Yourmusic.com. You don't have a so- called ‘selection of the month' because, well, you are required to buy a CD once per month anyway. And since the CD is something you pre-select, you don't need to worry about receiving a CD in the mail that you don't want. Everything you receive is something you asked for, shipped based on its order in your queue.

There is one potential problem with Yourmusic.com. Because the business automatically bills your account each month even if your queue is empty, you must remember to check it every now and then and make sure there is at least one CD on your list. If there isn't, you will be charged even though you receive nothing. I have never had this situation occur and I do not know if Yourmusic.com would be understanding and ship you a CD if you explained the situation to them. But rather than be faced with this problem, it is best to play it safe and keep your queue full of music.  

Bottom Line Viewpoint:

I like to buy music CDs through the internet and I will continue to use the web to find the best deals possible on my favorite CDs. Yourmusic.com is a more self- directed type of club and it offers some key advantages (no shipping charges, no selection of the month) that you don't find in traditional clubs. It's a nice alternative for buying music on- line.