Great Albums Cheap: $5 MP3 Downloads from Amazon; $7.99 CDs from J&R

Left: The National's "The Boxer" is one of J&R's $7.99 CDs.

Getting great music at a good price is welcome anytime, but even moreseo at the end of the month when money is tight. Here's a last-call on the Amazon.com $5 MP3 album salefor September (which you could have bought anytime during the month, of course) as well as a new $7.99 CD sale that J&R is offering on hundreds of indie titles from the Warner Music Group labels.

The Amazon.com $5 MP3 album sale, as always, includes mostly rock and pop but also other genres, and includes new, recent, older, and ancient titles. Some popular titles: "Battle Studies" by John Mayer, "Little Voice" by Sara Bareilles, "I and Love and You" by the Avett Brothers, "In the Wee Small Hours" by Frank Sinatra, the self-titled album by the Court Yard Hounds, The Garden State movie soundtrack, and "Parachutes" by Coldplay.

The J&R $7.99 indie CD sale features albums old and new by groups like the New Pornographers, Mudhoney, Guided by Voices, Neko Case, The Shins, The National, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Yo La Tengo, Fleet Foxes, Arcade Fire, Pixies, Constantines, Vampire Weekend, and many more.

In many cases J&R has several albums available from these artists, so if you still buy CDs this can be a good chance to build up your library.