Columbia House Closes Down

[djdonny]

I just received this email. Before download sites, BMG and CH were the top two music sales companies for many years.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>We're contacting you to let you know that the Columbia House Music Club is officially closing its doors. Because you are such a valued customer, we are taking this opportunity to introduce you to BMG Music Service, where you can enjoy benefits similar to your Columbia House Music Club membership and more.

As a member of BMG Music Service, any remaining Columbia House Music Club purchase commitments that you might have will be waived. Plus, your Bonus Points will not be lost—they will be converted into BMG's Music Points. And to get you started, BMG will also give each Columbia House member enough additional Music Points for a FREE CD (a shipping and handling charge will be added to each selection).
[/b][/quote]

[Jim Casey]

WOW!

I remember being a CH member years ago. I never liked having my CDs marked with their names on the back, but I guess it was part of the game for getting the Cds cheap.

[John Allo]

11 Records for a penny, all you have to do is buy 8 over the next 3 years at full club prices!

I fell for that a couple of times over the years, once with records, another with CD's.

Technology claims another victim.

[pjlowe]

I use BMG all the time. If you do the math and become a member in good standing
you will get a new cd for $5.85 when you order multiple cd's.
last week the offer was for buy one get 4 free! one cd at $15.99+$2.79 shipping =$18.78 plus 4 free x $2.79 = $10.46 $10.46+$18.29=$29.24 divided by 5 cds =
$5.85 per CD not bad if you ask me. ordering online is easy and I get my CD's in 5-7 days. I like not having to go to the store if I can help it.
just my two cents worth...... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

[Bryan Durio]

I had both of those services in the 80s. They both sucked, for the most part. I got really tired of having to look through a bunch of crap to see anything I really wanted, and seeing the same old same old with each magazine. I also didn't appreciate their little Featured Selection nonsense. It was always something that I would NEVER think of buying, but it "matched" my Music Preference. I like Contemporary Jazz. Kenny G and "Smooooth Jazz" (mindless pap) do nothing for me. They also would conveniently find ways to ship CDs separately so that I would have to pay a bunch of S&H fees.

I say good riddance, Columbia House. I hope BMG follows your fate very soon!

[djdonny]

You guys are remembering the OLD BMG and CH. The recent versions of these companies have been nothing like it. You used to have to buy like 8 CDs over 3 years to fulfill a membership agreement, and had to respond to mailings each month even if you didn't want to buy anything. This hasn't been the case over the last several years.

With BMG, you get 7 free CDs and need to buy just ONE regular priced CD within 1 year, and once you buy it (usually right away!), you become a full member and never need to respond each month. As a member, you get CDs at great prices, and points towards free CDs with every purchase. I haven't had to respond to a mailing in years.

With CH, it works the same way (get 7 free, and buy 1), but you even get 4 more free after that.

My only concern is that CH out of the way, how will BMG respond with no competition?

With the current plans, however, I would highly recommend membership to any DJs. In fact, when I owned a music store, BMG was one of my "wholesalers," even though I had no special wholesale price other than standard membership. I made more profit on BMG CDs than just about any CD purchased from wholesalers.

[John Allo]

I remember getting the card each month and having to send it back by a certain date indicating that I did NOT want the Featured Selection of the month.

Failure to get the card back to them meant that they'd ship it to you and then bill you and good luck trying to return it!

I used them when I was 13 or so and picked up such great albums like We're An American Band by Grand Funk, Machine Head by Deep Purple, BTO II by BTO, and the first couple of Sabbath albums.

Do I date myself much? :shrug

[Bryan Durio]

Yes, but so what?

I remember the We're An American Band LP that I had...it was see-through gold vinyl!

Machine Head...what a great album. It's my personal favorite Deep Purple LP.

Trivia: Which Purple alumni teamed up to record an amitious album in 1976 after Deep Purple disbanded? What was the name of their album, released in 1977?

[Wolfie]

Ah... this brings back some memories. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

John is right -- CH was around back in the early 70s as I can recall. They'd do what today's technology would call spam -- send offers via mail to any address they could find.

In those days CH mailers contained printed stamps. You tore off the stamps that represented the albums you wanted, affixed them to to the card provided and mailed it back with a penny taped to the card. I often wondered how many pennies they collected. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

I'm not surprised by their demise. To be honest I didn't know these bulk-mailer CD "clubs" were still in business. Their primary drawback: By the time they offered a "new" album it was already on its way down the charts. But one could always indulge in a plethora of dead albums that never amounted to anything. And there were those shipping charges...

With online companies like CDnow.com selling used CDs for pennies on the dollar and legal music downloading utilities like Wally-Mart, the old-line record clubs have been outclassed.

This isn't 1975.

[Bryan Durio]

What? No takers on my trivia question??