Music on Special Offer Thread?

Posted by: sjt on 14 December 2016

I am wondering if it would be legit to have a thread in here dedicated to music album downloads from legitimate retailers that are currently on special offer.

As an example I was just looking through the what are you listening to mega thread just now and came across the Melody Gardot record because someone was listening to it. I have wanted this for a while but it was always expensive (about 20 quid). On a whim I went over to a place I usually go to buy music downloads and by a blind stroke of luck it was on special offer at just over half price. Deluxe edition is cheaper than the standard edition! I bought it straight away.

So I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread dedicated to posting albums that are on special offer at the moment with not-so-subtle hints as to where you could get them from, when the offer expires and how much is knocked off etc, so people could see instantly anything that was on special. It would certainly be a thread I would come back to often.

I did a search and couldn't find anything like this in the forum, but usually the searches on these forums are rubbish so this is not a guarantee!

There might need to be a few rules, e.g. the poster has no affiliation with the seller, only legitimate download shops / sites etc.

Just a thought still in the half-bakery...

Posted on: 22 June 2018 by Jeroen20

There is a 15% sale at highresaudio.com. Valid untill July 7th.

Posted on: 22 June 2018 by sjt

Jeroen20 posted:
There is a 15% sale at highresaudio.com. Valid untill July 7th.

Thanks - I just bought Kraftwerk 3D The Catalogue with this. HRA was the cheapest I found without the 15% off so with the 15% off as well I could justify it!

Posted on: 24 June 2018 by Harry

I have looked at the German version. It says it's 44.1, which isn't HiRes. My English version is 24/48.

Posted on: 24 June 2018 by Nick Lees

Where did you get it from Harry? Qobuz is also 24/44.1

Posted on: 24 June 2018 by Harry

I ripped the BluRay version. I wouldn't mind it in German. I don't understand more than half of it but it just sounds right. Or at least it does to me.

I got Fleetwood Mac Deluxe, Days Of Future Past Live (in 16/44) and How The West Was Won from Hiresaudio today, for a good price thanks to the code.

Tthanks for sharing that Jeroen20

Posted on: 25 June 2018 by docbot

I thought that 24/44.1 can still be regarded as being HiRes as the bit depth is increased over CD (16 bit). I personally find I can hear the difference between 16 and 24 bit but struggle to tell the difference in sampling rate, although I do try to buy 96 and 192 kHz where I can!

Cheers

Mark

Posted on: 25 June 2018 by Nick Lees

Same here.

Posted on: 28 July 2018 by Jeroen20

There is a 15% discount at highresaudio.com. Valid untill august 12th.

Posted on: 28 July 2018 by AndyP19

Jeroen20 posted:
There is a 15% discount at highresaudio.com. Valid untill august 12th.

Well spotted. I often forget about HRA. Their offers section has a few gems and with the 15% discount they are very reasonable. In my (mixed) bag I picked up Chi Coltrane first album Norma Jenkins only album and two from Cosmic Jokers.

Posted on: 29 July 2018 by Nick Lees

Cosmic Jokers in High Res! Wow! My CDs are 90s Spalax (I suspect) needle drops. I'll give the first one a whirl. Cheers.

Posted on: 01 August 2018 by Bert Schurink

Posted on: 01 August 2018 by AndyP19

Thanks Bert, just trawling through this - looks like most of the stuff we saw last year.

It does make me laugh when they bill the Hi-Res at the price of an MP3. Well I don’t where they but their MP3s.

All said and done bound to be a few bargains. Long live rock n roll n qobuz.

Posted on: 01 August 2018 by sjt

Here is my pick so far from the Qobuz sale - I would buy this like a shot if I didn't already have it!

Carl Craig - Versus

£9.23 marked down from £16.49 for highres - looks like about pro rata for the cd quality

Posted on: 01 August 2018 by AndyP19

OK here's one currently selling in CD form on discogs at £26 but a mere £1.80 in the qobuz sale - nice pleasant music on a great theme.

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/al...l/0602527895048#item

I'm tempted but wavering even at that price and it's the sort of thing I would have jumped at a few years ago - reminds me of what Fareed Haque did with CSN&Y's Deja Vu.

So other than that after browsing through 85 pages (over 1,000 albums) on the 80% off section I'm struggling to find anything of merit.

Now on to the 50% section....

Posted on: 01 August 2018 by Bert Schurink

AndyP19 posted:
OK here's one currently selling in CD form on discogs at £26 but a mere £1.80 in the qobuz sale - nice pleasant music on a great theme.
https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/al...l/0602527895048#item
I'm tempted but wavering even at that price and it's the sort of thing I would have jumped at a few years ago - reminds me of what Fareed Haque did with CSN&Y's Deja Vu.
So other than that after browsing through 85 pages (over 1,000 albums) on the 80% off section I'm struggling to find anything of merit.
Now on to the 50% section....

Yeah it’s daunting to browse through, but sometimes you get on to something really new. The only tough thing is when they have stuff which I bought and the normal Qobuz price mostly just under 10 euros or 8 in some cases and then it get’s offered under 2 euros....

Posted on: 02 August 2018 by Nick Lees

It is indeed daunting, and mostly rubbish (though some good classical).

Though I found this hiding (it's Electronic NOT Punk!) and it's a snip at £4.31:

Jonathan Fitoussi & Clemens Hourriere - Five Steps

Posted on: 14 August 2018 by Dan Steel

Triple vinyl only £10.30 on Amazon.????

Posted on: 14 August 2018 by Eoink

Dan Steel posted:
Triple vinyl only £10.30 on Amazon.????

Thanks Dan, ordered.

Posted on: 14 August 2018 by Alley Cat

Bert Schurink posted:

On the face of it there seem to be some excellent offers but only if you know what you want!

One thing I really wish Qobuz would do is to indicate if you've actually purchased something before - I have bought lots of things impulsively, and haven't downloaded it all yet from previous sales (which is rather telling), but when I'm scratching my head if I bought something before or not it's annoying as I have to go through my purchases history which is many pages long.

I agree it's annoying when you see things you've paid full price for go a lot cheaper, but I think these sales must attract a lot of casual business, especially many CD quality with 80% off going for £1.80.

Posted on: 14 August 2018 by AndyP19

In the old days when your local record store had a sale it was one rack or a bin in the corner full of the stuff no one wanted. Ocassionally there was that esoteric album no one had heard of; resulting in a bargain. Now, as is the case with Qobuz you can fill hyper-space with gazillions of stuff no one wants.

Funny, I remember last day of school around 1976 going into my local record shop and spotting Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music for 50p in the sale rack. Taking it to the counter the guy said you really don't want to buy this put it back. Well no one was going to tell me what to do so I bought it. Double album with each side 16.01 minutes long and all four sides the same with side four containing a continous groove - I still have it to this day, but like Lou himself I've never played all four sides!

Posted on: 14 August 2018 by Alley Cat

AndyP19 posted:
In the old days when your local record store had a sale it was one rack or a bin in the corner full of the stuff no one wanted. Ocassionally there was that esoteric album no one had heard of; resulting in a bargain. Now, as is the case with Qobuz you can fill hyper-space with gazillions of stuff no one wants.
Funny, I remember last day of school around 1976 going into my local record shop and spotting Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music for 50p in the sale rack. Taking it to the counter the guy said you really don't want to buy this put it back. Well no one was going to tell me what to do so I bought it. Double album with each side 16.01 minutes long and all four sides the same with side four containing a continous groove - I still have it to this day, but like Lou himself I've never played all four sides!

That Lou Reed album is infamous.

The trouble with the Qobuz sale for me is that I think there are plenty of classical bargains there, I just don't really know what I'd want to buy, despite liking a lot of classical music - I either have versions of works I like or I don;t know them which then proves difficult requiring a listen (perhaps obvious) or looking at Amazon reviews to see if a given version is generally well received or has a muted review.

There is very little mainstream rock/pop there that I might buy, I suspect many artists are either less well known or perhaps more European in origin I may be wrong.

That said, there are some cheap compilations from quite classic artists I'd probably never buy at full price but might be worth a punt for £1.80 e.g. Marilyn Monroe, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ella & Louis etc - trouble is I bought some of these last year and have yet to listen to them.

Also as for the record store sales, I'd spend hours on end going through such stuff and would eventually pick things up more often than not as the cover looked interesting or it was maybe a renowned band I'd never purchased, but most things I really wanted I'd already bought.

Posted on: 15 August 2018 by Brilliant

prestoclassical has the 16/44.1 download at C$3.75!

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, etc. Product Image