Did Amazon buy CDNOW.com? (1 Viewer)

[LanceJ]

When you hit "enter" after typing CDNOW.com you get redirected to Amazon.com's media page. I very much miss CDNOW's informative and organized website--Amazon's is messy and full of non-music items. And especially, they are missing most of those very useful music samples CDNOW had.
Anybody know what happened? Thanks.
LJ

 

[PaulHeroy]

CDNOW, as an actual entity (i.e. people) went belly up not long ago. The name is still owned by... a German company IIRC? I read an article a couple of weeks ago about it, which implied that it might re-emerge as an independent entity at some time, but for now they have a deal for Amazon to run it.

Personally, while I did use CDNOW a time or two long ago, there are other online CD retailers I've preferred such as CD Connection, CD Universe, Dusty Groove and Downtown Music Gallery (specializes in out-jazz, prog etc.).

 

[Greg_Y]

From C|Net News:

By Margaret Kane
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 4, 2002, 7:56 AM PT
CDNow will open a new store through Amazon.com joining a number of retailers that are turning to the online sales giant.
As previously reported, the two companies had been in talks for some time. CDNow is owned by German media giant Bertelsmann, which has been struggling with its Internet operations. Bertelsmann said it plans to focus more on books and its music club business.
CDNow will remain part of Bertelsmann unit BeMusic, which also controls the BMG Music Service and record club businesses. Amazon's own music, video and DVD stores will also continue to operate separately.
The multiyear agreement, announced Wednesday, calls for Amazon to handle fulfillment, inventory, content and customer service for CDNow's site. Specific financial terms of the deal were not released.
Amazon has been branching out to fellow retailers, offering its commerce services to help them sell online.
The company recently opened an apparel shop online, featuring dozens of brands through partnerships with retailers including Gap, Eddie Bauer, Foot Locker and Nordstrom.
Many of the stores included in that shop handle their own fulfillment and inventory issues, using Amazon merely as an entrance to their wares. Amazon's deal with CDNow is more similar to ones it has struck with Toys "R" Us, Virginmega.com and Borders.com in which Amazon has more responsibility in running the online stores.

 

[LanceJ]

Thanks guys
LJ

 

[John Watson]

And the beef, apart from the possible higher prices as competition is reduced, is that the Amazon search function for an artist, song title, etc, is less productive than the CDNow system was.

I know of several titles I am unable to find on Amazon, that I do know have been issued.

Sometimes, when you get a list of disks at Amazon, you should peruse it carefully. You will often find relisting of a given disk at a LOWER price, further down the list.

 

[Marc Colella]

Two things really bother me since CDNow became an Amazon store:

1. Only the first few tracks are made available as streamed samples
2. The song samples are streamed through Real Player only.

Before the change, I was able to hear samples of most of the CD and they were also streamed through Media Player. Media Player takes alot less resources and is available with all versions of Windows. Real Player is a resource pig, crashed more, has to be downloaded and keeps changing file associations in Windows.

In a time where CD sales are the lowest it's been in many years, the last thing any company should do is to further discourage potential customers from possible purchases.

Oh well... it's off to Kazaa I go.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

it's off to Kazaa I go

so youre going from crashing and resource hogging to spyware? at least its a step in the right direction.
CJ

 

[Marc Colella]

so youre going from crashing and resource hogging to spyware? at least its a step in the right direction.

Kazaa Lite and AdAware are beautiful things.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

so youre going from crashing and resource hogging to spyware? at least its a step in the right direction.

I have to second Marc in that Kazaa Lite is the center of the known universe, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

I have a CDNow account, and received this mail a few weeks ago:

Dear Mikael,
We appreciate that you've shopped with CDNOW in the past, and we'd like to share some very exciting news about our site.
Effective December 4th, we've teamed with Amazon.com to create
a new and improved cdnow.com. We believe it's an ideal combination of service and selection. When you visit the new CDNOW, you'll get:
* Unparalleled service
* Reliable shipping and delivery
* Renowned customer service
We invite you to check out the enhanced CDNOW for yourself. If you already have an Amazon.com account, you can use it to Sign In and shop at the new CDNOW.com.
http://cdw01.cdnow.com/Click?q=6a-z_...lY5FEzXe65Tix-
Plus, there’s a brand new way to save on your favorite music!
We've created a new and improved CDNOW Preferred Buyer's Club site, at a new URL: cdnowpbc.com
http://cdw01.cdnow.com/Click?q=7f-bn...NtHYq9zO2zfCAu

So, you can still access the old site (and listen to Windows media samples) if you point your browser to www.cdnowpbc.com

 

[Joel Mack]

So, you can still access the old site (and listen to Windows media samples) if you point your browser to www.cdnowpbc.com

You, sir, are my hero. Thank you!

 

[Paul D Young]

Hey Joel,
Don't turn anybody into heroes just yet. The cdnowpbc.com only gets you the CDs that were previously preferred buyers club titles.
For example, they didn't have any Rolling Stones in the PBC, so try a search for Rolling Stones and see what it gets you; one CD! And it ain't even the Rolling Stones!
P.S. Check out a search for The Beatles:
http://cdnowpbc.com/cgi-bin/mserver/...ID=THE+BEATLES
Pretty useless.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Don't turn anybody into heroes just yet. The cdnowpbc.com only gets you the CDs that were previously preferred buyers club titles.

Sorry about that, I just realised the same thing when I actually checked it out (instead of just beleiving the email...) :b
I thought it was the whole old CD Now site, but i was wrong...

 

[Paul D Young]

No offense intended to you Mikael, I'm sure you are a hero to many.

 

[Joel Mack]

Dang. Well, at least it's still useful for older stuff.
I will never ever install RealPlayer on my machine, so Amazon/CDNow is no longer an option for any online music purchases. Jackasses.
In addition to KaZaa, the good old binary Usenet groups are very handy...

 

[LanceJ]

I will never ever install RealPlayer on my machine.....

Er, why so militant about this? Both cduniverse.com and artistdirect.com both exclusively use RealPlayer. This is a very common streaming audio program on many, many other good music sites (including eslmusic.com my favorite label for lounge/down-tempo music like Thievery Corporation).
And another plus: it's not a Microsoft product!
LJ

 

[Joel Mack]

Er, why so militant about this?

Past bad experiences with it.

IMHO, RealPlayer = Garbage

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

No offense intended to you Mikael,

None taken , I really should have checked first...

 

[Shawn McBride]

You can get most of the Windows media samples that CDNOW carried from music.msn.com. It's pretty good for popular and jazz music but not very good for classical, though. They stream their samples from the same server that CDNOW used so it's got most of the same titles. And I found that you can stream all of the samples from an album in a row without clicking on each song title so it's better than CDNOW in that respect.

I found this site after losing CDNOW to Amazon and Real Audio. I hadn't bought anything from CDNOW in years but I used it to screen most of my potential CD purchases.