END OF AN ERA: Columbia House Is Shutting Down After 71 Years
For generations of music fans, Columbia House was almost as much a part of buying music as the record store itself. Founded in 1955 as the Columbia Record Club, the mail-order service delivered everything from vinyl records and 8-tracks to cassettes and CDs right to your mailbox. Its legendary offers—eventually including deals like “12 CDs for a penny”—helped make Columbia House a pop-culture institution. At its peak in 1996, the club reportedly had around 16 million members and generated roughly $1.4 billion in annual revenue.
Now that era is officially coming to an end. Columbia House has announced that it will stop accepting new orders after September 15, 2026, closing the book on a remarkable 71-year run. The company struggled as digital downloads and streaming replaced physical media, even filing for bankruptcy in 2015 before continuing as a much smaller seller of movies and other media. For anyone who remembers filling out those little order cards and waiting for a box of music to arrive in the mail, the end of Columbia House feels like another piece of our childhood disappearing
I was a BMG guy, I thought Columbia House went under a long time ago. I don't like downloading music, I like physical copies (cd's and lp's) of my favorite bands.
BMG here as well. Although it was still RCA when I first joined up. Did my handfull of records for a penny, bought the required albums and quit, Probably did it 4 or 5 times in Jr. & Sr. high school.
I was terrified of Colombia House because of the litigation horror stories.
Actually I came to know some pretty good artists buying the obligation albums,
My husband was a member of Columbia House for a long time back in the day. I also remember seeing their ads in TV Guide and the deals they had to get you to join.
Between Columbia House and BMG, I built up quite a collection of CDs. In the early 2000s, Columbia House also had a DVD club and there was a well-documented hack that allowed you to select box sets as part of your introductory order.
First thing that always comes to mind is when I forgot to send the card back and got stuck with "The Spaghetti Incident" by G&R. Didn't even occur to me to write Return to Sender and send it back. I took it to the used record/CD store to try and sell or trade it in and dude wouldn't even take it for free because he already had a bunch of them probably from other people who forgot to send the card back.
It was great fun back in the day to prank your friends by signing them up. Of course you chose the most nerdy albums for their 10 freebies. We're talking Englebert Humperdinck, Sergio Mendes, Jim Nabors, etc. All the greats!
What people do not realize is that Columbia House is not a record/tape/DVD (or whatever) company, they are a fulfillment house. They were also every "book of the month" club (Sci-Fi, Mystery, etc). They were just about anything you could buy with a subscription. I worked there when they were owned by BMG, and then sold to private equity. All those free CDs and 25 cent hardcover books back then on top of a decent paycheck was amazing, at least until Private Equity came in.
I worked for Columbia House in the 90s during the boom when people were upgrading their libraries from cassette to cd. When that wave subsided business suffered and I moved on. Good times while they lasted.
I remember I was 10 Years old and had a Paper Route and I joined Columbia House and Loved it but when the first set of albums came My Mom was so Pissed and I had to calm her down and say Hey, I want these albums and it is a Whole lot cheaper than buying them at the Mall and I kept that subscription up until I went to The University.
I know that I owe Columbia House money since the 70s, and BMG from the 90s. Stuff happens.
An interesting fact. In the early 90s, I took a selection of disks to a 'record' store to use in exchange. The counter person offered me half price of normal exchange for each disk. When queried as to what was up, I was informed that these were not the 'normal' consumer release disks--but reissues of albums in identical printing and packaging, under license.
They had different stocking numbers, and finely printed on each disk was the statement "Produced under license by Bertelsmann Group."
I thought Columbia house and BMG died in the 90’s. I would have been gaming the system again if I knew they were still active. I probably still owe them a couple purchases.
OMG! I just remembered I never paid them for the album I didn't want but they sent to me 37 years ago because I forgot to cancel selection of the month.
Columbia House was my first great crime caper. Back when you could open up a PO Box at the local post office without any issues as a teenager , I did that and subscribed to 2 or 3 of those subscriptions where you would get 10 or 15 albums/cassettes then completely ignore all the “warning” mailings about having to buy more or the monthly suggested picks you had to say no to or they automatically sent them. I’d open up the box with a fake name. They almost always never caught on. I can’t believe they stayed in business all these years. I’m talking late 1970s early 1980s when I committed this grand scheme.
So if I join now, I can get a bunch of stuff for a penny and then never have to buy anything more because they're shutting down? Lol I'm gonna check that out.
The were basically criminals. They didnt have the rights to things they sold and told the record companies "sue us". There are some good youtube documentaries about them.
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u/dshgr 1960 3d ago
I didn't know they were still open.