Thousands of MP3 Albums for $5 (or Less) at Amazon.com

The latest Dum Dum Girls album is one of thousands now on sale for $5 or less at Amazon.com

If you're looking for last-minute holiday gifts for folks on your shopping list (or don't think you'll get the music you want), head over to Amazon.com's music store. It's now having several sales running that together mean thousands of MP3 albums for $5 or less. First off, you can check the more than 1,000 albums for $5 each (this deal is good through the end of January).

If you include the many EPs they're offering at that price, it means there are more than 23,000 MP3 albums for less than five bucks,Amazon says.

Among the 1,000 MP3 albums for five dollars in the alternative and indie rock category (228 albums in all):

• "The Head and the Heart" self-titled
• "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes
• "Cults" self-titled
• "Civilian" by Wye Oak
• "Smoke Ring for My Halo" by Kurt Vile
• "Wild Flag" self-titled
• "Slave Ambient" by The War on Drugs
• "Only in Dreams" by Dum Dum Girls
• "Let England Shake" by PJ Harvey
• "Divine Providence" by Deer Tick
• "Last Summer" by Eleanor Friedberger

… as well as the deluxe version of Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" and albums by the Avett Brothers, Blitzen Trapper, Arctic Monkeys, Tokyo Police Club, Superchunk, Girl in a Coma, and Yuck.

In the just-plain-ol'-rock category, some of the choices include:

• "New Blood" by Peter Gabriel (his reinterpretation of his own songs, with orchestra)
• "Endgame" by Rise Against
• "Duluth" by Trampled by Turtles
• "Disintegration (Remastered)" by The Cure
• "Is This It" by The Strokes

… and albums by the Black Crowes, Green Day, Cowboy Junkies, Drive-By Truckers, Lindsey Buckingham, and many more.

There are also classic rock, pop, R&B, and other genres.

Odd name, odd album cover, good music: Yuck's self-titled album is one of the $5 editors' choices.

If you're not inclined to go searching through the thousands of albums, you can check out Amazon.com's editors' picks of $5 MP3 albums, which winnows down the list of 1,000. It's a diverse bunch, from Phoexix and Wye Oak to Leonard Cohen, Eminem, The Who, and the soundtrack to "The Sound of Music."

Also, for Dec. 24th only, Amazon.com is offering 10 of the year's most popular albums for only $3.99 each. The albums include "Lioness: Hidden Treasures,"the posthumous Amy Winehouse album; the She & Him Christmas album;"Ceremonials" by Florence and he Machine;and "The King is Dead" by The Decemberists.

I hope you get (or got) what you wanted for the holidays, musically speaking. If not, check out the thousands of sale albums above. There are at least five or six I'm definitely buying...

Music Notes: Fugazi Releasing Live Archive, Last Call for Amazon's Nov. $5 MP3 Albums, & More

* Fugazi live archive set to launch: Fugazi fans, your wait is almost over. the Washington, D.C. band that has been on hiatus for eight years has been working on making its archive of 800 live shows available for sale, and the recordings are set to start being released on Dec. 1st.
According to the Fugazi website, "Over time each of these recordings will be made available to download for a small fee and will be presented beside available photos, flyers and general show info."

If you already have a Dischord account, you may be able to access the Fugazi Live Series in beta before Dec. 1st.

Fugazi's last album, "The Argument,"was released in 2001.



Fugazi performing "Turnover" live in 1991.

* Amazon.com's $5 MP3 album sale: Amazon.com's $5 MP3 albums for Novemberexpires in a few days; here are some of the titles you can find on sale for the rest of the month:

"A Very She & Him Christmas" by She & Him
"Fallen" by Evanescence
"Thickfreakness" by The Black Keys
"The Best Of Joss Stone 2003 - 2009" by Joss Stone
"Lights" (Amazon MP3 Exclusive Version) [+Digital Booklet] by Ellie Goulding
"Wild Flag" by Wild Flag
"The Bends" by Radiohead
"Ten Years Gone The Best Of Everclear 1994-2004" by Everclear
"Seeds We Sow (Amazon MP3 Exclusive Version)" by Lindsey Buckingham
"Skying" by The Horrors
"Jeff Bridges" (Amazon Exclusive Version) by Jeff Bridges
"Panic of Girls" by Blondie
"The Knot" by Wye Oak

* Music industry heading for positive year?: The music industry could have its first rise in sales since 2004 if holiday sales are strong, says Billboard. The publication says that heading into Black Friday "year-to-date U.S. album sales were up 3.2%," and it's hoped that the trend will continue with strong late-year releases including "Take Care" by Drake, "Under the Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber, and new albums by Coldplay, Florence and the Machine, Tony Bennett, Jay-Z and Kanye West, and Taylor Swift.

Music Notes: Radiohead Plays Roseland, Arcade Fire Wins Polaris, $5 MP3 Albums

Radiohead video for "Lotus Flower" from their most recent album, "The King of Limbs."

Radiohead playing two shows at Roseland next week and Arcade Fire taking home the Polaris Prize headline this latest edition of Music Notes. Also in this edition: last call for Amazon.com's $5 MP3 album salefor September.  

* Radiohead is returning to New York for two shows at Roseland Ballroom on Sept. 28th and 29th. Roseland isn't exactly an intimate setting, but it's much smaller than the arenas the band is capable of selling out. There have been a couple of presales for the shows, but if you misssed out on those you can get Radiohead at Roseland tickets here at 10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 26th.

All tickets are priced at $79.75 ($65 base price plus $14.75 in fees).

Note: an announcement on Radiohead's website says: "There is a 2 ticket limit per household. All tickets will be available for pick up at will call the evening of the event beginning at 6:30 PM and entry into the venue is required immediately upon receipt. No tickets shall be distributed prior to the event."

You can also get a shot at winning tickets to the concerts by contributing to L.A. radio station KCRW (a very worthy cause). Enter for a chance to win Radiohead at Roseland tickets here (enter by 3 p.m. Eastern time on Monday).

Also on the bill with Radiohead are Four Tet and rocketnumbernine.

* Arcade Fire took home the 2011 Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album, which could be considered something of an upset since the award prides itself on going to the most deserving candidate based only on artistic merit, regardless of commercial success. (In the past more well-known acts have lost out to relatively obscure artists; last year's winner, the francophone group Karkwa, beat out albums by Broken Social Scene, Tegan and Sara, and The Sadies.)

Big congrats to Arcade Fire on taking home the Polaris (and the $30,000 prize).

* Amazon.com's $5 MP3 album salefor September is in its final week. If you're looking to expand your music collection on the cheap, you'll find albums there by artists including Mumford & Sons, The Decemberists, Feist, Fitz & the Tantrums, Regina Spektor, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blind Pilot, Surfer Blood, Richard Buckner, and TV on the Radio.

Are you going to try to get tickets to see Radiohead at Roseland next week? What shows are folks exciting to see this weekend?

Cheap Music Bonanza: Amazon.com has 1,500 $5 MP3 Albums for May

The acclaimed album by Mumford & Sons is one of Amazon's 1,500 $5 MP3 albums for May.

This may be a serious strain on my music budget: Amazon.com is offering 1,500 MP3 albums for $5 for the month of May, way up from its usual selection of 100 titles. As usual, most titles are in the rock or pop genres, but the expanded number of number of titles means there's a much larger choice in genres like jazz (which has 500, Amazon says).

Here's just a hint of some of the titles available in May's 1,500 MP3 albums for $5 (some titles appear in multiple categories):

Indie & Alternative Rock:  
Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons * Civilian and If Children by Wye Oak * The Suburbs, Neon Bible, and Funeral by Arcade Fire * The King of Limbs by Radiohead * Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes * Dye It Blonde by Smith Westerns * Swoon and Pikul by Silversun Pickups * North Hills by Dawes * Sound Of Silver by LCD Soundsystem * Monster by R.E.M. * Transference, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and Gimme Fiction by Spoon * Majesty Shredding by Superchunk * The Stage Names by Okkervil River * You're Living All Over Me by Dinosaur Jr. * Eureka by Mother Mother * Love Notes/Letter Bombs by The Submarines

Classic Rock:  
Music from Big Pink by The Band * Shape Of Things - The Very Best Of by The Yardbirds * Zuma by Neil Young and Crazy Horse * Band Of Gypsys (Live) by Jimi Hendrix * Hunky Dory by David Bowie * News Of The World by Queen * Buffalo Springfield by Buffalo Springfield * Black and Blue by The Rolling Stones * Fool For The City by Foghat * Live at Leeds (25th Anniversary Edition) by The Who * Nobody Can Dance by Big Star

Some other titles you might be interested in: Fight For Your Mind by Ben Harper * Magnolia Soundtrack by various artists * Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? by Metric * Ellipse by Imogen Heap * Innervisions (Reissue) by Stevie Wonder * Insomniac by Green Day * It's Blitz! by Yeah Yeah Yeahs * Behind The Sun by Eric Clapton * Pieces Of The Sky (Remastered) by Emmylou Harris

Last Call for Amazon.com $5 MP3 Albums for Feb.: Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs," The Black Keys, The Smiths, Sara Bareilles, & Much More

Arcade Fire's Grammy-winning "The Suburbs" is on sale for  $5 on MP3 download for the rest of February.

It's coming down to the final days of Amazon.com's $5 MP3 albums for February, so I thought I'd post a reminder of some of the notable releases on the list. One is a new, and newly honored, album: Arcade Fire's Grammy-winning "The Suburbs."

Also on the list of Amazon.com $5 MP3 albums for the rest of February:

* Alt-rock, indie-rock, and Americana albums including the Avett Brothers live, "Thickfreakness" by The Black Keys, "Little Voice" by Sara Bareilles, "Once" movie soundtrack, "Begin To Hope" by Regina Spektor, "Revival" by Gillian Welch, "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" by Sarah McLachlan,

* "The Queen is Dead" by The Smiths, "13 Songs" by Fugazi, Buffalo Springfield's self-titled album, "69 Love Songs Volume 2" by The Magnetic Fields, Erasure's self-titled album, "Crimes Of Passion" by Pat Benatar, and "Shake It Up" by The Cars

Great Music Cheap: 1,000 MP3 Albums for $5 from Amazon.com

The Broken Bells' self-titled album is one of 1,000 MP3 albums on sale for $5 through January.

Amazon.com is having another album download blowout in January, offering 1,000 MP3 albums for $5 eachtill the end of the month.

As usual, they span many genres but emphasize rock and pop, and there are new releases as well as older ones. See the 1,000 MP3 albums for $5 eachhome page for categories such as alternative and indie rock, pop, classic rock, greatest-hits collections, classical, country, dance and electronica, folk, soundtracks, and more.

You can also browse the selection of some of the best albums of 2010 for $5 each, including the latest albums by Broken Bells, Band of Horses, MGMT, Local Natives, Best Coast, Weezer, Land of Talk, Liz Phair, and Jesca Hoop.

It's a great selection of albums, and it's easy on the budget (as long as you don't buy too many, that is).

Great Music Cheap: MP3 Albums for $5 (and Less) from Amazon.com

Radiohead's "The Bends" is one of Amazon.com's $5 MP3 albums for November.

Amazon.com is offering its usual slate of 100 or so $5 MP3 albums this month, but I noticed that they also have a big selection of MP3 albums for prices ranging from $3.99 to 4.99.

Like the $5 album selection, this lower-price collection spans all genres and includes new releases as well as older albums. Unlike the $5 MP3 albums, there isn't any apparent period of time that the prices are good for, so you might want to snap these up in case they're only available for a short time.

Amazon.com $5 MP3 albumsfor November:

• Funeral by Arcade Fire
• Fantasies by Metric
• Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan by Sarah McLachlan
• Be My Thrill by The Weepies
• The Bends by Radiohead
• The Story by Brandi Carlile
• Dark Night of the Soul by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse
• The Best of Warren Zevon by Warren Zevon
• Eye to the Telescope by KT Tunstall
• On the Beach by Neil Young
• The Other Side Of Zero by Elizabeth & the Catapult
• Suzanne Vega Close-Up, Vol 1, Love Songs by Suzanne Vega
• Swim by Caribou
• Genius of Live by Tom Tom Club (featuring more than 10 remixes of "Genius of Love")
• and, as you'd expect for this time of year, a number of pop Christmas albums, including ones from Bob Dylan and Bette Midler

Amazon.com $3.99 to $4.99 MP3 albums:

• Lungs by Florence + the Machine
• Holy Roller Novocaine by Kings of Leon
• Acoustic by Lights
• Pete Yorn by Pete Yorn
• Strobe by Deadmau5
• Happy Sad by Tim Buckley
• The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground
• Damn the Torpedoes by Tom Petty
• Rainwater Cassette Exchange by Deerhunter
• It's Blitz and Yeah Yeah Yeahs by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Maya by MI.A.
• The Union by Elton John & Leon Russell
• Recovery by Eminem
• The Place We Ran From by Tired Pony