Columbia House Record Club is shutting down. Wait, it was still in business?
For 71 years the Columbia House Record Club provided a cheap, quick, and convenient way to start a music collection. That era is finally coming to an end.
Columbia House Record Club, a beloved 71-year-old business, is set to close its doors on September 15. The club, which began in 1955, offered subscribers a seemingly unbeatable deal on records and tapes for just a penny. However, the reality was often less appealing, with customers receiving albums they didn't want and facing negative option billing that kept unwanted records coming.
Columbia House's roots trace back to an experiment to promote the 33 1/3 RPM album, but it quickly expanded into other formats like 8-track, cassette, reel-to-reel, VHS, and CDs. By 1996, the company boasted sixteen million subscribers and a significant share of the music retail market. However, the rise of digital music and online services like Napster, iTunes, and Amazon eventually led to Columbia House's decline.
The company, which had employed 2,200 people and generated US$1 billion in revenue, stopped selling CDs in 2015 and shifted focus to DVDs and Blu-rays. Despite these efforts, Columbia House's subscriber base dwindled, leading to its impending closure as physical media loses its appeal.
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