Retailers push few music deals on Black Friday, Cyber Monday

"Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live Anthology" is one of the music purchases that are getting a Black Friday (and shopping weekend) discount

As you make lists and check twice for gifts this holiday season, you may still have some time to pick up some major deals on particular music titles -- as few and far between as they may be.

Culling from Black Friday ads and online promotions through retailers like Amazon, we've come up with a list of some titles that are on sale this weekend, and will likely to continue to be, even after the shopping hangover is in full force on Tuesday.

The selections from big box retailers -- Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, the ilk -- seem like a clearing of overstock, or the need to rid of very particular titles.

Wal-Mart was once again featuring it’s exclusive from Miley Cyrus, “The Time of Our Lives” but only on Saturday.

The only Black Friday special from Best Buy was Tom Petty’s mega boxed set, “Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live Anthology,” for a whopping $99. That sale continues to be live, though, assuming supplies last, and is available online.

Target reduced the price on a $25 gift certificate to iTunes to $20, listed Michael Jackson’s “Bad” at $6.50, and gave the same price to “select” CDs which seem to include some of Prince’s back catalog and whatever there may be overstock of in each individual store (no online shopping on those, apparently).

The only ad for K-Mart that we saw that included music selections featured discounts on titles from Bread, Aretha Franklin, Chicago and Ray Charles – an eclectic mix.

Amazon didn’t have any one particular CD up for Black Friday sale but Cyber Monday seems to be more promising. The site has been touting “$5 Lightning Deals” all weekend on titles including Jason Mraz’ “Waiting for My Rocket to Come,” Katy Perry’s “One of the Boys” and Faith Hill’s holiday set “Joy to the World.” Sets like the first volume of the season one soundtrack to “Glee” and albums from Wolfmother, Neko Case and Weezer are featured for $7.99 or less. Similar titles, plus Decemberists and soundtracks to “(500) Days of Summer” and “Flight of the Conchords” are getting the $5 treatment in the MP3 store; those just don’t wrap-up as pretty, but for the thrifty shopper, they may be the way to go.

Overall, none of these are the Adam Lamberts or Susan Boyles or Lady GaGas of the season, but that's not always the point of these discounts. As sales this year continue to be down in the double digit percentages compared to last year's numbers (13% down, in fact), retailers feel the burn as much as labels do, to move copies, make a statement, commit to pushing a product on a as-needed basis. Maybe, just maybe, they're banking on someone in your fam still rocking out to Bread, or that still just never got around to getting that Miley set.