From hungary-online-owner Thu Sep 7 00:14:53 1995 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id AAA01203 for hungary-online-announce-out31415; Thu, 7 Sep 1995 00:14:53 -0700 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id AAA01193; Thu, 7 Sep 1995 00:14:40 -0700 Received: from steve@isys.hu () via =-=-=-=-=-= for hungary-online-announce@hungary.yak.net (1191) Received: from kingzog.isys.hu (KingZog.isys.hu [194.24.160.4]) (fnord) by nando (8.6.5/8.6.5) with ESMTP id AAA01188 for ; Thu, 7 Sep 1995 00:14:18 -0700 Received: from [194.24.160.22] (bubba.isys.hu [194.24.160.22]) by kingzog.isys.hu (8.7.Beta.11/8.7.Beta.11) with SMTP id JAA14379 for ; Thu, 7 Sep 1995 09:13:38 +0200 (MET DST) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 1995 09:13:38 +0200 (MET DST) X-Sender: steve@mail.isys.hu Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: hungary-online-announce@hungary.yak.net From: steve@isys.hu (Steven Carlson) Subject: (HOL-A) CDnow review Sender: owner-Hungary-Online-announce@hungary.yak.net Precedence: bulk Reply-To: Hungary-Online@hungary.yak.net This is a piece I wrote this summer for the Budapest Business Journal. They've been asking me for more practical pieces - news you can use. So I decided to review business-related Internet sites. This particular site is very imaginative. I like the idea of selling CDs centered around a community that reviews music, discusses music, lives and breathes music. Hope you enjoy the piece. =steve= -- CDnow hungary-online by Steven Carlson When you think about it, the Net is a sensible place to sell music. Music is information. Our grandchildren will surely snicker when they hear that way back in 1995 we still bought and sold music in _boxes_. So let's pretend I open up an Internet music store. Since it's 1995, I would still have to physically mail you your music in a package called a compact disk. But over the Net I could also let you sample a few tracks. And that's just the beginning. After all, the notes and chords aren't all there is to music. If you're a fan you want to read up about the band, learn the lyrics to your favorite songs and maybe swap trivia with other fans. Internet can deliver this and more. The network should also let me sell CDs for less. Like a mail order warehouse I don't pay the overhead of running a storefront. Internet is a cheaper way of communicating than either the postal mail or a toll free number. Yet the Internet is also a marketing medium. One of the most efficient ways of publicizing my Internet CD store is the Internet itself. But don't expect me to open shop soon - there's already plenty of competition. On a recent search I discovered five Internet CD shops. That may not sound like much, but consider - how many CD shops can the Internet support? By leveraging their volume to cut prices, a handful of superstores could probably satisfy the market. Of the five Internet CD shops I researched, by far the best is CDnow. In all categories this service excels. However I have just one little gripe. It took me at least three minutes to open the CDnow homepage because of all the graphics. First impressions matter. Even more so on the Internet, considering the glut of information available. That means if you can't attract a user's interest immediately you may never have a second chance. And one of the best way to turn users away is to fill your homepage with fancy graphics that take agonizing minutes to download. Pictures are pretty, but not when you have to wait. Of course, if you're sitting on a fast corporate or academic network then downloading these kinds of images takes only seconds. Unfortunately most of us are working over a telephone line with a 14.4 Kbs modem, and sites with big graphics are an instant turnoff. Fortunately CDnow offers you a text-only way of browsing their site, and for the sake of this review that's what I chose. I know - the whole point of the World Wide Web is blending text and graphics, but I'm impatient. I should point out that I'm writing this review while dialed into Hungary's academic Internet, which is already so overburdened that throughput slows to a crawl during the busy afternoon hours. Once you get past the pictures, CDnow offers you a well thought out, content-rich system. This content seperates CDnow from its competitors. The first page offers you a variety of options. You can browse the Top 25, surf the New Releases, or check out what's on sale. You can also run a search on an artist, an album or song title, or a record label. Once you find your CD, you get more than just a price. You also get artist biographies, discographies and brief album reviews. Thanks to a feature called the All-Music Guide you can get this information even if the title is not available for sale. The All-Music Guide started as a Internet-based database of ratings and reviews compiled by more than 200 freelance music and film writers. Yet the project was voluntary and unfunded, and needed a home. So they struck a deal with CDnow that lets AMG maintain editorial integrity while adding value to the commercial service. Yet the AMG resources are enourmous, and extend far beyond the scope of CDnow. Is there a better way to attract music fans to your Internet CD shop? The next step in CDnow's evolution will be forums in which fans can meet each other. According to the designers this will happen in the near future. CDnow also has a clever way of making sure you pay a return visit. You can subscribe to any over several free email newsletters that cover a variety of musical tastes and interests. This is exactly opposite of junk mail, because the receipt actually chooses to receive the information. Furthermore the marketing value of these newsletters is directly related to their information content. In other words, the more useful the newsletter, the more incentive the reader has to return to CDnow. Best of all are the prices. The average CD at CDnow costs about $13, compared to about $20 in Hungary. Of course, you have to pay shipping and handling, but these charges are reasonable: $12.95 for the first three items; $1.99 for the next three items; and $1.50 for each additional item. I asked CDnow about Hungarian customs and handling. They didn't know the exact costs, but figured it wasn't too bad. They've only had four orders from Hungary but they were all high volume. Shipping seems to take about two weeks. CDnow http://cdnow.com Simply the best prices and content. They're undergoing a major redesign that will include music forums, sound libraries and cover art. CD World http://cdworld.com A close second. They have over 100,000 CDs in stock. They accept non-US orders. CD Express http://branch.com:1080/cdexpress/ Very cheesy home page: "Your key to the entertainment highway!" Only 20,000 CDs in stock. Will ship outside the US. CD Europe telnet://cdeurope.com The slow, telnet-only interface is a real turnoff. They claim to have 300,000 CDs on stock. Might be worth checking out if you're interested in non-US titles. Noteworthy http://netmarket.com/nm/pages/home Full of monster graphics that take ages to download. I confess - I got so disgusted after ten minutes I gave up. --- Steven Carlson iSYS Hungary info@isys.hu steve@isys.hu http://www.isys.hu ############# # This message to Hungary-Online-announce@hungary.yak.net # was from steve@isys.hu (Steven Carlson) # # To unsubscribe, # send "unsubscribe" to # For a full subscription (rather than this announcement-only subscription) # mail "subscribe" to # Send mail to for more information, # or to if you need human assistance. #############