Off the beaten track

Fed up of the crowds in high-street music stores? Or searching vainly for an obscure recording? Then why not try ordering CDs through the new on-line services

If you spend a disturbingly high proportion of your life wandering around record shops with absolutely no idea of what you're doing there, perhaps it's time you started buying on-line.

There are a number of advantages to buying records and CDs over the Internet: most obviously you have access to material that's unavailable in this country. But be prepared to do some serious looking around before you find your ideal virtual record shop. One shock is that none of the high- street chains have got their acts together (Tower Records has a website but doesn't yet offer a secure browser) - however, a plethora of specialist chains have more than filled the void.

Another boon is that you can search the shops' on-line data-bases; ideally, you should be able to give it the name of a song, and find out what album it's on. (I was able to discover, by searching the US site "CD Universe", that Julian Cope's Eighties hit "Charlotte Anne" is on the album Floored Genius.)

As with anything else on the Internet, however, most of the action is in the US (which almost inevitably is where you're going to end up looking if you want something you can't get in this country). If you want mainstream material in Britain, however, "Cheap or What" has a strong catalogue; in the States "CD Universe" is worth a look. If you're looking for niche markets, try the Yahoo search engine which will give you a comprehensive list of more eclectic sites. My favourite catchline is for Abbeyroad's Web site: "CD music, video tapes and a great assortment of stunt kites".

www.Towerrecords.co.uk

A magazine with a list of new releases, but not useful for ordering.

www.cduniverse.com

A professionally run US site, which claims delivery times in the order of a week or so.

www.cow.co.uk

Cheap or What CDs. British-based CD retailer which aims to dispatch items first class within three days of receiving an order.

www.yahoo.co.uk

A very comprehensive list of on-line record shops.

SITE UNSEEN

http://www.memphismusicstore.com/

The self-styled home of the blues. A lavishly designed, if rather picture- heavy site. But you can't deny their enthusiasm.