Quiting BMG (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Mall)
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An Open Letter to Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, CEO Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Over the past ten years or so, I have been a member of BMG and (the now defunct) Columbia House music clubs. As permitted by their respective terms of service I've taken advantage of initial signup offers, fulfilled my obligations of full price purchases, and even continued to buy CDs above and beyond those requirements.
While my music collection was growing and my exposure to new bands was small, the manner in which these companies ran themselves was sufficient and agreeable. However those conditions have changed. My music collection is considerably larger, having already acquired most of the "standard" must-have albums for my musical tastes. While my tastes have grown broader (keeping my demand for new CDs in high gear), that broadening has grown towards newer/smaller/more obscure artists.
This is my first point of contention with these services - selection. Has the albums been released in the last few months? If so, it probably won't be in the catalog. Has the average person ever heard of the record label? If not, it probably won't be in the catalog. Would the band be ecstatic to headline a show in front of 500 people? If so, they probably aren't in the catalog. I'm not looking for garage bands that play midnight gigs in dive bars, but bands that receive substantial air play in markets like DC and Chicago. Go try to find Silversun Pickups or Muse in their catalog. They just aren't there.
Let's say you do manage to track down an album you want to buy. You add it to your cart, only to find it is $18.98, plus shipping and handling (which I'll get to in a minute). That price isn't too bad, if they are running a "Buy 1, get 2 Free" promotion. However, for a single CD, that's steeper than I'd expect at brick and mortar store. I know, I'll try that 10% off coupon I got in my last order...wait, why isn't that working... Premium Selection. What the @#&! is that?!?
This is my next point of consternation with these services - what I call social castes of products. There is a subset of BMG's catalog that is full price, regardless of any promotion that may be running. They aren't available when you sign up, they can't be a free selection during any "Buy X get Y Free" offers, they aren't discounted duing any "Everything ZZ% off" sales, and they are always the most expensive single CDs in the catalog. These aren't magic CDs, they don't come with extras the rest of the selections don't have. Extreme example: Linkin Park's album Meteora is still a "Premium Selection," despite being over 4 years old! The only commonality that I've deduced from all this is that these albums all seem to fall into the "a 14 year old girl would pay anything for this album" demographic. I guess that's what I get for liking music other people like.
My final burn (h/t Jim Rome) with this "service" is the shipping and handling charges. Once upon a time, these clubs would help you out if you were to buy more than one CD at a time. Shipping and handling would be less for the second (and subsequent) selections. It only makes sense. It doesn't cost three times as much to package and ship three times as many selections. However, those "golden days" of making sense are gone. There is a flat rate for single CD selections, regardless of how many of them you buy at once. Plus if you purchase a double CD set, you could face more than the standard shipping and handling charge. I had a recent purchase where shipping and handling was more than 40% of the total price of the order! Fees like this almost negate many of the offers and/or sales they have, making the "savings" you get from the club that much less.
If you have a ton of popular albums you are missing from your collection, then places like BMG Music can be a good value. However, you need to be disciplined in your selections and choices of sales. If they expanded their catalog sufficiently where I could complete another signup offer with albums I want, I might consider joining up again. But right now, they just aren't worth it for me.
--Torch
Over the past ten years or so, I have been a member of BMG and (the now defunct) Columbia House music clubs. As permitted by their respective terms of service I've taken advantage of initial signup offers, fulfilled my obligations of full price purchases, and even continued to buy CDs above and beyond those requirements.
While my music collection was growing and my exposure to new bands was small, the manner in which these companies ran themselves was sufficient and agreeable. However those conditions have changed. My music collection is considerably larger, having already acquired most of the "standard" must-have albums for my musical tastes. While my tastes have grown broader (keeping my demand for new CDs in high gear), that broadening has grown towards newer/smaller/more obscure artists.
This is my first point of contention with these services - selection. Has the albums been released in the last few months? If so, it probably won't be in the catalog. Has the average person ever heard of the record label? If not, it probably won't be in the catalog. Would the band be ecstatic to headline a show in front of 500 people? If so, they probably aren't in the catalog. I'm not looking for garage bands that play midnight gigs in dive bars, but bands that receive substantial air play in markets like DC and Chicago. Go try to find Silversun Pickups or Muse in their catalog. They just aren't there.
Let's say you do manage to track down an album you want to buy. You add it to your cart, only to find it is $18.98, plus shipping and handling (which I'll get to in a minute). That price isn't too bad, if they are running a "Buy 1, get 2 Free" promotion. However, for a single CD, that's steeper than I'd expect at brick and mortar store. I know, I'll try that 10% off coupon I got in my last order...wait, why isn't that working... Premium Selection. What the @#&! is that?!?
This is my next point of consternation with these services - what I call social castes of products. There is a subset of BMG's catalog that is full price, regardless of any promotion that may be running. They aren't available when you sign up, they can't be a free selection during any "Buy X get Y Free" offers, they aren't discounted duing any "Everything ZZ% off" sales, and they are always the most expensive single CDs in the catalog. These aren't magic CDs, they don't come with extras the rest of the selections don't have. Extreme example: Linkin Park's album Meteora is still a "Premium Selection," despite being over 4 years old! The only commonality that I've deduced from all this is that these albums all seem to fall into the "a 14 year old girl would pay anything for this album" demographic. I guess that's what I get for liking music other people like.
My final burn (h/t Jim Rome) with this "service" is the shipping and handling charges. Once upon a time, these clubs would help you out if you were to buy more than one CD at a time. Shipping and handling would be less for the second (and subsequent) selections. It only makes sense. It doesn't cost three times as much to package and ship three times as many selections. However, those "golden days" of making sense are gone. There is a flat rate for single CD selections, regardless of how many of them you buy at once. Plus if you purchase a double CD set, you could face more than the standard shipping and handling charge. I had a recent purchase where shipping and handling was more than 40% of the total price of the order! Fees like this almost negate many of the offers and/or sales they have, making the "savings" you get from the club that much less.
If you have a ton of popular albums you are missing from your collection, then places like BMG Music can be a good value. However, you need to be disciplined in your selections and choices of sales. If they expanded their catalog sufficiently where I could complete another signup offer with albums I want, I might consider joining up again. But right now, they just aren't worth it for me.
--Torch
Locating MOG account...
Comments (4)
Totally agree, the pricing on music is ridiculous. Once you get past the fact that you can buy new music for a heck of a lot cheaper if you shop around why do they still insist on charging full price for music that's at least 1 or 2 albums behind? It seems to be arbitrary as well. Go in one store and you'll find an album that's at least 10 years old being charged at full price. Walk a few doors down and the same album is at rock bottom bargain basement prices. Why should I be expected to pay full price for an album that's 5, 10, 15, sometimes 30 years old?
It's not just the shops that have schizophrenic pricing policies. A quick look at the UK's Amazon site for the band Rush gives me the following... (prices in UK Pounds)
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