Welcome to the Buymusic.ca Blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings fellow music consumers and welcome to the buymusic.ca blog.

Here you will find various information relating to the purchase of music online and by mail, as well as sheet music, music instruments and memorabilia.

I will also be posting various commentaries and reviews in regards to these services and various related issues.

To begin either click on an option in the menu to your left, which features various source listings, or scroll down for my blog entries. And if you are aware of a Canadian music retailer or record convention or fair that I have missed, please contact me with details.

Thanks. And Enjoy.


March 1st, 2010 Comments Off on Welcome to the Buymusic.ca Blog An Introduction Rob McIntyre

Lots of Major Record Conventions

There will be several major record conventions this weekend in Montreal, Toronto, Bowmanville, Brantford and Calgary, as well as comic book conventions in Calgary, Sudbury, Chatham and Cornwall.

The first record convention, the Montreal Plateau Record Show, will be held on Saturday, the 26th of April, 2025, from 10am to 4pm at the Église Saint Denis.

Admission is $5 or $15 for early entry at 9pm. And the entrance of the venue is at 5075 Rivard Street, near the north entrance of the Laurier Metro Station (on the Orange Line).

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The next four record conventions will be held on Sunday, April 27th, 2025, the first being the Toronto Downtown Record Show at The Tranzac from noon to 4pm.

Admission will be $7 or $12 for early entry at 10am. And the venue is a six minute walk away from either the Bathurst or Spadina Metro Stations. It’s in-between the two TTC stations.

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The next record convention this Sunday will be the Bowmanville CD and Record Show, which will be hosted by the Memorial Park Clubhouse from 10am to 4pm.

This is a free event and the venue is a nine minute walk from the nearest bus stop, #1499, which is serviced by Route 902 on Durham Regional Transit.

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The Brantford Record Show will also be held on Sunday, this time at the Dunsdon Legion, from 10am to 3pm. And admission will be a $2 donation to the legion.

The nearest bus stops to the venue are 450 and 483, which is serviced by Routes 4A and 4C on Brantford Transit.

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And last but not least, the Calgary Record Collectors Show will be held on Sunday at the Acadia Recreation Complex from 11am to 4pm.

Admission to this event is $5 or $10 for early entry at 9:30am. And the nearest bus stops to the venue, 6414 and 6447, are serviced by Route 99 on Calgary Transit.

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The Calgary Expo will also be held this weekend, from the 24th to the 27th at Stampede Park.

Admission information can be found by clicking here. And the venue is serviced by Victoria Park / Stampede Station on Calgary Transit.

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The Sudbury Comicon will be held for one day, on Saturday the 26th of April, 2025, at the George Armstrong Community Centre and Arena from 10am to 3pm, and admission will be $5 or free for kids 12 and under.

This venue is serviced by Route 102 on GOVA and the nearest bus stops to the venue are unfortunately not numbered ; The southbound stop is the closest to the venue, followed by the northbound stop.

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Chatham Kent Expo will be a two day event at John D. Bradley Convention Centre on the 26th and 27th of April, 2025.

Admission information can be found by clicking here. And the casino next door has its own bus stop, 5231, which is serviced by Route 5 on Ride CK.

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And finally, the Cornwall Pop Event (a.k.a CAPE) will be held at the Benson Center, also on north the 26th and 27th of April.

Click here for ticket information. And although the venue is serviced by Route 3 via its own bus stop on Saturdays, you might need to contact Cornwall Transit for information on access on Sunday. Their offices are next to the venue.

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Please note that cash may be preferred at these events so you might want to look for the nearest ATMs to the venue. And FYI, the Real Canadian Superstore offer on $50 Apple Gift Card purchases will end tonight so hurry to get your 5000 Optimum Point Bonus.

April 23rd, 2025 Comments Off on Lots of Major Record Conventions Consumer Information, Events Rob McIntyre

Easter Weekend

It’s Easter weekend so no record conventions or comicons are taking place this weekend. But stay tune for several events occurring next weekend.

April 16th, 2025 Comments Off on Easter Weekend Consumer Information, Events Rob McIntyre

Busy Saturday In Ottawa & More

Not only is Record Store Day on this Saturday, the 12th of April, 2025, but The Ottawa Record Fair will be on from 11am to 4pm at the Carleton-Dominion Chalmers Centre.

Admission to the fair is $5 or $10 for early entry at 10am. And the nearest bus stops, #1902 and #2487, are regularly serviced by several major routes on OC Transpo.

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Also occurring in Ontario that day are three comicons, the first being in nearby Kingston for one day, at the Royal Canadian Legion from 10am to 3pm.

Admission at the Kingston Comicon will be $5 or free for kids 12 and under. And this venue is serviced by Route 1 on Kingston Transit via its own bus stop and another bus stop across the street. Non-perishable food items will also be collected at this event.

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The next event of that Day in Ontario will be the Halton Hills Fanfest in Georgetown, from 10am to 4pm at the Halton Hill Public Library.

I believe the event may be free but you might want to contact the library for details. And the nearest bus stops, 102803 and 102804, are serviced Routes 31 and 33 on Go Transit.

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The last event in Ontario that day will also occur on both the 12th and 13th in Timmins at the McIntyre Community Centre.

Admission to Timminscon is $15 for adults, $10 for kids and free form kids under 2. And the venue is serviced by multiple routes on Timmins Transit, which differs depending on the day you will attend the event, although Route 16 appears to operate on both days.

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The Atlantic Entertainment Expo will also be occurring this weekend, on the 12th and 13th of April 2025 in Fredericton, New Brunswick at the Fredericton Convention Center.

Click here for this event’s admission information. The venue has its own bus stop, which is serviced by multiple routes on Fredericton Transit.

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The Toronto/Mississuaga Vinyl Record & Collectibles Show will be held from 10am to 3pm at the Etobicoke Olympium on Sunday, the 13th of April, 2025.

Admission is $5 and the venue is serviced by Route 48 via bus stop numbers 1477 and 1493 on the TTC.

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And finally, the Edmonton Record Fair will be hosted by the Northgate Lion Recreation Center from 11am to 3:30pm on Sunday, April 13th, 2025.

Admission will be $5 or $10 for early admission at 9:30am. And the nearest bus stops to the venue are 77342 and 77350, which is serviced by Route 54 on Edmonton Transit.

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Please note that cash may be preferred at these events. And that a free three month offer from Amazon Music Unlimited is available and includes Audible audio books, one of which will be free to listen to every month.

April 9th, 2025 Comments Off on Busy Saturday In Ottawa & More Consumer Information, Events Rob McIntyre

Pain In The Tariff!

So, I was eying “Dexter’s Laboratory – The Complete Collection” at several retailers and had never considered that the tariffs would have a secondary effect on goods that are not tariffed so I didn’t expect sticker shock a few days back – The price of this DVD collection just skyrocketed, by $30 at some of these retailers.

Like CDs and vinyl, DVDs and Blu-rays are not currently included in the list of goods that are being subjected to tariffs. But I suspect their prices will go up in the states, well above the $20 postal importation exemption, which is rather annoying. And I presume any shipment from the states would be delayed going through customs because they’ll have more forms to fill out, unless Canadians just stop importing from the states via mail.

I did just order the collection from a Canadian seller on eBay for the amount I had encountered before the hike, preferring to avoid the American and Chinese sellers. And if need be I could always try the U.k and Europe for other releases as well.

I personally like Amazon u.k, Amazon France and FNAC for CDs and Region Free DVDs from Europe, and I do have a region free DVD player for some French films that never made their way to DVD in North America. But sometimes deals can be had for under $20 Canadian, not including shipping, and sometimes the shipping rates are acceptable.

I have emailed my local MP and several electoral candidates suggesting a $60 exemption for postal importations from Europe, the U.k and several more of our stable trade partners so I’m hoping we’ll be able to order more from those countries after the election is done.

If you want to support a $60 exemption for postal imports, which is long overdue, you can contact your local Member of Parliament via this form, after the election of course.

Hopefully we’ll be done with this tariff nonsense soon…

April 4th, 2025 Comments Off on Pain In The Tariff! Canadian Law, Consumer Information, Events Rob McIntyre

This Weekend’s Events

I have waited to post this entry to make sure none of the events in Eastern Canada were canceled due weather and it appears that none have been canceled:

The Vancouver Comic and Toy Show will be held at the PNE Forum on the 5th and 6th of April, 2025.

Tickets to this event can be purchased by clicking here and the venue is serviced by multiple routes on Translink, via bus stops 50951 and 52718.

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The Salon National des Collectionneurs will also occur on the 5th and 6th, but at Espace St-Hyacinthe.

The nearest bus stop the to venue is #506, which is serviced by Routes 50 and 70 on the St.Hyacinthe city transit system. And note that this event is predominantly in French.

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Back Issues Comicon will be held at the Christ Church Parish Hall on Saturday, the 5th of April, 2025, from 9am to 3pm and admission will be $3.

The nearest bus stop to the venue is 7389 which is serviced by Routes 54, 55 and 62 on Halifax Transit.

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The Stratford ComiCon appears to still be on for April 5th, 2025 at the Best Western Plus The Arden Park Hotel from 10am to 3pm.

Admission is $5 or free for kids 12 and under. And Stratford Transit offers on demand services to the venue and the Stratford Via Rail station is only a 3 to 4 minute taxi ride away from this hotel.

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The Woodstock Pop Show will be held on Sunday, April 6th, 2025 from 9:30am to 2:30pm at the Woodstock Fairgrounds Auditorium.

Admission will be $5 or free for accompanied kids 12 and under. And the venue is unfortunately not serviced by transit on Sundays but it is a four or five minute taxi ride away from the Via Rail station.

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And finally, the Guelph Record Show will occur on Sunday, the 6th of April, 2025 from 10:30am to 4pm at the Royal Canadian Legion.

Admission is $5 or $20 for early entry at 9am. And unfortunately there is no transit service to this venue on Sundays. But the venue is an eight minute taxi ride from the Guelph Go Train and Via Rail station.

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Please note that cash may be preferred at these events so keep an eye out for the ATMs near or in the venues. And although the Spring sale is over at Amazon.ca, you should probably check out their deals on music, DVDs/blu-rays, electronics and musical instruments.

April 3rd, 2025 Comments Off on This Weekend’s Events Consumer Information, Events Rob McIntyre

This Weekend’s Events

There will be one record convention, in Stratford (Ontario), and four entertainment events through-out the country this weekend.

The first event this weekend will be the Island FanCon, which will occur from Friday the 28th to Sunday the 30th of March 2025 at the City Centre Park in Langford, British Columbia.

Admission information can be obtained by clicking here. And the venue is serviced by multiple routes via Bus Stops #101549 and #101556 on Victoria Regional Transit.

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The next event, the Atlantic Entertainment Expo, is also a multiple day event that will be held at the Prince Edward Island Convention Centre in Charlottetown PEI, from the 29th to the 30th of March 2025.

Admission information can be found by clicking here. And the nearest street to be serviced by T3 Transit is Water Street, by Route 4.

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The Collingwood Comicon will be held on March 29th, 2025 at the Collingwood Legion from 10am to 4pm.

Admission will be $5 or free for kids 12 and under. And the nearest bus stops are 234 and 420 on the Crosstown Route and East Route on Collingwood Transit.

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The Stratford Record Show will be held on Sunday, the 30th of March, 2025 at the Army Navy & Air Force Veterans Banquet Hall from 10am to 3pm and admission will be a donation to the Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans.

The venue is unfortunately not serviced by transit. But is still only a 4 minute taxi ride from the Via Rail station.

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And finally, the Angus Comicon will be hosted by the Angus Recreation Centre on Sunday, March 30th 2025 from 10am to 3pm.

Admission will be $5 or free for kids 12 and under. But unfortunately, the venue is not serviced by transit.

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Please note that cash may be preferred at these events. And that The Big Spring Sale is active at Amazon.ca, on music, films and electronics until the 31st of March, 2025.

Enjoy.

March 26th, 2025 Comments Off on This Weekend’s Events Consumer Information, Events Rob McIntyre