CDs/Vinyl from Flipkart and RhythmHouseOnline

[hkravin]

Hi,

What should be the reason behind huge price difference between Flipkart and Rhythmhouse CDs/Vinyls? :indifferent14:

I was looking for Stacey Kent in both , for example, "Breakfast On The Morning Tram" CD :

Flipkart price : Rs. 1046
Rhythmhouse : Rs .695

Regards,
HK/

 

[ajay124]

Flipkart pricing of CD's is beyond comprehension. It needs to be discounted by at least 60% to bring it to 'rational' levels

 

[cmsajith]

Probably flipkart is selling 12" CDs

 

[christian paul]

Most of Flipkarts music is sourced from foreign vendors - you may notice imported edition marked against the CD/LP. Sometimes, you may find the same title - one imported & the other locally sourced - priced differently (I have noticed the imported edition costs as much as 400% more). Nowadays, with the Rupee fluctuations, these rates also vary time to time.

Rhythm Houses catalogue consists of music sourced thru foreign companies, who have their presence in India - usually they import in bulk and supply throughout India and thats the reason for cheaper pricing.

 

[sups]

On the contrary, I have seen in many CDs, flipkart pricing to be less compared to that of Rhythm house pricing. For example:
Flipkart.com: So Beautiful Or So What: Music: English Audio CD 2011

and

So Beautiful or So What Rhythm House | Buy Online Music CD

 

[TaureanBull]

I am in 100% agreement with sups. Flipkart is cheaper than RH. All the LPs etc are sold at a discount of 10-20%. On the other hand, on RH its sold at MRP.

Yours might be a freak case.

 

[akd]

I am in 100% agreement with sups. Flipkart is cheaper than RH. All the LPs etc are sold at a discount of 10-20%. On the other hand, on RH its sold at MRP.

Yours might be a freak case.

very true. I have purchased from both (though at least 10 times more from flipkart), their prices are the bonus along with their excellent service. NO matter whats the situation they always listen to you with care and that serves the purpose.

Few days back I proposed to flipkart the following

When they are sourcing books,CDs from abroad with a processing fee (i guess duties, taxes etc.) then why not DVDs and blu-rays?? with a 10-15% processing fee blu-rays will become really affordable. Anyway if Amazon is doing it why not them?? of course peripheral issues are best known to them

Flipkart contacted me and said they are thinking in the same line, though there are issues which needs to be taken care of. I don't know its going to happen or not but I am glad some online shop made it a point to contact a mortal customer as tiny as me! which is quite a lot to me.

If we talk about English language Books/LPs/CDs/DVDs/Blu-rays, I don't know when our struggle to catch hold of something will end!! all my life I have only done one thing- struggle to get something which is considered to be a passe in the west side.

Arnab

 

[christian paul]

You guys are partially true. The music locally sourced by Flipkart is sold at 15-25% (sometimes 35%) less than that of sold by Rhythm House. However, when they are sourced from foreign vendors, it costs obscenely more.

For instance, at the Flipkart site, the Norah Jones Not too late music CD, sourced locally, costs Rs.334/- (15%) less than that quoted by Rhythm House. At the same time, the same CD sourced elsewhere (imported) costs as much as Rs.1467/-. (the locally sourced CDs too are imported by the foreign Music Companies who have their base in India and usually bear a sticker of the Company that imported the CDs along with the price in Indian Rupees)

At the Flipkart site, you would notice Imported marked against the CD/LP that are sourced from foreign vendors - usually it takes 8-21 business days for delivery. Whereas, the locally sourced CD/LP is marked In Stock - it takes 3 business days for delivery.

 

[ajay124]

christian paul

I think you have nailed the issue that it is only the imported CD's on Flipkart which have extremely high prices, whereas the locally sourced one's are reasonably priced. I have bought music, books and computer peripherals from Flipkart in the past and have always been satisfied by their pricing and service. It is only my recent browsing for imported western classical CD's on Flipkart which gave me a real shock!

What can be deduced from the link given below? There is no information or picture of the CD. Going by the price I presume it is a box set, but even the number of CD's in the box are not mentioned! Would anybody spend 4188 rupees on a blind buy?

Flipkart.com: 125th Anniversary-Emi Recordings: Music: CD

Today I bought a 21 CD set of EMI/Furtwangler from Rhythm House for 2995. A good price which matches the price being offered by Amazon UK. Flipkart has listed the same set for 4538.

Flipkart.com: Wilhelm Furtwangler: The Great EMI Recordings: Music: Audio CD

Wilhelm Furtwangler-The Great EMI Recordings Rhythm House | Buy Online Music CD

 

[reubensm]

Hey, dont discount the amount of time, effort and money saved by ordering on-line. I have to spend atleast Rs.70 on a litre of petrol to drive down to the nearest record shop in Trivandrum (and that too, in dense traffic). Ordering vinyl at flipkart is so easy. However, please compare prices before buying!

 

[christian paul]

If you are a regular customer with Rhythm house, they usually give a rebate on box sets or large orders; if you ask for it. You could also get music (that are not usually available) imported thru locally based foreign music companies at very reasonable prices - talk to Mr. Amir Curmally on the listed tele no. Provide them with the list of albums that you want along with the record labels, they usually revert within couple of days time about their availability and approximate cost.

On occasions, I found Flipkarts service very poor. Once they shipped a Indian Classical CD, when I had ordered a Jazz CD (curiously the title of the CDs were same). Eight of my orders were cancelled due Wrong Pricing. Sometimes you might find the listed CD cover in their catalogue and the product details are totally different - in case you order a CD on the basis of printed cover; you might get the wrong music. Once before ordering a Jazz CD based on their printed catalogue, I found that the product details (track listing) were that of RAP music. I checked with their Customer Service, they regretted the error and confirmed that it was a RAP music CD. They changed their catalogue after the incident.

The sole difference between Flipkart and Rhythm House is that, Rhythm House caters exclusively for Music and Movies. Flipkart does not know a heck about music - it does make wrong business sense to list a locally sourced music CD and a imported one costing 400-500% more in the same page of their catalogue. Since there is no stocking/inventory involved, they are just quoting the prices provided by their foreign vendors. Some customers could be taken for a long ride.

 

[ajay124]

The achilles heel of online music selling is the abysmal quality of information provided by the sellers about the music being sold. It can be taken for granted that the employees being hired to enter all the information on the online web site are completely ignorant about most of the music which they are listing. I doubt if they are capable of, or have any interest in, documenting all the information provided on the back cover of the CD's or Vinyl's.

Flipkart's listing of information about the music they are selling is shockingly bad. But even Rhythm House and Amazon are only marginally better. Providing exhaustive information about the music being sold may be tedious, time consuming and expensive for online sites but it needs to be done. It may not be possible for big companies like Flipkart and Amazon as they are selling so many things. But perhaps small and dedicated music sites would be able to compete better with Amazon/Apple if they served their customers better by providing comprehensive information about the CD's, DVD's and Vinyl which they are selling.

Perhaps it is only in western classical music, with its multiplicity of recordings, that one needs more information. These days I spend anywhere between 1-50 hours of surfing time digging up information from dozens of google searches before placing an order for a particular CD. It would save me a lot of time and trouble if the online sellers I buy from shared some of the hard work

 

[malvai]

^^ajay, tru elusivedisc.com

very comprehensive listing on ALL titles!

 

[ajay124]

manav

I have browsed elusive disc in the past. It is definitely a well thought out and attractive place to buy music online. But my impression is that they only sell vinyl and cd's which are priced at a premium because they are supposed to be 'audiophile' quality. Whereas I only buy 'mass market' CD's at 'non audiophile' prices

 

[kingajit]

Hey Guys,

thanks for your comments...Clearly looks like rhytmhouse is the preferred choice! Since I am residing overseas would be grateful if you guys could recommend any other online vendor who has a good collectin for desi music and reliable service...cheers

 

[josephjohnt]

Slightly OT. I have seen the issue with flipkart on books too. The picture and the titles don't match.
What i hate about flipkart's customer service is they dont give you any reference number for your query/complaint nor do they call back. Their standard response has been "Sir please check back in 24hrs." and they rectify the error in the background.