Columbia House Files for Bankruptcy

Aux-In · 08-11-2015, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Columbia House, the mail-order music retailer that turned an "Eight CDs for a penny" offer into an annual profit of $1.4 billion at its peak, has filed for bankruptcy. Filmed Entertainment Inc., the parent company for Columbia House, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York Monday, citing the ever-changing digital and online landscape that continue to erode at the physical medium's sales, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Read more: Columbia House Files for Bankruptcy, Blames Streaming | Rolling Stone

They offered a cool service which I used a handful of times back in the day, but the natural evolution of how music is accessed made their downfall inevitable. According to the article, they got out of the music business in 2010 and went to DVDs, but even struggled there.

**Frownland** · 08-12-2015, 10:04 AM

They can go ahead and blame streaming, but their real problem is not being able to adapt.

I did one of the 8 cds thing as a kid and used my dad's credit card without his permission (just a penny, he wouldn't even notice). A few payments that should have gotten me hundreds of cds showed up on his card at once and we had to skip dinner for three nights that week. Good riddance.

**Janszoon** · 08-12-2015, 10:49 AM

That's what they get for charging me for that Eric Clapton live album that I didn't want and never received back in 1995.

Aux-In · 08-12-2015, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

I did one of the 8 cds thing as a kid and used my dad's credit card without his permission (just a penny, he wouldn't even notice). A few payments that should have gotten me hundreds of cds showed up on his card at once and we had to skip dinner for three nights that week. Good riddance.

I did it with the permission of my parents, but I don't think they understood how it all worked. Quite frankly, neither did my young self. I ordered a bunch of CDs, which included Metallica's Ride The Lightning and Snoop Dog's Doggystyle, among others. One of the actual gems I got in a bundle order from Columbia House was Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies, which got me more into this band than what I had heard on the radio. With Snoop Dog, I probably bought the Doggystyle album because (a) it was in a prominent place in the brochure, and (b) because I liked the album cover. I didn't know what it was, really. Well, my mother heard it playing and proceeded to lay the biggest guilt trip on me of all time. So much so that later on I destroyed the album with a sledgehammer.

I think like anything else, if you had read the fine print and understood how it worked, it would've been a beneficial system for discovering new music you otherwise wouldn't have bought outright at your local record store.

Franco Pepe Kalle · 08-12-2015, 09:14 PM

Just a sad story about a great label going down hill.

08-12-2015, 10:04 AM	#2 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	They can go ahead and blame streaming, but their real problem is not being able to adapt. I did one of the 8 cds thing as a kid and used my dad's credit card without his permission (just a penny, he wouldn't even notice). A few payments that should have gotten me hundreds of cds showed up on his card at once and we had to skip dinner for three nights that week. Good riddance. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

08-12-2015, 10:49 AM	#3 (permalink)
Janszoon Mate, Spawn & Die Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Rapping Community Posts: 24,593	That's what they get for charging me for that Eric Clapton live album that I didn't want and never received back in 1995. __________________ A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man Time & Place 25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die last.fm

08-12-2015, 09:14 PM	#5 (permalink)
Franco Pepe Kalle Mwana Nzala Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Shakopee, Minnesota Posts: 627	Just a sad story about a great label going down hill. __________________ The problem with Franco Pepe Kalle is that he is a unpredictable character. There is surprising info about this man. You think he only likes Franco and Pepe Kalle but when you find out that he hears other artists, you are shock. Girls are the sexy thing that God created. Important to notice FPK.