Today's Two Buck Music

If you didn't find anything to spend that $3 MP3 credit on yesterday, there are five new $1.99 titles in the MP3 store today.

The 99 Most Essential Violin Masterpieces is another of the epic collections from X5 Music Group, with twelve and a half hours of music included. The other $1.99 specials have been going back up after a day and most of the others in the Essentials series are priced around $8, so I'd expect that to be the price after today's sale is over.

Here are the other four albums in today's Black Friday Week sale (at least two of which I'm also considering getting):

I Learned the Hard Way (Amazon MP3 Exclusive Version), by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Greatest Hits Volume 1, by Rascal Flatts
Contra, by Vampire Weekend
Free Wired [+Digital Booklet], by Far East Movement

New Kindle Game - Next Puzzle Game

The Next Puzzle Game ($2.99) is the first foray into Kindle games for newcomer Mobigloo. This one isn't a word game (and no cute pandas), but you do have to think a few moves ahead to solve the puzzles. There are 128 levels, but the tougher levels should be re-playable (provided you aren't playing them closely together) and the price is reasonable for what is intended to give you a brief break activity.

Game Description
NEXT is a matching puzzle game for Kindle.

The objective of the game is to clear all the pieces off the game board. Game pieces disappear when they are matched with, and touch, other game pieces with the same symbol. Your job is to move the game pieces around the game board to make this happen. Clearing the board allows you to move the next level.

The challenge is that if you don't plan ahead, you might not be able get the pieces to the right location because they are blocked by other game pieces. Because sometimes there are an odd number of a certain types of game pieces, if you match them too soon, you risk leaving stray game pieces behind and then you won't be able to finish the level.

NEXT includes 128 levels of varying difficulty and is easy to learn, but hard to master -- give it a try, and you'll see what we mean!

$3 in Free MP3's, Free Music & Music Gifting

It's another early Christmas gift from Amazon today, with another free three dollar credit in the MP3 store! First, go to this page and enter the code GET3MP3S after clicking on the Enter Your Code button. You'll see the credit you have at Amazon (including, perhaps, some Video on Demand credit you may have forgotten about; I found $4!) and it will automatically be applied as you shop in the appropriate section of Amazon. I'd suggest that your first stop be on the Black Friday Deals at Amazon MP3 page, as Amazon is marking down selected albums to $1.99 each day. Today's list, for example, includes Chronicle: 20 Greatest Hits, by Creedence Clearwater Revival. You may also want to check out this month's selection of 100/$5: 100 Albums for $5 Each, which includes a number of Christmas albums, as well as a number of other genres. In any case, don't delay too long, as this credit must be used by November 29!

Overlooked in all the publicity over being able to give Kindle eBooks as gifts, Amazon also implemented the ability to give MP3 downloads as gifts, as well. Here are the details from Amazon:

Now you can surprise and delight all the music lovers on your list with an instant MP3 gift. Giving MP3s is easy and risk-free: Your gift recipient can always exchange MP3 gifts for an Amazon.com gift card.

• Search for the song or album you want to give. All songs and albums sold by Amazon MP3 can be given as gifts.
• When you reach the detail page, click Give Song or Album as a Gift. You'll be asked to sign in and we'll ask you to personalize the gift by adding a special message.
• Once you've completed these steps, your gift recipient will be sent an email letting them know they have a gift waiting for them.

If you want to give someone a musical gift this Christmas, but aren't sure just which album to pick, Amazon has thought of that as well, with their MP3 Gift Guide, which has sorted a number of albums and artists into categories based upon the person's relationship to you or their age group. If you are just looking for something to spruce up the mood this season, check the Holiday MP3 Store.

Another way you can get some "free" music is to send a $1 MP3-Themed Amazon.com Gift Cards to 5 Facebook friends. The first 10,000 Amazon customers that do so will get a $5 MP3 music downloads credit for themselves. Follow the steps on the Amazon Facebook Gift Card page, starting with connecting your Facebook profile to Amazon. You need to create all five gifts (of $1 each) on the same order and it has to be people on your Friends list.

I've also turned up a few more free albums and singles at Amazon, in addition to the ones on this earlier post. First the holiday themed and then a few others I stumbled past.

Music World Holiday Sampler
Nettwerk Holiday Sampler 2010
Acorn Music Free Holiday Sampler
Do You Hear What I Hear (Featuring Patrick Wilson), by Mary McBride
Christmas Anthem, by Landon Smith & The Real Matt Jones
Fruitcake, by The Superions

Too Big To Fail : The Tompkins Square Label 5th Anniversary Amazon Sampler
Bloodshot Records Label Sampler
Free Sampler - A Westside Fabrication
Per Capita Records Amazon Sampler
Ninja Tune XX - Free Music Compilation [Amazon MP3 Exclusive]
Born Fresh, by Elemint
Nort at Night EP, by Adam Marshall
Boriken Groove, by Reso
Whiskey Holiday, by The Shooters
Winter Night, by Little & Ashley
Mazinka, by 11 Acorn Lane
Heartbreaker, by Girls
A Fire Burns For Freedom, by Ziggy Marley

Black Friday Kindles $89!

Just announced by Amazon on their Twitter feed, they will have a limited number of 2nd Generation Kindles for sale starting Friday at 9AM PST (that's noon, for us east coasters) at $89 each. That's the same eInk screen as the current nook and with built-in 3G wireless. Not only a better price, but a much better deal than the limited number of Wi-Fi only nook's that Best Buy will have as door-buster specials for $99. And you don't have to stand outside in the cold all night to get the deal!.

Bookmark this post and check back at 9AM this Friday. If the link changes for the deal, I'll update this post first (and then probably add a new post for new readers).

Update: It appears that the deal will be on the Black Friday Deals Week page, in the lightning deals at the top of the page. For now, I'm leaving the link the K2 page above, though, as that's the link Amazon used in their announcement, as well.

This is a great deal for a backup Kindle or for the additional readers in your family. There isn't any Wi-Fi, but that can be an advantage for some, as the 3G is so much easier to "set up" (in fact, the only setup is turning it on).

Harry Potter Sale

Today's Gold Box deal has a boxed set of Harry Potter Years 1-6 at a huge discount. The Blu-Ray Set is $39.99, while the Harry Potter Years 1-6 at a huge discount. The DVD Set is $23.99. About what you would have paid for just one of the included discs, not too long ago. Both also come with a bonus $5 to spend on Video on Demand, which you can use for rentals or purchases. If you don't have the full set or have been waiting to upgrade to Blu-Ray, this is definitely the time to do so. If you are just missing one or two of the set, though, check out the Harry Potter DVDs list, as it appears the Blu-Rays selling there for $10 each and the regular DVD's are marked down to about $9. Then again, some special editions, such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Ultimate Edition) [Blu-ray] are $34 each, so you do have to be a bit selective if you don't get the set on today's sale.