|
by Riyou I'm sure many of you out there have come across, either in magazines or on the Internet, an offer from BMG Music that promises 12 CDs for the price of one. The various offers state that you receive 5-7 CDs for free and upon purchasing just one more within a year, they would send you the rest of your CDs, which would bring you to a total of 12. What exactly does this offer mean and how much do these CDs actually cost? Well I took a risk and tried it out. I signed up for their membership and picked out seven CDs. Then they billed me $2.79 per CD for shipping and handling and added an 8.25% California state sales tax to the subtotal, which brought the total order of my seven CDs to $21.14. After I received the seven CDs, I fulfilled my obligation as a member of BMG Music and bought one regular priced CD for $17.99. After a $2.79 shipping and handling fee plus sales tax was tacked on to my order, that one CD ended up costing me $22.49. So after I received it, I picked four more CDs for "free" and paid a total of $12.08. Hence I have completed my membership agreement with BMG and received all 12 CDs. BMG Music ships your CDs out to you via USPS media mail, which normally takes around 7-10 days to get to you if you live on the west coast. Note that you are getting ripped off on shipping prices because media mail is very slow and costs much less than $2.79 to ship a CD. I shipped a package that weighed over 10 pounds before and it did not cost me more than $7 when I used media mail. Let's see, after adding my totals from above together, we have $21.14 + $22.49 + 12.08 = $55.71. So now we can take the grand total of $55.71 and divide it by 12, which gives us a final price of $4.64 for each of the 12 CDs. This shows that BMG Music does not actually give you free CDs. Each CD costs around $4.64, which is still a good deal compared to an average of $12 per CD at the record store. One of the major drawbacks about BMG Music, however, is that they are unlikely to have all the CDs you would want. You'll have no trouble finding CDs by artists whom you may have heard of on the radio, but good luck finding albums by lesser known bands and artists. Many soundtracks from movies such as Kill Bill Vol.1 or The Last Samurai are also unavailable. So is BMG Music's 12 CDs for the price of one really worth it? Overall, I would say yes because $4.64 per CD is an almost unbeatable price, even though BMG Music's selection is limited. But you also have to consider if you really do want 12 CDs and not just one or two in particular. Otherwise, it would be more convenient for you to just buy your CDs at a record store. Back to the main page. Email Me with comments, suggestions, or concerns. |
