Just announced that the owners are filing for bankruptcy with the DVD club, the last remaining piece of the empire.

Maybe a few of the music snobs looked down on the average, "Middle America" Club members - they are New Yorkers after all - but most of us working there never had the "sucker" mentality. We were just thrilled there were so many people who shared our passion for music. And we took our role as an inexpensive gateway to…

Aahh, good to hear from the brains behind the operation! Time has obviously clouded the little I did know about this. Haven't heard the phrase "excess free" in a long, long time.
And, yes, most of the staff - royalties, legal, traffic, inventory, new member marketing - all worked as hard as any other corporate employee…

They had the subscription-membership machine working well long before iTunes, Spotify, etc. but blew it through short-sighted inability to see beyond the golden goose (CDs). Same as the rest of the industry. By the time they clued in, it was too late. Plus, Napster was free. No one could compete with that. Oh, and…

It's all coming back to me from my time spent there! In the 80s, I think they used to take an actual photo of an album cover and then build their packaging from that. That's why it looks like square album cover on a rectangular cassette jacket. Seems to me that might have been the practice before the advent of…

I was working there then, but us music heads were kept in the dark about the financial model (or we didn't care!). But your assumption is close. I think it was something like $2-3 to manufacture and warehouse a CD…sell it for $18.99…gives you plenty of leeway to account for fraud and buy 1 get 1 free promos. No…

Not sure about the 80s but, by the mid-90s, CH was generally using the labels' actual artwork files to produce the packaging so they were identical in most cases. Only difference was the addition of a contractually obligated "Manufactured for Columbia House" line in the legalese mouse type. Same with the actual CD or…

Spent time at both CH and BMG in the '90s and this piece is a spot-on beautiful recollection…from the creative freedom, camaraderie and fun to the uneasy feeling that accompanied trumpeting the likes of Hootie as possibly the best album ever. At least until the next issue's Featured Selection stole its crown.