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Guide to Importing Music
Why import music?
This question about importing
music is mostly aimed at residents of the United States. In terms of the global
community, the United States is kind of a unique phenomenon when it comes to the
entertainment industries, in that there is so much output domestically that the
average American consumer would only become aware of any international acts as
kind of a novelty. Take the movie industry for example; Hollywood generates so
much output that to see anything from any other countries often requires going
to specialized theatres and making a special effort to do so. The same is true
for the American music industry. The American labels are pushing out so much
music to cater to the American market that only the biggest international acts
get a chance to be distributed in the American market. Often those acts get
little to no promotion and rarely see more than just a couple of select albums
released.
What typically happens is a song
makes such a huge splash internationally that it gets released in the US, if it
becomes a hit, a follow-up album will get released but often without much push
from the label and unless that album generates huge hits, that’s usually the
extent of it. A good example of this is the internationally adored Kylie
Minogue. She made a big splash in the United States in the mid 1980’s with “The
Locomotion” and the follow up album failed to match that success and she wasn’t
heard from again until she had the unstoppable hit “Can’t Get You Out Of My
Head” in 2001. Her follow up album failed to make a dent in the US market and
despite her international success has fallen back into obscurity in the larger
American pop culture. To most American’s she’s just someone went from a one hit
wonder to a two hit wonder with a huge gap of nothing in between. Even though in
the international marketplace she’s had tremendous success in between the two
songs.
Outside of the US, knowledge of
imported music product is common as with other countries their music scene isn’t
nearly so insular so it’s relatively easy for songs to spread to neighboring
countries and become hits. And in this day and age, especially in Europe, it’s
not uncommon for a CD pressing plant in one country to make the CDs of an artist
or act for several countries. For example a lot of CDs in Europe are pressed in
German but distributed throughout the entire European Economic Union (EEU, often
shortened to EU). It may not always be the case but generally with music that’s
recorded in English it’s targeted to be released in multiple countries
regardless of where it was released. In Canada, for example, Canadian music
tends to be a smaller percentage of what fills the stores as Canada’s culture is
strongly influenced by both the United States and Europe and their music scene
tends to be a cross between international influences and domestic artists. As
such the stores use Canadian flag labels on the separator cards in the CD racks
to differentiate Canadian artists from their international counterparts.
So while it’s more commonplace
outside of the US to be able to buy imported products, it’s a bit more difficult
in the United States and the retailers who do make it easy for American
consumers to buy imports take advantage of the fact that imports aren’t common
and charge very high premiums for imports. Only higher end specialty music
retailers had sections devoted to imports and or import CDs would be mixed in
with the domestic released but they could easily be identified by their higher
than the average CD prices and maybe a label to indicate it is an import
product. These retailers are counting on that premium price and the import label
to give the CD the impression of it being a bit more exotic than domestically
released products and worthy of a near extortionate price. However, this
strategy is often playing into the perception of it being more exotic and hard
to get than it really is.
What’s on imports that would
make me want to buy them?
There are several things that
make imports worth buying including: Extra songs Different songs Different album
artwork and/or packaging Albums get released at different times in different
countries Songs might be in other languages Limited edition, collectable, or
deluxe versions of albums Currency exchange rates might make it cheaper to buy
an import version There may not be a domestic version Import versions may be of
better quality CD singles aren’t yet a dead format in other countries
Now these things are in and of
themselves are mostly of interest to diehard fans who like to collect recordings
from their favorite artists and acts that aren’t always easy to obtain where
they live. Casual fans may only be interested in what is easily available to
them with little to no effort, if this is the case for you then importing will
be more work than it’s worth to you. If you’re the type of person who wants to
have every commercially released song your favorite artist has released then
this information about how to buy import music will be valuable to you and
hopefully will save you some money in the process.
Now often the above strategies
are added to albums in many markets outside the US as disincentive to people in
those countries for buying imported US albums. As many countries place different
price points on their albums and often times it may be cheaper to buy an
imported US copy of the album than to buy the version released in that country,
so as to make the domestic product look more attractive to buy to it’s
residents, added bonuses are put on the album rather than lowering the price to
compete with cheap US imports. This strategy is especially used in Japan, where
albums almost always come with bonus tracks there because Japan charges very
high prices for their domestic CDs (often three to four times what is usually
charged for the average CD in the USA).
For me personally, often my
favorite bands are international acts who may or may not be popular in the
United States. I try to support my favorite acts through the purchase of
domestic product whenever possible, so that my purchase counts in letting those
labels know I want more of that particular artist or type of music, but if the
domestic labels are unable or refuse to release the groups and types of music I
want to buy when I want to buy it, I will choose to buy my music from the
countries that release the music I want regardless of the fact I don’t live
there.
That’s one of the best things
about the Internet is that it opens doors to be able to purchase products from
around the world without having to rely on importers to buy it for you and
charge you exorbitant fees, the savings are passed on to you and allow you to
buy more of what you like or spend it on other things.
Where do ABBAMAILers recommend
buying imports?
In preparation for this column,
I asked members of the ABBAMAIL mailing list for their recommendations on best
places to shop for discounts on music both import and domestic, and here the
list of recommended places to purchase from.
CD-Wow.com CD-Wow is an
international music distributor that specializes in offering current release
titles with free international shipping. The main site, CD-Wow.com is priced in
British Pounds and most CDs are £7.99 (slightly more for multi-disc sets).
Selection is usually limited to current chart albums around the world and
doesn’t really carry much in terms of back catalogue titles. There are several
international editions of the site where you can browse the selection in your
local currency (ex. CD-Wow.us leads to a US version of the site at $14.95 as the
selling point, and CD-Wow.net leads to a German language version of the site
with an €11.99 selling point.) This international coverage does tend to make it
easier to obtain country specific titles for a reasonable price, for example you
can find Swedish language titles available. One word of note is that CD Wow adds
the disclaimer that they are an international seller of CDs and it’s important
to make sure the track list matches the version of the album you want to buy as
you may be buying a CD from a different region of the world than you thought.
Music-wow.com Music-wow.com is
similar to CD-Wow.com but offers a lower price in the range of £5.99 to £6.99
for single disc titles and slightly more for multi-disc sets. Their selection is
a bit more limited and tends to be a more strictly based on English language
releases than CD-Wow. Some good deals can be had if what you’re looking for is a
mainstream chart type album.
CDON.com If you live in Europe,
CDON.com is a popular place to purchase music, it carries a variety of music and
has more extensive back catalogue access than discount sellers like CD-wow.com
and music-wow.com. However, they do not ship outside the European Union by any
means. No amount of begging will change their stance (as I have tried.) If you
live outside the EU and CDON is the only place you can find that sells it,
you’re best trying to find a friend in the EU who you can have as an
intermediary who will receive the CDON shipment for you and then mail it to you
outside the EU. Please note this can be an expensive process as you’ll end up
paying for shipment twice. Skivhugget.com (Skivhugget.se within Sweden)
Skivhugget is a Swedish retailer that now has an English language site (the .com
version of the address) and is able to accept orders from most of the world if
not all of it. They are a great place to buy Scandinavian music as well as major
European releases. They do deduct the European Value Added Tax (VAT) for
non-European residents, which usually helps defray the postage costs if your
order is large enough.
Esprit (eil.com) Esprit is site
geared mostly towards the collector as they specialize in carrying promotional
and limited edition memorabilia and music. They do carry some new release titles
as well, but their specialty is out of print merchandise. Do note those because
they deal heavily in the collectors market, their prices are set to a collectors
premium. Try elsewhere first if you want to find a good price, but try here if
you can’t find what you’re looking for at all.
DeepDiscount.com
DeepDiscount.com is a US based retailer that offers free shipping within the
continental US but also ships internationally for a nominal charge that
increases depending on the order amount (international orders under $100 US
generally ship for $5.95 to $12.95). They mainly offer US titles in both CD and
DVD format for discounted prices. If what you’re looking for originates from the
US, this a good place to check out. They do carry some imported titles as well,
but generally at a bit of a premium price.
Mundo
(mediawars.ne.jp/~mundo/cdjapan/link.html) Mundo is a retailer specializing in
Japanese releases some of which are out of print. As with all Japanese releases,
they tend to be expensive compared to other countries releases, but there are
usually bonus tracks, which this site does highlight so you know which tracks
are exclusive to the Japanese editions. Japanese editions of albums are usually
of very high quality in terms of both packaging and if you don’t own any
Japanese recordings you rarely have to worry about the packaging being in
Japanese. Japanese titles usually have a separate strip wrapped on the outside
of the CD called an OBI strip which contains the Japanese information about the
album while the rest of the CD is usually printed in its native language.
Booklets are also generally kept in their native language with a separate
booklet printed for the Japanese translations.
Footlight.com Footlight records
is a specialty retailer specializing in theatrical shows like Broadway and West
End Shows. They are not a general retailer so their usefulness to you would be
limited to things like cast recordings of shows and memorabilia for those shows.
Because of that specialized nature, they do get things like cast albums in other
languages from around the world, but they do charge a premium for those imported
items.
Amazon Amazon has various
incarnations around the world and tends to be good source for products around
the globe. They tend to be a little better if you’re in the country of the
Amazon location you’re looking to buy from as they usually have free shipping
deals over certain pricing thresholds for domestic customers, but all of them do
ship internationally. I’ve personally ordered from every Amazon variation around
the world. Their prices are usually quite fair for their domestic products but
watch out for the imports. You may for example be better off ordering a CD from
Amazon.de in Germany than to order the import of that album through Amazon.com
in terms of price.
Diamond Head Records
(Diamondheadrecords.com) Diamond Head Records of Houston, USA specializes mostly
in heavy metal records but according to one of our ABBAMAILers the owner is
usually great at hunting down requests for items in different genres. All you
have do is ask and see if they can help you find what you’re looking for.
Red Eye Records (redeye.com.au)
Red Eye of Sydney, Australia mostly specializes in used and collectable items
from around the globe and they also carry new material as well. They are worth
checking out for out of print music as well.
I also surveyed ABBAMAILers
about local shops in which to buy CDs from and got several responses for store
suggestions in the USA, the UK, France, Belgium, New Zealand, and couple other
countries. Most of the suggestions were too local to mentioned here as a
resource to use here for ordering import music online.
This guide here is by no means
complete. The above mentioned sites are just the ones submitted to me by
ABBAMAIL list members, I haven’t even mentioned my favorites on where I get my
best deals. A more complete, country by country, guide to ordering import music
from around the world is being prepared in e-book form that will serve to be
your ultimate guide to ordering music from around the world. Detailed
information about each shop will be provided as well as ordering tips for how
best to take advantage of getting the best prices. This ultimate guide book will
also feature help on how to order music from websites in languages other than
English so that you can get what you want no matter where in the world it’s been
released. Stay tuned to ABBAMAIL.com and my new blog website
ryansincredibleworld.com for details on this e-book that will be coming soon.
Ryan |
