shopping for music online without a visa card

I don’t have a Visa card, simply because I don’t really need it (yet). Since for most online shops you need a Visa or other credit card for payment, that seriously limits my options. I’ve tried PayPal as well, but as a Belgian you can’t wire money directly from your bank account to your PayPal account, which means you need a credit card yet again…

So I was looking for shops where I can buy some hardcore electronic music online without the need of a credit card. In fact, the most preferred way of payment I was looking for was using a simple International bank transfer using an IBAN number. That allows me to simply wire money just like I’m used to for everything else I have to pay for. Awesome.

After some Googling and some lucky strikes, I came across the following sites which all offer a number of great drum’n’bass and breakcore records for a decent price, and all have an IBAN account you can use to pay your order with:

• The German Ad Noiseam label is a kick ass breakcore label where you can order their stuff, and others’, online. The order interface is quite crude, but you get to listen to a lot of tracks (in mp3 format) so you get an idea of what they have to offer. You can also find a lot of full mp3’s here, so if you’re looking for some fresh IDM and breakcore sounds this is a good place to stop and listen to the music. Besides the albums released by Ad Noiseam itself you’ll also find stuff from other breakcore labels like Cock Rock Disco, Peace Off, Sublight and Planet Mu, to name some of the hippest.
• The French Switch online record shop has a nice looking interface,  search functions and a decent catalogue to choose phat tunes from. Lot’s of vinyl here, so this might be one for the black crack-heads out there. The link I provided puts the interface in English, because the links at the bottom of the page contain a little bug that doesn’t allow you to switch from the default French to English. Chauvinism, or just a little bug? Who will tell. They are French after all.
• Talking about neighbours. This Dutch record shop called The Music Safe doesn’t look like it’s going to sell anything left field at all, but it does. I found some gems in the electronic music section I couldn’t find elsewhere. I’ll be getting some plastic from their warehouse soon I think. They also sell DVDs btw, but the games section remains awkwardly empty, no matter what selection you make. Weird.
• Toolbox records is another one with a sweet selection of hardcore material. They focus on all electronic genres, so you’ll find a lot of drum’n’bass, breakcore, techno and dubstep there, which is very nice. They even divide things up by sub-genre, so searching that specific plate becomes that much easier.

Besides Ad Noiseam I haven’t been dealing with the above shops myself, so I can’t vouch for all of them personally. If you’d happen to know another online record store where you can order great stuff without having to own a credit card, feel free to drop the knowledge in the comments. Feel free to drop any experiences, good or bad, with the above sites as well.

And now, it’s time to go get some fresh music.

(Photo by J. Star, cc-licensed)