New Savings Program
Indigo Music & Books is now offering a program like that of Amazon Prime and Newegg Premier
for $39 per year to Canadians.
A “Plum Plus” membership includes “an extra 10% on almost everything”, access to exclusive discounts and promotional events, free shipping on most items (excludes heavy and bulky items) and 5 bonus “Plum points” on every dollar (with exemptions on eBooks, electronics and related accessories, American Girl® services, LEGO® Mindstorms, plum PLUS memberships, gift cards, Love of Reading products/donations, shipping costs, the plum points redemption portion of a transaction, taxes, and “any other items specified as exclusions from time to time”).
This would be a great option if you buy vinyl records or music biographies
frequently from them. But unfortunately, online activation is not available yet so most will need to upgrade their membership in-store.
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Free eBooks & Audiobooks
Amazon.ca is now offering free book downloads to Prime Members and I thought i’d also point you to other free sources for reading material:
- Archive.org – Over 2.5 million free public domain eBooks/audiobooks
- Bookboon.com – Educational eBooks
- Digitalbook.io – Over 1000,000 free eBooks
- Free Classical Audiobooks – Free classic literature audiobooks in mp3 format
- Hoopla Digital – Free eBooks and audiobooks via your local public library and the Hoopla app for iPhone/iPad or android devices
- Learn Out Loud – Free educational audiobooks
- Librivox – Free audiobooks
- Loyal Books – Free eBooks and audiobooks
- Manybooks.net – Over 26,000 eBooks
- Open Culture – Hundreds of free audiobooks and eBooks
- Project Gutenberg – Over 59,000 eBooks
- Rokuten Overdrive – Free eBooks and audiobooks via your local public library and the Libby app for iPhone/iPad or android devices
- Story Nony – Free Audio stories for kids
Enjoy.
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World Book Day 2019
It’s World Book Day so I thought i’d write about what books I read the most. And of course these are usually music biographies and books on Canadian music history and the music industry itself.
When it comes to music biographies, my favourites are usually autobiographies or semi-autobiographies like “Freddie Mercury: His Life in His Own Words” by Greg Brooks and Simon Lupton, “My Story, My Dream” by Celine Dion, “U2 by U2” by U2, “Somebody To Love?: A Rock & Roll Memoir” by Grace Slick, “Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock & Roll” by Ann & Nancy Wilson, “Lips Unsealed: A Memoir” by Belinda Carlisle, “Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir” by Pat Benatar and “I am Ozzy” by Ozzy Osbourne.
The first music biography I had purchased was David Frike’s “Animal Instincts”, the official but unfortunately now out of print Def Leppard biography I had ordered using a coupon from my “Hysteria” cassette in the late 80’s. And although I have bought the odd unofficial Abba, Alanis Morissette and Freddy Mercury biographies, I prefer official releases from the artists themselves.
My very favourite Canadian music related books are usually about its history, like “The History of Canadian Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Bob Mercereau, “Is This Live?: Inside the Wild Early Years of MuchMusic: The Nation’s Music Station” by former Much Music VJ and “Black Velvet” composer Christopher Ward, “Music from Far and Wide: Celebrating 40 Years of the JUNO Awards” by various authors and “Oh Canada What a Feeling: A Musical Odyssey” by Martin Meluish. But unfortunately my favourite Canadian charting reference material from Nanda Lwin, namely “Top 40 hits: The essential chart guide” and “Top Albums: The Essential Chart Guide” can now only be found at certain public libraries, along with Rick Jackson’s “Encyclopedia of Canadian, Rock, Pop and Folk Music”.
Those are great resources if you’re looking for information on the Canadian music scene from the 1960’s to 2000’s and i’m happy to have secured copies of these books before they went out of print.
Another one of my out of print faves is the second edition, second printing of “Some Straight Talk About The Music Business” by Mona Coxson, one of the few books that explained the Canadian music industry’s inner workings before the release of “The Indie Band Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Breaking a Band” by Moist guitarist Mark Makoway in 2001.
“Music, Money, and Success: The Insider’s Guide to the Music Industry” by Jeffrey and Todd Brabec had covered the Canadian industry, in general. But this was a book that concentrated on the American and international music businesses.
I highly recommend the newly released 8th Edition of that book to anyone who wants to know how the industry now works, along with Steve Knopper’s “Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age” to know what went wrong in the 1990’s and 2000’s.
Those are pretty much my very favourite music related books in my personal library.
I hope that you will find these recommendations interesting.
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Music Book Offers & More
Indigo’s 5X Plum Point Offer may be expiring on the 12th of July, 2018. But their Free Shipping Offer On Books continues, all summer with no minimums. This would be a great opportunity to purchase music biographies, sheet music collection, music theory and other instructional books.
Prime Day will also happen on the 16th and 17th on Amazon.ca, so keep an eye out for deals on books, music, musical instruments and turntables. To get a free trail membership, click on the banner below.
Please note that a Buy 2 Get One Free offer on paperbacks is also available from American retailer Barnes & Noble. This offer will end on July 31st, 2018.
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Canada Day – Recommended Reading
It’s Canada’s 150th and Montreal 375th anniversary this year so I thought I’d recommend some of my favorite Canadian music history books:
– “Oh What A Feeling – The Next Generation” by Martin Melhuish
Originally released in conjunction with a four-CD compilation to commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Juno Awards, “Oh What A Feeling – A Vital History of Canadian Music” featured a year by year chronological account of Canada’s music history as well as information on the Juno Awards from 1971 to 1996.
“The Next Generation” is an updated version that was released in 2014, with additional information relating to upcomming artists, notable births and deaths, Hall Of Fame inductees and Juno Award Winners. Available from Amazon.ca / Amazon.com / Chapters-Indigo
– “Music From Far and Wide” – by multiple authors
This official Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences book was released in 2010 to celebrate the Juno Award’s 40th Aniversary and provides an in-depth history of the organisation and creation of the Juno Awards, with a list of Juno Award winners up to 2010 as well as a listing of Board of Directors from 1975 to 2010.
This book can be found at some local book stores, at Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.
– “Is This Live?” by Christopher Ward
As the Nation’s music station, Much Music had been the epicenter for music in Canada from the mid-1980’s to mid-1990’s. And this book by VJ and songwriter Christopher Ward not only discusses the history of the station but makes notes of many events that occurred at the infamous 899 Queen Street West.
This is a must for Canadian fans of 80’s music. Available from Amazon.ca / Amazon.com / Chapters-Indigo
– “Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia” by Jaimie Vernon
Originally released as the “Encyclopedia of Canadian Rock Pop & Folk Music” in 2004 by Rick Jackson, this artist by artist account of Canadian music history has now become a multiple volume compilation, the first two listing artists alphabetically from “A Thru K” and “L thru Z“, respectively, and a recent celebration of the country’s “Vinyl Years“.
Published in 2011, the first two volumes include information on specific artists (brief history and discography) up to 2010 whilst the third volume concentrates on artists whose vinyl releases were popular up to 1996. All three volumes are available from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.
– “Top 40 Hits” / “Top Albums” by Nanda Lwin
These reference guides list the chart activity of domestic and international artists in Canada up to 1999 for singles and 2003 for albums. These are of course a must for people who are interested in Canadian music history and altough they are out of print, you can still find “Top 40 Hits” at Alibris, Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. And other chart information can be obtained from the RMP database on Library and Archives Canada and from a blog simply entitled “Canadian Music Blog“, which also contains a wealth of chart information including the best selling singles and albums by year and decade.
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Discount Offer On Books
Chapters/Indigo is offering an additional 10% discount on books to iRewards and Plum Rewards members until 3 AM EST June 18th, 2015. Membership is free. Details can be found by clicking here
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