From: alasnik@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Adam Lasnik)
Subject: BMG -- general info
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 23:52:49 GMT


I've gotten a bunch of questions privately, and also noticed some public
questions as well.  As a longtime subscriber and 'fan' of BMG, I'll do my best
to answer some of them...

--WHAT IS THE QUALITY OF BMG DISCS?
I've gotten over 75 of them, and I've never noticed any problems with quality.
BMG claims that their discs are of exactly the same standard as the "regular"
ones, and I have no reason to disagree.  I did receive a scratched disc once,
but BMG was very good about taking it back and replacing it at their expense.

--HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO BE A MEMBER? / HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET IN AND
GET OUT?
BMG is slow, there's no question about it.  They're slow to initiate
memberships, slow to ship out discs, and unfortunately, often slow to respond
to member inquiries.  This means that it usually takes at least 4-5 months to
"get in and get out" if you just want to buy the minimum one disc and still
reap all your free ones.

--ARE THE "FREE" DISCS REALLY FREE?
No, not really.  Every disc (free or not) has shipping and sometimes tax
charges added on.  The prices for "free" discs usually range from $1.51 to
$1.91.  Still not a bad deal, though :-)

--HOW MUCH DO THE "REGULAR" DISCS COST?
Usually more than you'd find them for in the stores.  "Full" BMG price is
usually $15.95 or so.  However, once you buy your required disc, you'll
receive frequent specials, like "Buy 3 at half price, get 1 free" type of
deals.

--WHAT'S THE SELECTION LIKE?
First of all, you ARE technically locked into a specific "category" of
music... you receive only one special catalog per month, like "Easy
Listening," "Hard Rock," "Classical," etc.  However, ALL catalogs (to my
knowledge) contain some selections from the other catalogs, so you still get a
pretty decent choice of stuff.  The overall selection is not as great as the
Columbia House club, but then again, you're paying a LOT less than the
Columbia House club requires, so don't complain :-)  If you want REALLY good
selection and reasonable prices, go with a mail order CD company.  My personal
favorites are "NOTEWORTHY MUSIC" for best prices, "CD DIRECT" for best service
and selection.  Call directory assistance for numbers.

--ARE THE BMG DISCS ACTUALLY MANUFACTURED BY BMG?
That's a good question.  I'm inclined, however, to say yes, since many of the
CD's I've gotten through that company have little white labels in the corners
with the BMG logo and address on them.  BMG DOES, however, guarantee the
quality of their discs, so you shouldn't worry too much about that.

--HOW DO I SIGN UP?
Many magazines (Playboy, Scientific American, others) have frequent inserts
from BMG from which you can order.  However, you will not be able to see a
wide number of selections to start your membership with.  I'd advise that you
find a friend in BMG to sign up with instead.  That way, you can browse
through your friend's more extensive catalog AND your friend will get a bonus
2 or 3 CD's for their "recruitment."  That way, everybody wins :-)

--HOW DO I CONTACT BMG?
They used to have an 800 number, but have since discontinued it.  I'm not
familiar with their other number, but I do know that BMG is located in
Indianapolis, IN, and so it should be no problem getting their phone number
from directory assistance.

--DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO RETURN THE DARN "RESPONSE" FORM THINGIES EVERY MONTH?
For a while, you probably will.  However, I've heard that through repeated
written and/or phone bugging, people have coerced BMG into putting them on a
"positive response" pattern -- in other words, these lucky souls didn't have
to bother with sending back the response form even when they didn't want the
selection of the month.  They only have to return the postcards when they
actually WANT something.  What a revolutionary idea :-)  The other way I've
heard of people getting on "positive response" patterns is to repeatedly ship
back "unwanted" feature-of-the-month responses.  Frankly, this seems a bit
rude to me, and possible counter-productive, so I'd encourage the utilization
of the first method instead :-)

--WHAT IF I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT BMG?
You can either contact them by phone, or you can post questions publicly here,
or privately to me in e-mail.  As I mentioned, I've been involved (NOTE:  as a
CUSTOMER... no other affiliation) with BMG for a long time, and so could
probably answer your questions.

Happy Late New Year, everyone... and happy CD purchasing :-)

--ADAM "KEYS" LASNIK from Northwestern University

P.S. -- I wonder when we'll see the first "DAT-of-the-month" club <g>
Newsgroups: misc.consumers