mp3 Archive

Google is currently offering “millions” of music singles for $0.49/track or $4.99/album. Usually this type of music sale is just a bunch of unwanted tracks but so far the selection for this sale is far and wide! The music is all DRM-free and can be used on any device including Apple devices (iPod, iPad, etc). To download the music, you can either do a browser download (limited to 2 times) or use Google Music Manager. The nice thing is that it appears the music will always be available in your Google Music Library and you can stream it anytime and/or download it to your device.

A warning: you will spend a lot of time browsing the millions of songs on the deal. From what I can tell, the songs on sale include every genre of music and seems to include all of today’s top hits.

Some of the artists/songs include (the whole albums are available too):

• Nirvana – Smells like Teen Spirit
• Hanukkah Music – this cd has 25 tracks so buy the cd for $4.99 – includes popular hits Dreidel and Dayenu
• Katy Perry – Last Friday Night
• Beastie Boys – No Sleep Til Brooklyn
• Rachel Stevens – Negotiate With Love
• LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
• Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby
• Other artists include: Guns ‘n Roses, Elton John and every other artist you could imagine

I am not sure how long this deal will be running for so make sure you grab the songs that interest you asap.

The most popular deal request I am asked for help with continues to be the Apple iPod Touch. Even with this year clearly being the year of the tablet, it seems like everyone still wants to get an iPod Touch as a gift for a friend, colleague or family member. Last week I learned that HTC offers a similar device called the “Flyer” which is like an iPod Touch except that it is based on Android instead of iOS – I wonder why this hasn’t seemed to catch on as of yet (at least it’s not a popular item on the deal boards.

Here are this week’s top deals for the iPod Touch – frankly the Amazon deal is the best one because, for most, there is no sales tax. The key is that you should absolutely not purchase the iPod Touch at the Apple Store – save the cash and use it for apps or music!

Best Buy – Here the deal is on the 8GB model – for $189 plus a free $30 Best Buy gift card. (deal details)

Amazon – It seems Amazon has matched the deal from Best Buy (they seem to be matching a lot of electronics prices as of late) – purchase the 8GB model at Amazon for $189 and get $30 to use towards MP3 songs from the Amazon Music Store. Smart move here by Amazon because it gets you to buy songs from Amazon versus from iTunes. (deal details)

Target – If you want a larger iPod Touch, Target will be your best option. Purchase the 32GB iPod Touch for $295 and get a $40 Target gift card. (this is an in-store deal)

I have a 8GB iPod Touch and I really like it for walking – the Galaxy Tab has replaced most of my at-home general game playing.

Continue reading “The Latest iPod Touch Holiday Deals” »

Last year the best Apple iPod Touch deals were around $229 – $40 gift cards. This year the deals are even better because Apple dropped their price on the iPod Touch to $199. Here are three of the best deals I’ve found so far on the device. The deals below are for the 8GB model and most have the white and black models.

UPDATE: Amazon has now listed the black iPod Touch 8GB as a “Lightning Deal” for 9PM PT this evening. No price is noted and the lightning deals usually go within seconds so you if you want one, you better have your mouse finger ready on the page at exactly 9PM PT. You can find the deal listed here – just keep scrolling until you get to 9PM (aff link).

Best Buy has the best deal so far – $194.99 and they throw in a $50 Best Buy gift card. The device is currently showing a sold out status but it is worth checking in today periodically as they have been known to replenish the supply throughout the day. (hey Best Buy webmaster, how about a short link or a URL to share that isn’t 2,000 characters?!?)

Target is offering the 8GB model for $195 with a $40 Target gift card.

Amazon has matched the price from another retailer on the 8GB model to $189.98. For most there is no sales tax and Amazon is throwing in a free $2 MP3 certificate (aff link).

All 3 retailers are offering free shipping so if your city charges an 8% tax rate, here’s how the deal works out:

• Best Buy – $210.59 – $50 = $160.59
• Target – $210.59 – $40  = $170.59
• Amazon – $189.98 – $2 = $187.98

If you want a guaranteed device, I’d go with the Target deal immediately. You can always return the item if Best Buy does open up more inventory.

Here’s an interesting offer that Amazon is making on some products for Amazon Prime members. If you aren’t in a rush to get your product, Amazon will give you a $1 coupon to use in their MP3 store instead of the free two-day shipping that comes with an Amazon Prime membership. The items will be delivered in 5-7 days which is the standard shipping option generally offered on an Amazon product.

It looks like this trade offer is only available in the U.S. and the coupons for the MP3 songs must be used by the end of January so I assume this offer will be available until the end of the year. You can read the full terms here.

My guess is that the products that will offer this shipping-for-mp3 trade will be those where Amazon has to use the real 2-day Fedex/UPS shipping rather than the ground shipping they use for a lot of their 2-day deliveries. For example, I ordered an ink cartridge for my Canon printer with 2-day shipping. The ink showed up in 2 days but was shipped from a very close location so Amazon was able to effectively ship it overnight to me (they shipped it after the first day) using the UPS Ground delivery method.

Someone on one of the deal boards said, “sell people Amazon Prime and then pay them not to use it.”

Earlier today Amazon announced the launch of their Cloud Drive service. Amazon describes the service, “these services (Cloud Drive plus their player apps for web and Android) enable customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac or PC, wherever they are. Customers can easily upload their music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and can save any new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to their Amazon Cloud Drive for free.”

MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka notes that the launch, “isn’t earth shaking”.

The Amazon Cloud Drive service comes with 5GB of storage at no cost. You can upgrade to 20GB for $20/year, 50Gb for $50/year and up to 1TB for $1,000/year. If you purchase a MP3 album on Amazon, you get a one-year upgrade to the 20GB level for free.

Here’s how to get the upgrade to 20Gb for only $0.69 — purchase the Trouty Mouth Glee album on Amazon. If Glee isn’t your cup of tea, you could purchase a Beethoven album for $0.89. The Glee album is already up to the #6 paid MP3 album on Amazon – let’s see if we can push it to #1!

The upgrade should be instantly added after you purchase an album. Here’s the email I received after I purchased the Beethoven album, “Thanks to your recent purchase of an Amazon MP3 album, you have qualified for a free year of the Amazon Cloud Drive 20 GB storage plan starting today for one year. You can find details about Cloud Drive at: (url removed). This storage plan is not set to renew automatically and will be reverted back to the free 5 GB plan at the end of the promotion. If you have already upgraded your Amazon Cloud Drive account to a paid storage plan of 20 GB or higher when you qualified for this offer, this offer has been saved to your account as a $20 credit toward future Amazon Cloud Drive fees you may incur due to the renewal or upgrade of your existing plan. If you elect to downgrade your plan to a free plan at the time of renewal, your upgrade offer will be automatically applied to the 20 GB plan at that time.”
Continue reading “Here’s How To Get a 20GB Amazon Cloud Drive for $0.69” »

It sure looks like the newest generation of the Apple iPod Touch is the electronics item that has seen the most deals — both online and offline. More than ever I’ve noticed Amazon going head-to-head with Target. When Target has an electronics item on sale, Amazon appears to match the price nearly immediately.

I think these iPod Touch deals might be the last great buys of the year — certainly the last buys if you are planning to get the device for a Christmas gift.

Amazon is offering the 8gb iPod Touch for $205 with a free $25 Amazon gift card. This brings the net price down to $180 – this is $50 less than the Apple Store and if you include tax savings from buying on Amazon, the total savings is somewhere around $70. If you have a Prime shipping membership with Amazon, I think you should still be able to get the device home before Friday and certainly if you add in the extra $4 for overnight shipping.

This second deal isn’t for the deal newbie. If you do the legwork, you can get the 8gb iPod Touch for $162.50 + tax at Target. The deal requires some Target coupons and includes a gift card but if you are willing to do the legwork, this is the best deal overall. I still prefer the Amazon deal above because it’s easier and doesn’t require dealing with lines at the store and/or potential coupon issues. The deal instructions can be found on Your Best Source on the Net.

If you prefer BestBuy, they have the iPod Touch for $229 with a $50 Best Buy gift card. If you are one of their Reward Zone members, I believe you can also grab some free headphones. Remember with Best Buy you will pay sales tax on your purchase.

Side deal – if you need iTunes credits, BestBuy has $50 cards for $40 this week with free shipping. With all the iTunes gift card deals out there, please don’t pay full price buying direct on iTunes without a gift card.

Yesterday I noticed that QVC is selling a 8gb iPod Touch for a whopping $341 by including a bunch of “accessories”. I will do a post this week about the techniques QVC uses to sell electronics for big profit by creating bundles. It’s an interesting technique as they claim to have sold 7,500 of these iPod Touch packages this month.

Last month during Black Friday through Cyber Monday, I reported that Amazon was offering big discounts on the entire Apple iPod Touch line – most of the deals included an Amazon gift card which you could use for a later purchase.

Today Amazon is offering a latest-model 32gb iPod Touch for $269 plus a bonus $25 Amazon gift card. So the net price is $244 with free shipping and no tax for most (sorry Giants fans!). This is $55 less than purchasing the iPod Touch at the Apple Store and when you include tax for all at Apple Store, the total savings is about $80. That’s a lot of iTunes songs and Apps you can buy with that $80!

Amazon notes that the offer is good through December 18th or while supplies last so if you want one, I’d grab it now.