Remembering the Old Columbia House Record Club
If you’re a certain age, you’ll remember the ubquitous magazine and newspaper inserts promising things like “12 albums for a penny!” All you had to do is promise to buy X more albums over the course of the next year at the regular price.
For consumers, this could be a pretty good deal. Back then, albums were expensive, running $5.99 and up. Compare that to the price of a typical CD today. Music is so much cheaper now when adjusted for inflation.
However, record club deals weren’t so good for artists. Contracts often stipulated that albums sold through record clubs paid greatly reduced royalties–if they paid any royalties at all.
Columbia House was the biggest, a $500 million/year business. In less than 20 years, they shipped one BILLLION records. That all ended on June 29, 2011, when the Columbia House turned into a corpse. Here’s a great article on the rise and fall of what was once one of the most profitable areas of the music biz.
Read The Rise and Fall of the Columbia House Record Club–and How We Learned to Steal Music.
The first CDs I ever owned were via either Columbia House, or the BMG version. It was the cheapest way to build a music collection as a late grade schooler. I even still have a few that I haven't traded up for other stuff at the Beat Goes On.
I remember fulfilling my contract with Columbia House then I'd "cancel" my membership and they'd send me more free CDs and I'd do it all over again. It was a vicious cycle of addiction which helped me build up my CD collection.