Columbia House, the mail-order music club, is shutting down

Robert Beveridge2

The first album I ever bought from Columbia House was Men at Work's debut album There's a joke here but I'm too tired to make it

Brandy B.2

Oh you're making ends meet, alright. 😉

Dutchdoor3

I was a BMG guy, personally. Get my 7 CDs or whatever, buy my single obligatory one, cancel, repeat with a slightly different version of my name (middle name, middle initial, shortened version of my first name). They didn't care that it was all from the same address. That's on them!

Bud Foxx 𓅃🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇦🇬🇱1

Ben Dover and Pete Moss over here. Good times.

Kirsten1

And we got exposed to the musical stylings of En Vogue, Carly Simon, and much much more!

Chris Doyon1

Also enjoyed people trying to return Columbia House CD’s for store credit at Tower Records. I’d let them get indignant repeatedly insisting they bought them there before I’d show them where it said on the label they came from Columbia House

Eggman2

there was a time when 95% of my albums/tapes/cds came from columbia house and .... that other one whose name escapes me. and i always fulfilled my end of the deal!

madopal2

This is SO GOOD, Annie. So much more than just Columbia House. 90s jobs, indie vs mainstream rock, selling out, creatives...it's a perfect time capsule in so many ways. Thank you for that.

Dada Strain2

LOL - a high-point in my interview career. Thankyou! Shared it with a couple of folks who last night were like, "hey, didn't you...?" Trying to remember the hook that you were working off, wasn't it also...closing? (I was at NPR Music at the time and they did a All Songs Considered segment as well.)

Anna1

Great piece! It reminded me of the existence of the Muze database—I worked at J&R Music World in the early 90s and we had a standalone terminal that we used in conjunction with the Schwann catalog, which I’d also forgotten about.

Dan Sheehan3

It's astounding that 8-track cartridges were around long enough for the STAR WARS soundtrack to make its way onto that format.

Marcea the Traveler2

I loved their CD club! I got to hear new things I wouldn’t consider purchasing. I forgot to send one back once and never again 🤣

Emmett Furrow1

I had a sketchy roommate in college who repeatedly signed up for the initial offer, but under different names. Somehow they never caught on to the same address popping up, but he had a wide variety of subscribers: Mr. E. Mann, Nosuch Pearson, A. Lee S. Jones, D. B. Cooper, etc

thegirlnextdoor.bsky.social1

My Mom found out about this record club when the records started arriving by mail.Columbia had Broadway sewed up.Original Cast Albums were more expensive than the average, getting them free made sense to me.But later my meager allowance went to pay the piper.With A Little Bit of Luck Mom chipped in.

theoneherm.bsky.social1

Didn’t realize it was still around. Most people stream these days, so closing makes sense.

whutintarhooties.bsky.social1

I DIDN'T KNOW THEY STILL EXISTED

Chrystal O’Keefe3

It’s probably because I owe them $100+ from always ripping them off.

profpolisci.bsky.social1

Hahaha! 16 year old me got away with it!

*peopleduder*1

Ma probably had to cough up like $200 before it was all over with that for me. There were a few solid ones, not really near enough.

Wiredwizard421

Got some cool stuff from them over the years - at least half my Weird Al cassettes for sure.

Sid Financy3

A fraternity house I frequented had a giant bulletin board dedicated to collection notices from Columbia House addressed to the likes of Ted Nugent, Fred Rogers and Elvis Van Halen.

John Ore1

We 100% did this in college. Yul B. Sauri was legendary. So was Alice N. Vunderlund. Dudes would camp out trying to intercept the mail every day, it was chaos.