More Pop for Your Pounds - Top 5 Amazon Tips for Music Lovers

Do you prefer to crank up your tunes on CD, LP or MP3?
However you choose to listen to music, getting hold of it has never been easier thanks to online entertainment outlets such as Amazon. Its website makes it easy to choose a soppy CD as a gift for Mother's Day, download the catchy new single by your favourite band, pick up some bargain DVDs for good measure and pay securely for items without leaving your chair.

Amazon is one of the biggest online music retailers around. They also have a terrific, feature-packed website for music lovers, making it easy to sift through the massive selection of music on offer and find bargains - whether you're looking for the latest chart CD or an obscure and out-of-print vinyl record. Here are my top five tips for making the most of these features and getting your hands on your favourite music at incredible prices.

1. Recommendations Are Thoroughly Recommended

Amazon offers an extremely fine-tuned system for recommending music and other items that you might like, and its list of recommended items grows and develops as you make purchases and explore their site. Make use of this. It's a great way to discover new music and find great deals on the artists you already know and love.

You can also give Amazon a ‘helping hand' in finding recommendations for you. Sharing more information about your musical tastes means that the site will come back with increasingly fruitful results, which means more cracking tunes for your MP3 player. If you own an album or single but didn't buy it from Amazon, you can let its recommendations system know that you've got it and also give it a rating out of five. You can also rate items that you've previously purchased through the site.

Have you purchased an album and later decided that you don't like it? Tell Amazon to ignore it when working out recommendations. Simple.

2. Buy Used with Marketplace

Marketplace enables sellers from all across the world to display their new and used goods and sell them at any price they see fit. This often means that you can get something cheaper through Marketplace than through Amazon itself, especially if you're not bothered about getting your music brand new.

If you're buying a large amount of music at once, it's best to weigh up your Marketplace purchases against Amazon's own prices. What might seem like a steal could end up being more expensive than Amazon's price when you factor in paying postage to multiple sellers.

3. Use Wish Lists to Keep Track of Your Purchases

Wish Lists are designed to let others know what you'd like as a gift. This is great if you don't like surprises, but they're also incredibly useful as a way of keeping track of music that you might want to buy in the future.

You could, for example, have a Wish List entitled ‘Really Good Pop Albums', another called ‘Banging Beats and Rave Ups', and a third that we'll call ‘Chill Out Tunes'. You can refer back to these Wish Lists depending on what you're in the mood for, organise your purchases and keep track of fluctuating prices to make sure you get the best possible deal.

4. Follow Special Offers

Amazon is constantly selling thousands of great albums at bargain basement prices - keep checking back for special offers as the items on offer change regularly. You can find some excellent deals on end-of-line stock, and they're not going to be around forever!

5. MP3 for Free
Almost everyone is now offering their music as MP3 downloads, from up-and-coming artists to established names. Amazon has a dedicated download service to help you get hold of the most exciting music, quickly and easily.
Many artists are also giving you the chance to download their latest singles, selected album tracks, or even full albums - for free. Taking advantage of this makes discovering new music easy, and Amazon updates their selection of free music from the latest bands on a regular basis.