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Thread started 12/24/15 10:18am

MickyDolenz

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Columbia House To Relaunch With Vinyl

by Tom Breihan @tombreihan | December 23, 2015

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For many music fans, our first experiences with debt entrapment were with Columbia House, the mail-order service that, once upon a time, would sell us 12 CDs for a penny and then force us to buy more at a crazy mark-up. Improbably, Columbia House only just shut down this past August. And now, it looks like it might already be coming back again, this time to capitalize on the vinyl boom.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that John Lippman, the man who bought the company out of bankruptcy this month, is hoping to relaunch it. “You can see a yearning and an interest to try a new format,” he says, and that new format he’s talking about is really an old one.

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Lippman, a former Lehman Brothers exec, bought the company at auction for about $1.5 million. He’s hoping to use social media to get millennials interested in buying big stacks of vinyl via mail. He doesn’t think there are enough online retailers offering it: “For a category that is meaningful and growing rapidly, you don’t see a whole lot of choice.” He probably won’t offer 12 LPs for a penny. But the mere fact that Columbia House will continue to exist, in any form, is crazy.

You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton
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Reply #1 posted 12/24/15 10:31am

SoulAlive

I was discussing this on another thread.This is GREAT NEWS! biggrin I am thrilled.In the late 80s,I joined Columbia House and it's one of the reasons why my CD collection is so huge.So glad to see that they're coming back.Can't wait to sign up!

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Reply #2 posted 12/24/15 11:37am

Adorecream
They had this company here, except you only got 5 albums at 99 cents each until the early 1990s. The last ads we saw had Prince albums like Diamonds and Pearls, and then they disappeared.

They got you by forcing you to pay $4.98 postage and packaging per album! So you paid $25 for your supposedly dollar albums regardless of format. Plus you had one album a month at usual club prices of $20-28 per album plus $4.95 postage and handling per album. Pretty much with this fee, it actually cost more than the album in the shops, as 99% of recent albums released in the past year were at the highest rate of $28.

If you did not buy an album every month, they sent you the pick of the month automatically which was usually some crappy country album or some trending chasing rubbish like Vanilla Ice, you were charged full whack for this. The other fish hook was a minimum term of 12 months or more and minimal buying requirements to the point there was no bargain overall to you. The club could afford the one off joining special as music was cheap wholesale and you were paying for the trend and appeal of the act/artist. I mean the vinyl used to make a budgt soundalike/oldie hits country or Number one hit album was the same and cost the same to make. The 99 cent country highlights album and $7.98 Meatloaf album in 1977 used the same 47 cents of vinyl.

To make it worse, Columbia house became Doubleday here and in Australia would sometimes issue club editions of albums which were often on cheaper quality vinyl, tape and disc which wore more easily and quicker. The ad you show is very old, about 1977 or 1978 judging by the albums and probably aimed at whites as most albums are rock, pop and easy listening as opposed to funk, soul and disco.

Pretty much, our club died under a stream of complaints, rip offs and order bungling. Plus the limited range of albums could not compare to wrekka stows and later on in the post 2000 period, downloading streaming and barn stores that sold new albums that cost a few dollars. Seriously when was the last time you paid full price for a CD.

I think this new guy had better not run it with all the excessive charges and fish hooks or this will be a flop. I doubt it will succeed as the vinyl boom is niche and most teenage chart music fans both with singles only and many chart artists don't really have big albums, I groups like Nicki Minaj and Silento.
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Reply #3 posted 12/24/15 12:44pm

SoulAlive

Nope,that's not how it worked.They gave you the option of buying the pick of the month,but you weren't forced to buy it.All you had to do was decline smile You could choose another album or simply not buy an album that month.

Adorecream said:

If you did not buy an album every month, they sent you the pick of the month automatically which was usually some crappy country album or some trending chasing rubbish like Vanilla Ice, you were charged full whack for this.
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Reply #4 posted 12/24/15 1:24pm

phunkdaddy

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Oh boy I had forgotten all about them. lol
Don't laugh at my funk
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Reply #5 posted 12/26/15 1:23am

CandaceS

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lol Columbia House! I had forgotten all about them...cannot believe they were still in business until just recently!?

It's been years, if not decades, since I saw an ad for them...how did anyone know they existed?

"I would say that Prince's top thirty percent is great. Of that thirty percent, I'll bet the public has heard twenty percent of it." - Susan Rogers, "Hunting for Prince's Vault", BBC, 2015
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Reply #6 posted 12/26/15 3:23pm

Adorecream

SoulAlive said:

Nope,that's not how it worked.They gave you the option of buying the pick of the month,but you weren't forced to buy it.All you had to do was decline smile You could choose another album or simply not buy an album that month.

Adorecream said:

If you did not buy an album every month, they sent you the pick of the month automatically which was usually some crappy country album or some trending chasing rubbish like Vanilla Ice, you were charged full whack for this.

You guys got a better deal then!

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I am sure that with our club, they just made money as the high postage and handling fees (Called shipping and handling in your country) were the actual cost price of the music to the company, so if people returned things for a refund, the company had already made their money on the transaction.

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Most mail order does this like Franklin Mint (Does that still go), with their plates and chintzy Kincaid type ceramic garbage that cost $100 or more. Usually the things were fired at a local kiln and no doubt later in China, for a few dollars and the $12.95 to $29.95 postage and handling fee was the actual cost of production, materials and dispatch to the warehouse. Refinds were always (Full refund, excluding return shippage and handling).

Some crooked groups like the Doubleday record club added extra fees like Insurance, Rush dispatch (I mean does standard dispatch sit around for several days). No doubt soon they will charge paper fees, boxage, pen wear, felt tip pen wear, hand strain for the employees and privilege of purpose and gold/elite Postage and Handeling.

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Reply #7 posted 12/26/15 6:07pm

tongueinthecre
ase

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How exciting! It's really annoying paying $15-20+ for vinyl. The nearest record store (which is still far away) charges out of the ass for Prince vinyl in good condition. I don't even want to talk about mint condition. I want to own Prince vinyl without paying 40 dollars for each, dammit! biggrin
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Reply #8 posted 12/26/15 6:44pm

Adorecream

tongueinthecrease said:

How exciting! It's really annoying paying $15-20+ for vinyl. The nearest record store (which is still far away) charges out of the ass for Prince vinyl in good condition. I don't even want to talk about mint condition. I want to own Prince vinyl without paying 40 dollars for each, dammit! biggrin

That is very expensive, but typical. Trade me here, our eBay has heaps of sellers selling old copies of classic Prince and Michael Jackson albums and singles at those astronomical prices like $35 to $60 per item. As much as I want these items, I am not paying that much. Plus many of these items in the photos they show, you can see clearly that the items are not mint or near mint, but more likly good to fair at best. Tatty looking sleeves and scratched records.

Lucky we had a 2nd hand store selling vinyl albums and 12 inches at the $8 to $12 each. But this store is closing down.
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Reply #9 posted 12/26/15 7:50pm

tongueinthecre
ase

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Adorecream said:

tongueinthecrease said:

How exciting! It's really annoying paying $15-20+ for vinyl. The nearest record store (which is still far away) charges out of the ass for Prince vinyl in good condition. I don't even want to talk about mint condition. I want to own Prince vinyl without paying 40 dollars for each, dammit! biggrin

That is very expensive, but typical. Trade me here, our eBay has heaps of sellers selling old copies of classic Prince and Michael Jackson albums and singles at those astronomical prices like $35 to $60 per item. As much as I want these items, I am not paying that much. Plus many of these items in the photos they show, you can see clearly that the items are not mint or near mint, but more likly good to fair at best. Tatty looking sleeves and scratched records.

Lucky we had a 2nd hand store selling vinyl albums and 12 inches at the $8 to $12 each. But this store is closing down.


Exactly. The physical stores are closing and online retailers/fashion stores (like urban outfitters, gag) are taking advantage of how little this generation knows about vinyl/the vinyl boom.

I paid over 40 dollars for the Dangerous album and it wasn't even og. I want the Velvet Rope vinyl by Janet but that's going for over 100 in decent condition. I want to wait for the vinyl boom to die down but it seems like it's getting worse.
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Reply #10 posted 12/27/15 7:47am

luvsexy4all

im sure it wont be that cheap like the 80's

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Reply #11 posted 12/28/15 11:56am

lastdecember

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The only way it will catch on is if there is a drop in price, and a big one. Its really just a "niche" thing, its really for the lover of the nostalgia of the album. You arent going to really sell a bunch of the new ADELE on vinyl at 25 dollars when the cd or download is 9. So the success of this genre is the older crowd getting in on collectors stuff. BUt that price is got to come down, saw some double vinyl reissues of single cd releases priced at 50 dollars and more while the single cd or download is 14, so you cant really build up anything with that at the core. They need special deals, more tracks not on digital, etc..


"We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F
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Reply #12 posted 12/28/15 4:38pm

TD3

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Barnes & Noble are selling vinyl albums for $25.00 and up. Good Luck with that... rolleyes

Greedy ass MF's that's why the music biz is in the shape it's in now. As ld mention, download an album for a 9 bucks vs ponying up 25 bucks. Besides, ol' skool music vinly' can be purchased far cheaper at resalel stores. ADELE may get some of her fans to puchase an album but this single buying generation? As I said, good luck with that'...

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Reply #13 posted 12/28/15 6:11pm

SoulAlive

This is my only problem with buying vinyl these days.The prices are too damn high!

TD3 said:

Barnes & Noble are selling vinyl albums for $25.00 and up. Good Luck with that... rolleyes

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Reply #14 posted 12/28/15 6:19pm

Adorecream

It is funny you mention Adele, every Xmas, our Ebay/Craigslist type site - Trade Me has a reduced fees to sell unwanted Christmas gifts online (Usually you can't return them, as you need the receipt and there is an obsession with people not gifting the receipts as they are self conscious about the price/value of a gift - materialistic mfers) and of these gifts Adele's album 25, is by the far the most unwanted.

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At one stage, some 53 copies of it were on trade me by the 27th, with many actually selling. I am not sure about you guys, but here in NZ, we don't have Black Friday, but the big Boxing day sales and many of us flood the malls with the 4 public holidays (Any Public Holiday on a Weekend day is Mondayised) and most companies let their workers have Christmas/New Years off as the weather is warm and settled.

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Got back from my local mall, some 200 shops, biggest in New Zealand - lots of overpriced vinyl, one store was selling a modern remake of Off the Wall for $46.99, the CD of it was $7!!!

Got some kind of love for you, and I don't even know your name
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Reply #15 posted 12/29/15 12:33pm

datdude

wonder if my payments will still be going to Terre Haute, IN?

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Reply #16 posted 12/29/15 10:31pm

SoulAlive

I wonder what the introductory deal is gonna be like? I can't imagine them giving away 12 vinyl records for one dollar,anymore smile

...

[Edited 12/29/15 22:32pm]

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Reply #17 posted 12/30/15 5:03am

phunkdaddy

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TD3 said:

Barnes & Noble are selling vinyl albums for $25.00 and up. Good Luck with that... rolleyes



Greedy ass MF's that's why the music biz is in the shape it's in now. As ld mention, download an album for a 9 bucks vs ponying up 25 bucks. Besides, ol' skool music vinly' can be purchased far cheaper at resalel stores. ADELE may get some of her fans to puchase an album but this single buying generation? As I said, good luck with that'...



Get the fuck out of here. I know this isn't 1978 anymore but remember when we used
to get vinyl for 5.99 from chains like Record Bar and Musicland. Ain't no way in he'll I'm paying that much for vinyl although there are some rare hard to find
vinyl for about 12 or 15.
Don't laugh at my funk
This funk is a serious joint
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Reply #18 posted 12/30/15 2:21pm

MichaelJackson
5
What happened to KTel records? They were a really good deal.
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Reply #19 posted 12/30/15 2:25pm

SoulAlive

phunkdaddy said:

TD3 said:

Barnes & Noble are selling vinyl albums for $25.00 and up. Good Luck with that... rolleyes

Greedy ass MF's that's why the music biz is in the shape it's in now. As ld mention, download an album for a 9 bucks vs ponying up 25 bucks. Besides, ol' skool music vinly' can be purchased far cheaper at resalel stores. ADELE may get some of her fans to puchase an album but this single buying generation? As I said, good luck with that'...

Get the fuck out of here. I know this isn't 1978 anymore but remember when we used to get vinyl for 5.99 from chains like Record Bar and Musicland. Ain't no way in he'll I'm paying that much for vinyl although there are some rare hard to find vinyl for about 12 or 15.

Yep,I remember in the late 70s when I first started buying records.$5.99 was the typical price for an album.I like the fact that vinyl has made a comeback,but I don't like these ridiculous,jacked up prices.

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Reply #20 posted 01/01/16 11:23am

TD3

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phunkdaddy said:

TD3 said:

Barnes & Noble are selling vinyl albums for $25.00 and up. Good Luck with that... rolleyes

Greedy ass MF's that's why the music biz is in the shape it's in now. As ld mention, download an album for a 9 bucks vs ponying up 25 bucks. Besides, ol' skool music vinly' can be purchased far cheaper at resalel stores. ADELE may get some of her fans to puchase an album but this single buying generation? As I said, good luck with that'...

Get the fuck out of here. I know this isn't 1978 anymore but remember when we used to get vinyl for 5.99 from chains like Record Bar and Musicland. Ain't no way in he'll I'm paying that much for vinyl although there are some rare hard to find vinyl for about 12 or 15.


Brotha if I'm lyin' I'm flying.... lol

Record suites never learn. We have Books A Million in our neck of the woods too. Two years ago they were seling vinyl' for about $ 8/ 9/10 bucks... now B.A.M have marked their vinyl' up to &20 / $25. At a time when damn good to excellent recievers, turntables, cd players, with speakers can be purchased at reasonable prices. Amazing. confused

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Reply #21 posted 01/01/16 5:14pm

Cinny

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I liked Columbia House or BMG Music Service when I wasn't living anywhere near a music store and could get stuff in the mail.


I remember the first ten CDs were a penny but after that each CD was like $26 each lol

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Reply #22 posted 01/01/16 5:48pm

alphastreet
Just the way cd's became popular at the height of thriller mania, it's like the same thing but backwards. Maybe Adele will double her sales because of people loving records again , especially the younger and concert going crowd
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Reply #23 posted 01/02/16 5:23pm

Adorecream

Cinny said:

I liked Columbia House or BMG Music Service when I wasn't living anywhere near a music store and could get stuff in the mail.



I remember the first ten CDs were a penny but after that each CD was like $26 each lol



Exactly, the price of albums for our Doubleday club in the early 90s were $28 plus the $4.95 for postage and handling per album, althouh they were all sent together! Further charges were for Strongly recommended insurance of $1.50 per album and the reply envelope was un stamped. In all this compared to the 31 to 35 dollars per album charged in the main music stores. In addition unless you ticked the microscopic box, you would be bombarded with junk mail from approved companies which was junk that was made in Taiwan that cost a lot and had the exorbitant postage and packaging costs.
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Reply #24 posted 01/03/16 8:10am

Cinny

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Adorecream said:

Cinny said:

I liked Columbia House or BMG Music Service when I wasn't living anywhere near a music store and could get stuff in the mail.


I remember the first ten CDs were a penny but after that each CD was like $26 each lol

Exactly, the price of albums for our Doubleday club in the early 90s were $28 plus the $4.95 for postage and handling per album, althouh they were all sent together! Further charges were for Strongly recommended insurance of $1.50 per album and the reply envelope was un stamped. In all this compared to the 31 to 35 dollars per album charged in the main music stores. In addition unless you ticked the microscopic box, you would be bombarded with junk mail from approved companies which was junk that was made in Taiwan that cost a lot and had the exorbitant postage and packaging costs.

I re-read your larger post. I had totally forgot that if you didn't choose a title, you would get their "pick" at full cost.

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Reply #25 posted 01/04/16 2:18pm

bobzilla77

I did the RCA/ BMG club in the late 90s. I was able to get a membership where I did not have to remember to return the card for auto-selections, they just never came. I would watch their catalog every month & with the various deals, postage and everything, it worked out to about $8 a disc. Sometimes less when they had clearance sales - I think I got the Steely Dan box for under $20.

I don't know how it will work with vinyl today. There aren't a lot of current releases selling in big numbers anymore.

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Reply #26 posted 01/04/16 7:38pm

Cinny

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bobzilla77 said:

I don't know how it will work with vinyl today. There aren't a lot of current releases selling in big numbers anymore.

Yeah, I am trying to picture what their selection would look like.

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Reply #27 posted 01/05/16 4:26pm

tongueinthecre
ase

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Cinny said:



bobzilla77 said:


I don't know how it will work with vinyl today. There aren't a lot of current releases selling in big numbers anymore.



Yeah, I am trying to picture what their selection would look like.



I'm hoping they'll sell older albums on the 180 gram vinyl like the music on vinyl site. I couldn't care less about newer albums being released on vinyl.
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Reply #28 posted 01/07/16 3:02pm

Cinny

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tongueinthecrease said:

Cinny said:

Yeah, I am trying to picture what their selection would look like.

I'm hoping they'll sell older albums on the 180 gram vinyl like the music on vinyl site. I couldn't care less about newer albums being released on vinyl.

No way in hell will they sell 180g.

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Reply #29 posted 01/07/16 4:40pm

tongueinthecre
ase

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Cinny said:



tongueinthecrease said:


Cinny said:


Yeah, I am trying to picture what their selection would look like.



I'm hoping they'll sell older albums on the 180 gram vinyl like the music on vinyl site. I couldn't care less about newer albums being released on vinyl.

No way in hell will they sell 180g.



Is it more expensive? Sorry for my naivety, lol.
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