Six Things To Know Before Joining A CD Club

(1) The BMG Music Club offers the best deal you'll find online, which is receiving 11 CDs for the price of shipping ($2.79 each) when you buy one CD at full club price, which is typically about $15 plus shipping. However, the selection may not be as extensive as its chief competitor, Columbia House, which has many of its own exclusive artists. If you purchase only the minimum, you will pay just $4 per CD at BMG and about $8 per CD at Columbia House.

(2) When you join the club, you will receive a catalog in the mail about every three weeks, along with a postcard that highlights a "featured" selection in the genre you selected when you joined (e.g., rock, country, jazz, classical, Christian, rap, pop, Latin). You must return this postcard by the due date or the club will send you the featured selection. You can now decline (or accept) your featured selection online, however, by logging into your CD club account. This makes the process much, much easier. Once you have been a member for a while, you also can call the clubs and ask them to change your membership from an "order-only" option, or from "negative option" to "positive option." This just means you won't have to return the card.

(3) If you forget to return the card and receive a CD you don't want, the clubs are good about letting you return it. But the beauty of this system for the clubs is that this happens often enough and many people don