Amazon.com - The big brother in on-line retailing of books, CD's, videos and nowadays just about everything else. The North American website has a surprisingly large music selection of lesser-known genres and titles and they ship internationally. You can also find new and used CD's through private sellers via the Amazon Marketplace which is a godsend if you're looking for albums from seminal ambient labels that no longer exist like Silent Records and Instinct Ambient.

Ambient.Us - An online retail store devoted exclusively to full album downloads. A very impressive range of downtempo music can be purchased here at decent prices. A broadband connection is essential.

Amboworld - UK-based shop with good quality catalogue of ambient and exotic dub from all corners of the globe.

Backroads Music - This fantastic North American retailer has been selling all kinds of ambient, contemporary instrumental and world music since 1981 through its "Heartbeats" catalogue and now also via an extensive website. Owner Lloyd Bardes has both business savvy and a real passion for the music he sells. A good place to start when searching for CD's of anything vaguely ambient or downtempo that's not on the mainstream records labels.

Cosmophilia - Excellent online store from Europe specialising in psychedelic trance and related sounds.

Ear-Rational Music - Reliable and well-regarded North American mail order site that ships worldwide. Especially good for German electronica like Fax Records and Klaus Schulze.

eMusic.com - An increasing number of the albums from indie labels whose music is reviewed on my website - including the hard-to-find Fax Records - you will find available for download at this fantastic online store. eMusic's specialty is independent labels including albums that are no longer available on CD. Rather than you paying for each download separately you pay a choice of monthly subscriptions for a set number of tracks, eg. US$9.99 for 40 downloads a month. It works out way cheaper than mainstream download stores like i-Tunes and the range of underground music is broad.

Fake Science - Online digital download store in USA with wide range of genres including ambient, dance and downtempo electronica.

I-Tunes - This trailblazer in legal music downloads is the obvious choice for owners of the portable iPod players but beyond all the mainstream acclaim you'll find a good deal of underground downtempo and ambient music here too. Warning: beware the hype. Apple sells audio files with restrictive copy protection (Digital Rights Management) and the iPod player is the only portable you can play them on.

Psyshop - Reliable online store based in Germany stocking a huge range of psychedelic and progressive trance and the various downtempo offshoots of those styles.

Shopsonic - Excellent online shop selling releases from labels like Emit, Interchill and Ultimae Records.

Substrata - An Australian-based music retailer with a lot of underground electronica and weird stuff including many ambient techno artists.

Synth Music Direct - UK-based retailer, name says all. Helpful reviews too.

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