I declare this macroeconomic because, oh wait, it’s not. It’s irrelevant in scheme of things, but for the oldsters on the board, which I suspect is everybody, this will bring a tear to your eye.
Ah yes, I remember the endless magazine ads and direct mails offering “12 albums for a penny!”. No, I never fell for it, but I had friends who did and who wound up with LPs they would never have bought and which probably got played once, maybe.
Anyway, end of an era, I guess.
I had the 20 tapes. I listened to the Rush tapes.
I moved dorm rooms, and they lost me.
I had a girlfriend who fell for it. I didn’t get the something for nothing offer.
Kind of depends on where you lived. My former hometown didn’t have a decent record/cd/music store. If you were looking for something a little outside mainstream or 10 years old or older, you were SOL. Plus, the store tended to be country heavy while U2 was the soundtrack of my youth. IIRC, 12 for a penny then buy 4 over the next year, cancel. You came out ahead compared to buying at local store, at least for me.
Then the original Napster came out and the writing was on the wall. I haven’t bought an album/cd in close to 30 years. All streaming with occasional single song purchase now.
Good points.
I’m amazed they lasted as long as they did, especially once they found out they couldn’t hold minors to a contract.
When I saw my nephews vacuuming the internet using Napster, I knew it was a very different game.
And with everyone able to have a recording studio in their home, many platforms to listen for free, and AI vacuuming the internet… “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
I didn’t really have the money to buy music until I went to college, and then I really didn’t have the money to buy music. I bought a couple of singles as a teenager (“Denise”/Randy & the Rainbows, if we’re showing our lack of class as a 13 year old here). My first two years at school I got involved with the campus radio station, which provided a library of records as big as a walk-in closet and then some.
So I became a DJ, 4 hours a week. Jazz, folk, rock, classical. I’d do anything but country or opera. Lehigh had 2 student stations: one was Top 40, and was the big deal. The other was block programmed and you could find a slot doing almost anything. And I did.
Ah, free music. It was glorious.
I did that, I think twice. Worked out well. You get the 12 for free, and then you are obligated to buy one album a month at full price for like a year or something. Full price was basically record store price, maybe a bit more. You get a catalog each month to pick from and if you didn’t send a pick they’d automatically send you the Album of the Month, which was something on the pop charts. But also in the catalog they’d have some good deals too.
Yeah, but it could be anything from Andy Williams to Neil Diamond to Arrowsmith. People, at least in my dorm, were always forgetting to send back the “Don’t want that one, want this one” card so they got stuck with some stuff they didn’t really care for.
Of course the “Columbia” Record club heavily favored artists who were recording for Columbia Records, so you had to be careful…
Yep, I forgot a few times. I got the new Heart album that I wouldn’t have bought otherwise. Then I wised up and wrote “Refused” on the package and sent it back. Columbia got really mad when I did that, but I don’t think they ever did anything about it other than sending strongly worded letters.
I stayed on top of my refusal cards. I ended up getting lots of great music for relatively cheap. I filled out my music collection with The Temptations, Miles Davis, Bob, and many, many more. Columbia House took advantage of laziness, if you weren’t lazy and paid attention…it was a good deal.
I was just showing los diablitos my CD collection from back then. I medium freaked out when one CD was missing, then I remembered I don’t listen to CDs anymore. It’s ironic that my 2026 vinyl collection is starting to rival my CD collection…
Columbia House was a major employer in Terre Haute, IN. It was a first employer for many high school graduates.
If you returned a shipment it did not go into inventory for resale. it went to their return good unit. Once a year they held open house. You could go through their returns and buy them at super discounts. No returns allowed. Quality unknown.
Of course that was the days of vinyl. I wonder if analog audio will come back? And will Columbia (or RCA in Indianapolis) be leaders of record “clubs” again.