After two decades of declining revenue, the owner of Columbia House – a once-giant in the music industry – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday.
Columbia House was widely known for its introductory offers, such as ‘a dozen albums for a penny’. Despite the negative option model (after receiving the introductory offer, members were required to fulfill a certain number of purchases at full price), once-members are likely flooded with a sense of nostalgia at the mention of the name.
Although the mail-order music club moved exclusively to movies and television in 2010, it got its start in 1955 as a means for Columbia Records to market vinyl directly by mail. Through the years, the company evolved with the advent of new formats, reaching its height in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Filmed Entertainment Inc., the parent company of Columbia House, is offering the remains of the mail-order company to whoever wants them. And they will likely go cheap.