Where are the most secure places to buy music online ?

Try to hack it. Duh.

But seriously, I would trust any of the major e-tail sites. CDnow, B&N, Amazon (my site of choice). Just make sure you have an SSH capable browser.

i've bought from othermusic and dusty groove a fair few times with no problem. both mark stuff as a gift so you don't pay customs duty. ends up being cheaper to buy from america than here (UK) if you buy a couple to spread the p&p.

if you want to buy from britain, chunky is very good. there's no cart, so the first time, i bought something over the phone. ever since i just send an e-mail saying can i have this please. he already has your details. arrives next couple days. very reliable.

http://www.spinna.d.records.mcmail.com/

If it's vinyl you're looking for this is a reliable site (based in Aldershot) which I've used many times. Plus they have 45,000 items in stock so there's plenty of choice. Just don't order Virgin Beauty by Ornette Coleman. I'm waiting for next pay day to get that one.

Try www.forcedexposure.com for all kinds of freaky shit - never had any probs with the security or the service. Dusty Groove are also good. Most of the non-UK stuff on both sites still work out cheaper than buying 'em in Britain, even with p+p. Don't order too many discs at one time or you might get slapped with heavy customs duty. And if you're paying with one of the major credit cards you're normally protected against any kind of online fraud.

Well, one place to avoid would be cdeurope -- I tried ordering a single from there once since I had heard they had a good selection of imports, fast shipping, yada yada yada. Anyway, they ended up trying to charge me for $250 worth of Kiss albums! Thankfully I didn't have to pay for them, but it totally turned me off to buying music online.

Thanx y'all

Right, they "tried to charge me for $250 worth of Kiss albums". And Insound "tried" to charge me for the Led Zeppelin box, and I tried to get them to take it back, but you know, it was just no use, so in the end I had to just hang on to it and listen to it. Daily.

:P

I once got the Nuggets box set for 14 $ at Music Boulevard (now defunct) 'cause someone had made a mistake in the pricing.

Music Blvd deserves to be defunct. Worst online experience I've ever had: they were offering a $10 "coupon" to lure new customers, and so I decided to give it a shot. Placed my order with them for something they had listed as in-stock. Weeks go by. And by. I keep checking online confirmation to find out what's up, but the confirmation page lists everything as being a-okay. Finally, I get back in contact with them to find out what the problem is, and find out that I'd mis-keyed my email address (one stray keystroke), and so they couldn't get in touch with me to tell me there was a problem. (Fair enough, though they really should have indicated that problem on the confirmation screen.) I cancel that order and re-apply my $10 coupon to an upcoming CD. The weeks go by. Finally, the release date for the album comes, and I check the confirmation screen for my order, only to be told that the CD is now "out of stock". "Screw this," I thought, and cancelled my order altogether, $10 coupon be damned. They confirm cancellation of the order with me, then send it ANYHOW. And to make matters worse, whoever it was that sent it listed the full retail value of the item, not the price that I paid. Because of that, I ended up paying a substantial customs charge (almost $10) just for the privilege of receiving something I didn't want anymore anyhow. Bah.

Living in Australia provides many occasions to use online vendors - all of them have been successfull in one way or another. I've only ever had one problem - it cost me $10 but I got all the cds I asked for. www.cdworld.com was my main US purchase point but, unfortunately, that's now closed - I'll probably go with cdnow. www.hmv.co.uk is my UK providor and it's very good : quick, cheap postage, excellent range. Small outfits including ReR and atrecordings (both great for off centre stuff) are always good as well.

Is there a decent US equivalent to a site like Boomkat Online (UK)? Or any good resource for buying dance/electronic music online with a fairly savvy editorial team?

BUMP

closest to Boomkat in the US:

Skimo
http://www.skimo.com/
sign up for their weekly pre-releases email

Also:

AB-CD
http://www.ab-cd.com/custom/cgi-bin/cat1/

Other Music
http://www.othermusic.com/

33 degrees
http://www.thirtythreedegrees.com/