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Inside
BMG
MUSIC SERVICE CLUB
BMG allows only one membership, per person, per year restriction.
As the restriction is per person, per year, each person
at an address should be able to have one membership per
year. One suggestion: while a member, use the 'join a friend'
offer to sign someone else up at the same address. The current
member, after fulfilling the membership, quits and uses
the 'friend's' membership. Repeat.
Please keep in mind the above BMG membership restriction
when reading the next two paragraphs.
The stated policy of BMG is that they reserve the right
to refuse any application. As the clubs usually offer preferred
memberships to members who have quit or allow past members
to rejoin on their own, the clubs' policy evidently is to
allow former members in good standing to join, fulfill,
quit (repeat) at will.
After quitting, the club might ask you to rejoin by mail
and/or by phone. Be forewarned: the offers to return may
not be the best offers then available from the clubs.
+ Wait for a 'buy 1, get 2 free' offer or even a 'buy 1,
get 3 free' offer (BMG only) to fulfill the membership purchase
requirements.
This should happen within the first six months of membership.
In each 'buy 1, get X free' offer, the 'free' selections
must be of equal or lesser value than the purchased selection.
If a CD of greater value is chosen as a free selection,
the club will designate it as the purchased CD - and bill
you for the higher amount - and designate the other CD's
in the offer as the free selections.
+ In the past, the clubs have come out with their best
offers around the New Year.
This has not held true the past couple of years.
+ When joining a club, considering joining as a friend
of a current member.
This usually results in a better deal when joining BMG and
might result in a better deal when joining CH, CDHQ or PLAY.
It is important to compare the current new member offers
to the current 'join a friend' offers. If the new member
offer only requires the purchase of 1 CD at full price to
fulfill the membership purchase requirement and the 'join
a friend' offer requires the purchase of 6 CD's at full
price to fulfill the membership purchase requirement, do
not use the 'join a friend' offer.
+ BMG calls their 'join a friend' offer "Member-Get-A-Member".
BMG's standard 'join a friend' offer is '12 CD's for the
price of 1 CD, nothing more to buy' for the joining member
and 4 free CD's for the sponsoring member. This is a good
deal for the joining member if the sponsoring member is
willing to 'give' at least one of his/her free CD's to the
joining member. BMG's best 'join a friend' offer is '12
CD's for the price of 1 CD, nothing more to buy' to the
joining member and 5 free CD's to the existing member (catalog
n/94/O). This is a good deal for the joining member if the
sponsoring member is willing to 'give' at least one of his/her
free CD's to the joining member.
+ The 'join a friend' offers from CH/CDHQ/PLAY usually require
the purchase of 6 CD's at full price to fulfill the membership
purchase requirement. When these clubs are advertising new
member offers that only require the purchase of 1 CD at
full price to fulfill the membership purchase requirement,
the 'join a friend' offers from these clubs are NOT recommended.
+ If you can map out all the CD selections required to
fulfill the membership when joining, you can save a couple
of dollars by choosing the more expensive CD's as the free
selections and the less expensive CD's as the purchase/fulfillment
selections.
CD's that fulfill the membership purchase requirements are
regular priced CD's over $12.98 for CH, CDHQ and PLAY; and
over $14.98 for BMG.
As all the clubs allow more than one membership per address,
each spouse, sibling, roommate, etc., can have his/her own
membership.
BMG allows up to five memberships under different names
per address.
Getting good deals on multiple-CD sets.
BMG allows most multiple-CD sets as free or sale selections:
introductory, buy-1-get-X-free, 60% off, etc. The searchable
catalog at BMG's web site has most multiple-CD sets marked
as "unavailable as free selection". In contrast, the printed
paper catalogs have almost every multiple-CD set of 5 CD's
and less unmarked (and thus available as free or bonus selections).
My advice: follow the more generous printed catalogs markings
and join/order via US Mail.
+ CH/CDHQ/PLAY only allow some two-CD sets as free or sale
selections.
For introductory offers, place the selection number of the
N-CD set in one of the entry blocks and leave (N-1) of the
entries blank. For example, ordering a three-CD set would
require leaving two selection entry boxes blank.
In non-introductory offers, multiple-CD sets are treated
similarly to single CD titles: the free or discounted CD
sets must be of equal or lesser value than the purchased
CD set. For example, in the 'buy 1 CD, get unlimited CD's
at 80% off' offer, the most expensive CD or CD set in the
order will be designated by the club as the "purchased"
selection and charged at full price regardless of the selection's
position on the order form.
What's the Catch?
Once the clubs have you 'opted in', they are betting
that you will purchase additional products at full retail
over the life of your contract. Once you join, they
will entice you with special offers - many of which are
very competitive. The more product they can sell you
the better. Be aware of the total cost of your
membership - remember, you are joining to save money.
Make sure your club membership does, in fact, get you more
stuff for less money!
BMG
12 CD's for the price of 1 CD, nothing more to buy, ever
[get 7 free, buy 1, get 4 more free]
COLUMBIA
HOUSE
+ 12 CD's for the price of 1 CD, nothing more to buy, ever
[get 7 free, buy 1, get 4 more free] * (Sound&Vision,
Feb/Mar '99)
11 CD's for one red cent [get 11 for $.01 + $1.49 fee,
buy 6 more] * (Rolling Stone, 11 Jun 98)
OTHER
SPECIAL OFFERS
Some offers include an option to purchase "bonus" CD's.
These are usually good deals. The test is whether the bonus
CD's would lower the average CD cost of the total membership.
In the advertisements with most offers, there is an address
to write to if the reply card is missing. If it is a particularly
good offer, it might be worthwhile to write a letter to
the listed address stating that the reply card is missing
(even if it isn't) and requesting a copy of the reply card.
In the letter, include the name of the offer, the source
of the ad and a return address. You could try contacting
the club's customer service center for a copy of the offer
but this does not always succeed.
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THE
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