Review: BMG Music Service

Anyone who has a mailing address or has flipped through a magazine has been subjected to an advertisement for the BMG Music service. When I was younger I used to buy tapes through them, however in this new day and age of CDs and music downloads how does the BMG service rank?

The usual initial offer still being used by BMG, a company merged with Sony, is 12 CDs for the price of one with nothing more to buy. First they will have you pick 7 music CDs of your choice and they will mail them to you "free", with you paying for the shipping and handling. If you choose 7 separate CDs then expect a bill around 20-21 dollars; just under $3 for each CD. After you have paid for your first 7 and are officially enlisted into the program, the next step is for you to buy one of their CD's at regular price plus shipping and handling. Finally, after you have made your one purchase you get to choose 4 more free CDs, and once again only cover the shipping charges.

Every month a "featured selection" will be mailed and billed to you of their choice unless you make sure to decline it in a timely fashion. This is an easy thing to handle via the internet if you choose to have your BMG account work via E-mail instead of regular mail.

The average price for a music CD at BMG music is $18.98, figure with that the $3 shipping charge (standard shipping) and you are looking at a costs of about $22 a CD. Considering you can go down to a Target retail store and buy most CDs for $10 or under; or around $14 for things not on special, this pricing is not competitive. BMG does have some CDs priced as $14.98 and under, but what they do is call these "Premium" titles, and therefore are not subject to any special offers they may give to you. Special offers do arise all the time, for example "Buy 1 Get 2 Free and then unlimited at $2.99" In this deal Premium CDs do not apply, which is how most of the newer CDs or "good" CDs are marked. Therefore you buy some older CD for $18.98, then pick two more for free you are looking at a grand total of about $28. Once again, 3 CDs for $28 is not that great of a deal when the choices are very limited.