Keeping down the cost.

[John H White]

Since most record collectors don't have unlimited budgets, I thought that it might be useful if Forum members were to notify the rest of us where to obtain CDs from specific record companies cheapest in various countries. This, of course, could be an ongoing thing like the stock market reports in the heavier newspapers, being constantly updated with special offers from different online retailers. In comparing costs, shipping charges would also need to be taken into account.
   

[Peter1953]

John, I usually buy my discs (I’m not a “downloader”) at mdt.co.uk or jpc.de. Both are focussed on customer satisfaction. The British mdt ships once a week the ordered CDs and ask only £2 P&P per 4 CDs in one package (to the Netherlands). The CDs are very reasonably priced. The German jpc is also very good. Usually I get my ordered CDs within 3 days for €2.99 per 4 CDs in one package. Both mdt and jpc have never let me down. Only if I cannot find certain CDs, I go to Amazon. My experience is that musicweb-international.com is extremely slow. In summary: mdt and jpc are my favourite internet stores.

[JimL]

I've never been let down by CD Universe here in the States.  They've always been able to get me what I wanted at a discount from the usual price.

[John H White]

Here in the UK I tend to deal with www.europadisc.co.uk, who don't charge carriage on orders over £30, www.prestoclassical.co.uk, who charge £2 carriage on the first CD plus £0.50 for each further disc, www.selections.com, who charge a flat rate for all orders of £2.95. They also sell books and scores, mostly at discount prices. Like Peter, I also use mdt and Jpc, but I find the latter tend to be rather full price. Being on the mailing list of most of these companies, I tend to go for whoever has the best special offers. If I'm desperate, I will try Amazon as a last resort.

[wunderkind]

I've never been let down by CD Universe here in the States.  They've always been able to get me what I wanted at a discount from the usual price.

Jim:  I recently have noticed that my searches by composer at CD Universe have come up with "no results."  I wonder if they have reduced their "inventory" of classical discs.

For instance, a search for "Raff" returns nothing.  Strange.

[Alan Howe]

HMV are often cheapest of all in the UK, but not with all releases. Worth checking.
Europadisc are often marginally cheaper than MDT, but I have found them slower than MDT. Their website is also much less user-friendly than MDT's.
jpc are worth checking out for labels not available elsewhere. Of course, they advertise and stock new releases from cpo (their house label) and other German labels before UK companies. Good for the impatient (like me!!) They also have invaluable audio excerpts from a majority of recordings they advertise.
Presto is the place to go for the earliest notification of upcoming releases, but, apart from the odd promotion, they are more expensive.
Amazon.co.uk are usually expensive, but they do carry stocks of some deleted items. You can, of course, pick up a lot of CDs second-hand, which I have often done. I generally keep a stock of replacement plastic cases so as to make used items look brand-new! Don't forget to search Amazon US, France, Germany and Canada too!
ArkivMusic in the USA are a vital source of out-of-print CDs which they have licensed and reissued themselves.
Buywell in Australia are worth a look for releases down-under.

Who do I use most? MDT and jpc - and a lot of Amazon sellers for used/deleted CDs!

[Jonathan]

I've recently bought one or two things from Hyperion's "Please someone, buy me" sale.  Ok the stock changes but the price for a normal, full price release is roughly half that elsewhere.
Hope this helps!

[TerraEpon]

I've recently bought one or two things from Hyperion's "Please someone, buy me" sale.  Ok the stock changes but the price for a normal, full price release is roughly half that elsewhere.
Hope this helps!

I tried to do that a couple times, but they wouldn't take my credit card. They've slightly increased the price on these since they started, too...

[Marcus]

Hello wunderkind,
I have had problems with CD Universe also. I think there is a problem with the link, as against reducing stock.
Sometimes pages will not turn over, composers not recognised. Maybe they are installing a new system ? That will be a standard reply.
While in America, have a look at the CD Baby site. there are some intersesting listings there. Some are computer realisations such as Christopher Schlegel's six tonal symphonies, or Kersten's Romantic symphony, (a hybrid computer & orchestral), but there are other works of interest. It is not an extensive list.
Also Tower often have some of the "hard to get labels", although their stock holding does seem to have reduced.
Marcus.

[Amphissa]

 
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Berkshire Record Outlet, a terrific source for discontinued and small label recordings at very attractive prices for denizens of the U.S. They sell not only CDs, but also LPs, DVDs and music-related books. (And watch out for the audio cassettes if you no longer have a player.)

Berkshire would not have the latest releases, but I have bought many recordings there of music by Martucci, Chausson, York Bowen, Gliere, Myaskovsky, Svendsen, Tubin, Raff, etc. And they do pick up most labels that are distributed in the U.S. A quick label search found 74 on cpo, 543 on Hyperion, 355 on Marco Polo, 30 on the Aussie ABC label, 143 on BIS, 632 on Naxos, etc. I found about 20 CDs from the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos series, for example, most listed at around $7 each. They also have CD-Rs of older recordings that are not available commercially, as well as large CD sets by conductors and composers at very nice prices.

The way they calculate shipping, it usually requires a purchase of 10 CDs or so in order to reach a per-item cost that is attractive, but their catalog is so large and their prices so reasonable that it is difficult to get out of their store without buying twice that many.
 

[Marcus]

Records International (USA) are a good source for some of those hard to get composers. I have dealt with them for years, and his service is excellent, usually within a week to Australia. I do not think he carries big quantities of initial stock, so it is best to check his monthly catalogue on the 1st of each month, but I have had instances of ordering, and the item was out of stock, or didn't arrive, and months later he would email me to ask if I still wanted the item. But if you order early in the month there is usually no problem. The manager is Jeff Joneikis, and all of my emails to him are always promptly answered.
I deal mainly with MDT, Presto, Records International, JPC, Arkiv. But because Australia is so isolated, I have dealt directly with companies in Poland,Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, particularly when I see something in their catalogues. For instance, I recieved the symphony of Vianna da Motta, Piano Sonatas & Symphonies of Bomtempo, & Symphonies, Violin Concerto, Tone Poems  of Freitas Branco, from Portugalsom, because I was having trouble getting them elsewhere at the time. As far as I know the da Motta symphony has not been realeased elsewhere ? To access these different retailers, I searched google "CD retailers worldwide"
Marcus..

[Marcus]

I forgot to mention HB Direct (USA), who carry most catalogues, & who currently have specials on CPO ($13.79 USD),Avie ($13.99 USD), & Naxos ($6.99USD). Also Qualiton (USA), who carry a few hundred labels, and who used to offer a quantity discount, but I notice this month that this discount is not mentioned.(discontinued ?)
Also MDT have added a number of new labels to their list:
Arco Diva, Cube Bohemia, Music Centre, Orchestral concerts, Arta, Hevheta, Music Vars & Vixen. Two discs caught my eye in the MusicCentre catalogue: J.L.Bella (1843-1936) Chamber Music set 3CDs, & J.L Bella Organ compositions. These may be a copy of the Marco Polo repertoire, which I haven't yet checked.
Marcus.

[Caroline]

Hello. I've only just discovered this forum. I work at a UK distributors and am currently the UK label manager for CPO records amongst others. Feel free to contact me if you have any CPO related questions. We also are the UK base of Naxos.

You may have already heard of it, but I can recommend NaxosDirect.co.uk. This is a UK based website and we offer free postage and package. If you place your order before 3pm, your CDs will be sent out 1st class that day and you should receive it within 48 hours.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Hello Caroline - Glad you've made contact.

It might be worth saying that I've used Naxosdirect a few times in recent months. You get an A1 positive rating from this customer. Each time, CDs have arrived the following day having been sent by 1st class post. And they are also very carefully packed in stout cardboard packaging well able to withstand the ravages of Royal Mail. I've also had the experience of something been out of stock, although advertised, and someone at Naxosdirect took real pains to source the item from another country and insisted on not accepting any additional payment. I've been very impressed by the service.

And now sheer effrontery: do you give away CPO recordings? I could give you a list as long as my arm derived from my 'wants list'!! However fortunately a few get ticked off each month - although others quickly appear to take their place! More seriously, I'm enormously grateful to CPO for your work in recording hitherto unknown and unsung composers. Long may the work continue! And I'm sure most others on this forum would echo my gratitude.

Incidentally if you have influence in such matters: CPO recordings come along with a wealth of notes in the booklets. But, oooh heavens, the English translations are sometimes pretty indigestible! Yet indigestible notes are far to be preferred to an absence of information!

Best wishes for the continued success of CPO and Naxosdirect.

Peter

[wunderkind]

 For instance, I recieved the symphony of Vianna da Motta, Piano Sonatas & Symphonies of Bomtempo, & Symphonies, Violin Concerto, Tone Poems  of Freitas Branco, from Portugalsom, because I was having trouble getting them elsewhere at the time. As far as I know the da Motta symphony has not been realeased elsewhere ? To access these different retailers, I searched google "CD retailers worldwide"
Marcus..

Marcus:  Perhaps you'd let me know how to locate the Portugalsom website.  I have been seeking the Braga Santos Piano Trio/Piano Quartet disc but unable to locate it anywhere.