Recommendations of online vendors?
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Shipping has become so expensive these days, especially if ordering from overseas (the US), that it’s become totally cost-prohibitive (almost $15 for one CD!).
What are some of the online vendors you use for buying your soundtracks?
These days, probably https://www.wowhd.co.uk/
That’s indeed a good vendor – they offer reasonable prices and they don’t deduct the UK tax in exchange for free international shipping. In recent times, the one I’ve used the most for CDs in general is amazon.co.uk, in addition to the other European Amazon sites. Other good vendors with decent shipping rates for us Europeans, and more or less good selections of soundtracks, are mdt.co.uk, prestoclassical.co.uk, europadisc.co.uk, and imusic.dk.
🙂
Presto Classical also has a great selection of sheet music which seems to rival the abundance at Sheet Music Plus.
I usually order from Intrada or Screen Archives.
Yes, shipping costs are high, but I feel I should support the specialist vendors (and labels). 🙂
For more mainstream releases (including soundtracks) I often use Amazon (.com or .co.uk).
Thanks for the recommendations for other vendors, Thor and Sigbjørn! I didn’t know these, but I’ll check them out!Wondering if any new online vendors have surfaced in the years since the board was last active? Not that I can afford to buy much anyway, but various Google searches have proved futile in terms of crossing off those items on my want list. Too expensive items, or shipping is crazy high.
Can’t think of any new online vendors. Although my main route to music is digital my limited CD buying habits have changed over the years.
I used to buy everything via SAE regardless of the label or whether it was US/Europe released. Convenience of a bulk purchase and knowing I could rely on them were my main drivers for using them. And back then shipping costs were ok.
Now I shop around, looking for the best (cheapest) shipping costs. I mostly buy from Europe stores, even own labels. Quartet, Chris’ Soundtrack(?) are two examples.
I occasionally buy from Quartet or Musicbox directly but despite issues reported on FSM my main source for the speciality label things is http://www.soundtrackcorner.de. Sometimes I also use a German local “Amazon alternative” http://www.jpc.de They even have some label scores but are way too expensive so best suitable for “commercial” releases.
I also buy a lot of downloads nowdays, mostly lossless if the price is fitting, from Qobuz or 7digital (the latter often with better prices).
I’ve always had a happy experience at Soundtrack Corner. But, one thing they could improve is giving an indication if what’s listed is in stock. I am not sure there’s much stock at Soundtrack Corner, and their process is to list everything and then order things once they receive an order for a specific CD.
Yes, indeed, sometimes titles are listed as preorders and sometimes in a small box as new arrivals. But otherwise not. The shop software running the site seems also not the latest, often get SSL warnings on pages. I assume that with all the costs it makes sense to order stuff in bulk when enough interest is there.
I never ordered from Soundtrack Corner. I keep confusing it with another site from yesteryear — Henk’s something or other. Does anyone remember that?
Don’t remember that. I ordered a lot since the 90s from Soundtrack Club – also run by a Christian – until it suddenly closed doors without explaination some years ago. And I frequently visted Tarantula, if anyone knows that, when the original owners had their store here in my home town.
Since the last time we talked about this, I too have discovered jpc.de. It’s very expensive for specialist label releases, as Malte says, but it’s okay for standard soundtrack releases, and also for classical music. Their default prices aren’t very competitive, but they often have good discounts. Unfortunately, they stopped shipping to Norway last year because of our newish VAT rules (the store is required collect VAT on behalf of the Norwegian state).
Regarding Soundtrack Corner, I find their competitor Music Box Records to have lower prices (at least when shipped to Norway), and Intermezzo Media is even lower. Still, it often pays off to order in bulk from (at least some) US stores.
Musicbox has good prices as does Quartet but shipping rates often kill that. It only works out with bulk ordering or with sales. For US labels like Lalaland regular soundtrackcorner prices mostly match sales + shipping… I have the “local benefit” with soundtrackcorner and jpc of free shipping for orders above Euro 100 (soundtrackcorner, easily reached…) and Euro 20 (jpc).
It’s a shame it’s so difficult to find one — just ONE — decent CD store online that a) has cheap CDs (cheap meaning less than $10 for the titles I’m looking for), and b) offers free worldwide shipping. If that was in place, I could at the very least deal with the new customs rules, which there’s no getting around. Just so that I paid — maximum, and in total — what a full-price CD cost up to 4-5 years ago (about $17). Of course, I want it much, much lower than that. Some 15 years ago, I very rarely paid more than $10, in total, for a CD I wanted. And somehow, I always managed to find them. But that’s not realistic these days.
I look and I look, several times a week, but find absolutely nothing. Zero. Zilch.
I’m tearing my hair out in frustration. But I’m bumping this thread again, just in any case any of our new members have any online vendors to recommend?
By the way, these are the CDs I’m looking for:
John Williams – Goodbye Mr. Chips (3CD)
John Williams – Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (2CD)
John Williams – Live in Vienna (Blu-ray)
John Williams – Live in Berlin (Blu-ray)
John Williams – Live in Tokyo (Blu-ray)
John Williams – Across the Stars (Deluxe Edition)
John Williams – Violin Concerto No. 2Danny Elfman – Avengers: Age of Ultron
Danny Elfman – Goosebumps
Danny Elfman – Before I Wake
Danny Elfman – The Grinch
Danny Elfman – Big Mess
Danny Elfman – Bigger Messier
Danny Elfman – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (LP)
Danny Elfman – Aliens, Clowns and Geeks
Danny Elfman – Third Coast Percussion: Perspectives
Danny Elfman – Percussion Concerto/Wunderkammer
Danny Elfman – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (score album)
Danny Elfman – Dark Universe (LP)Elliot Goldenthal – Othello Symphony
Elliot Goldenthal – Jabberwocky
Elliot Goldenthal – Symphony in G Minor
Elliot Goldenthal – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Elliot Goldenthal – The Glorias
Elliot Goldenthal – Music for FilmsRammstein – Zeit
Jean Michel Jarre – Snapshots from EON
Jean Michel Jarre – Amazonia
Jean Michel Jarre – Oxymore
Jean Michel Jarre – Oxymore: Works
John Helliwell – Ever Open Door
John Helliwell – Don’t Ever Leave Me
John Helliwell – The Bari Session
David Gilmour – Luck and StrangeWhen I don’t order from the US (Intrada, La-La Land, Varèse Sarabande), I usually order directly from Quartet or Music Box Records. (Quartet like LLL features only Quartet title, Music Box Records like Intrada also other labels.)
By the way, these are the CDs I’m looking for:
Sorry, have serveral digitally but none on CD…
Btw, Varese just opened up a bandcamp page: https://varesesarabande.bandcamp.com/
Seems even a bit cheaper than on other onlien vendors where Vareses albums are quite expensive. Even if VAT taxes add up on checkout.
I don’t believe that Bandcamp page sells CDs? Only downloads?
The only one I could find, of the titles on my want list, was BIGGER MESSIER anyway.
It was not meant as a source for your list, just as a general info to the topic in general as I just noticed that. bandcamp is primarily downloads but if Varese choose so they could also sell CDs or other “merch”.
The John Williams concerts, live in Berlin, Vienna, etc., are actually available directly from Deutsche Grammophon. (And vendors like Amazon, JPC, etc)
Deutsche Grammophon: John Williams Live in Vienna
I guess it becomes trickier these days to pick them up used, especially if you’re looking for something specific, as far fewer copies are produced and sold these days, so the ones who buy them really hold on to them.
Years ago, people dropped their CDs by the boxload at second hand stores or replaced film soundtracks with expanded releases, but that happens far less nowadays.Shipping alone usually costs more than $10.-, so I don’t know how a store that sells CDs for $10.- and offers worldwide free shipping could stay in business. They’d give the CDs for free basically, and probably even pay on top.
The thing is, CDs are no longer a mass market article. Years ago, Intrada or La-La Land releases might have been “limited editions”, but nowadays, all CDs are basically limited editions. It’s a niche market to begin with. Last time I checked, CD sales were down 98%! So that means nowadays the market has shrunk to 2% (or even less? Don’t have the latest figures.) of what it once was. Of course that effects pricing and availability on second hand markets.
I know. It’s the realities. I just don’t like the realities. I basically live on an average-low annual income anno 1995, so I can only afford sales items in grocery stores that are close to 1995 prices, for example.
Full-price CDs were on more or less the same level for many years (about 180 NOK or 15 Euros), but some 5 years ago, they exploded in price. Now it’s almost TWICE that in Norwegian stores (250-300 NOK)!
And it’s almost impossible to find bargains anymore. Until the mid 2010s, I could easily find what I was looking for for less than $10 (including shipping), now I can’t even find the item itself for that price, to say nothing of shipping and customs on top of that.
BUT…we’re now on topics that are more suited for the “four threats & tarrifs” thread.
To get back on-topic, I have this feeling that an online store exists out there that is what I’m looking for. I just don’t know where.
There’s lots of bargains to be made on Discogs. You just need to find a seller with a decent shipping rate, then buy in bulk to lower the shipping per item. Make sure the seller has a rating close to 100%, as that’s an indicator of accurate grading. I’ve made many orders where the final price per item landed somewhere between 50 and 100 NOK, for items in very good to mint condition.
To get back on-topic, I have this feeling that an online store exists out there that is what I’m looking for. I just don’t know where.
Let us know when you found it.
In Germany, there is Medimops, where you can find good deals on used CDs, with free shipping (in Germany) when you order a certain amount, but I have not checked out their international shipping.
Ah, I heard of Medimops but never used it. Guess I should try that, too. Our public library here has a bargain store as well were you can buy things they don’t want to add to their archive or sorted out. Often not the best condition and lacking booklets (they put all CDs in plastic envelopes) but can still be used/ripped.
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