CDheaven.com
Web teems with havens for music lovers

By JON FASSNACHT
Collegian Staff Writer

Richard Simmons is not smiling.

Rather than taking a healthy walk down to the record store, Internet junkies now have another reason to stay glued in front of their computers with the advent of online music stores.

Sites such as CD Now (www.cdnow.com), Music Boulevard (www.musicblvd.com) and Best Buy (www.bestbuy.com) are gaining popularity among music fans due to the accessibility they offer. You can read reviews of an album by major music magazines or by other customers who own the album.

"Shopping online is as good as, if not better, than shopping in a store," Geoff Hainer (sophomore-business administration and international finance) said. "If they don't have something you want, they can order it a lot faster than a store."

The sites offer other advantages besides accessibility and speed. Although commercial Web sites are expensive to run, they're not as costly as traditional record stores, which have to pay rent. So online prices are usually lower, and because Web databases are hooked up to compact disc warehouses across the country, the selection is much better -- at least when it comes to major-label and large indie-label acts.

CD Now marks all of its best sellers at 30 percent off the list price and has numerous sales throughout the year that knock $5 or $10 off of your order. Best Buy doesn't charge sales tax.

With all these perks, it's possible to buy a brand-new CD for under $10. This is rarely true in stores.

If customers favor used CDs or record clubs, there are sites for them as well.

Disc-Go-Round (www.discgo.com), a national chain specializing in used CDs, offers a decent selection on its site. Customers can access the site and search selected locations across the country.

Record clubs also offer their services online. Columbia House's new service, www.playfromcolumbiahouse.com, is the first music club without the annoying selection-of-the-month card. BMG's online music service (www.bmgmusicservice.com) has a better selection than the company's mail-order service, which only includes a fraction of its catalogue in monthly mailings.

So why shop at a store when you can get great deals sitting on your duff?

"If you don't want the exercise, the social interaction and the added insights from the workers, I guess it's alright shopping online," said Greg Gabbard, owner of City Lights Records, 316 E. College Ave., said. "It's just not as much fun staring at a screen as it is browsing through the aisles."

In addition to the physical appeal of browsing for CDs, "meatspace" (as opposed to cyberspace) stores have other advantages. Although browsing CDs of a particular genre is becoming easier on Web stores like CD Now, it's still not as easy to check out a group of CDs online. You have to know what you're looking for, and you're less likely to be surprised by an interesting new band.

Also, lovers of obscure music may find independent-label material is scarce on the big Web record stores.

But there are other online options for obscurists.

Many labels offer their entire catalogs online, and some distributors such as Saul Goodman (www.saulgoodman.com) collect music from lots of weird labels in a specific musical genre -- in the case of Saul Goodman, indie rock.

Brass City Records (www.brasscity.com/records/) is the most obscure of the bunch. The store, based in Connecticut, specializes in avant-garde music, poetry and "anything else that can't fit within the confines of commercial music." You can fax a list of CDs you're looking for, and store employees will try to track down the discs. Other similar stores with Web sites let you browse their catalogs online, although most don't let you order with a credit card.