Another era officially comes to an end.

[ForeverAutumn]

I couldn't tell you how many of my CDs came from Columbia House. I remember many deals of 10 CDs for a penny or another similar offer. Honestly, I thought Columbia House had closed it's doors a long time ago. I haven't received anything from them or heard anything about them for many years. But apparently they were still alive in Canada...until last Thursday that is...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/columbia-house-closes-doors-canada-due-obsolete-media.html

[3LB]

I had an account years ago, but their idea of "hard rock" was Richard Marx, Nelson or Bryan Adams. By the mid '90s, used CD stores were everywhere.

Good riddance.

[thekid]

Damn and I had finally saved up enough to attach my penny to the order form so I could join the club and get those bonus CD's.....

[Stone]

Through the years I did vinyl, cassettes, and CDs through them (usually piggy backing accounts to get the bonus albums for signing myself up). I thought they were long gone too.

[GMichael]

I was a member of Columbia house and BMG for years. I had memberships for CD’s and DVD’s. Didn’t they merge, or one buy the other out a few years back? Gone huh? Oh well. They were pretty annoying after a while. Their selections sucked too. Downloads must have kicked their butts.

[Swish]

...they had that 'recommended' album they would send you automatically if you didn't send them notice that you didn't want it. Yes, I forgot to send it a couple times, but it was a lame marketing ploy. I know they stopped that practice later on, but perhaps they were forced to do so.

I was also a BMG member and preferred their style. However, both really lacked selection, and I started ordering from some CD place in Boston (I think). They had some great deals back in the day, along with free shipping if you ordered a certain number. I'd always get friends to order a couple so we could share in the free shipping rewards. That's commonplace now, but it was kind of a big deal back then. They closed shop about 10 or so years ago as best I can recall.

[Hyfi]

I found that the BMG CDs were made on less than top quality machines and did not sound the same as a store purchase of the same disk.

[bfalls]

I worked for Columbia Records in Terre Haute IN from 1976 - 1981 in their tape facility. I performed setup and EQ in their listening rooms and other general electronics support. It's where I developed my ear for music.

They had some excellent gear. The cassette playback decks were all Nakamichi we had several, 700, 1000, 582z.. Amplification was handled by either Crown, or McIntosh. It was the only plant I know who used Mc40s for their plant PA system. I still have two of them.

Speakers were mostly JBL. Studio Monitors in the A/B rooms with 15" woofers and tweeters with finned lenses. QC listening rooms had JBL L100. Masters (15ips and 7.5ips) were handled on 3M Isoloop, Ampeg or Scully decks. I saw one of the original laserdisc players (where the disc was kept in the case and the entire unit inserted) there in around 1980. The plant closed in 1981 when it moved to Carrollton Ga.

Some of you may remember their "Masterworks" audiophile line of cassettes. It used center-line Chromium-Dioxide tape, recorded at 16X playback speed instead of the normal 40X and used used very high-end Masti****a glass recording heard. During recording of blank area between songs and at the beginning and end of the tape, the recording amps had a sensor which turned them off so you wouldn't hear tape hiss.

They had a big presence in Terre Haute. It wasn't unusual to have several members in one family working for them. It hit the economy pretty bad when they left. About once every couple of months, they'd have a warehouse sale. LPs went for $.50, 8-tracks for $1, cassettes $3. Ah, those were the days. Columbia House (Club and distribution) was still here until just a few years ago.

It's strange, but I now work for Sony in the same building where I worked for Columbia. When Columbia House left we took over their building where Sony/BMG now reside.

[ForeverAutumn]

It's strange, but I now work for Sony in the same building where I worked for Columbia. When Columbia House left we took over their building where Sony/BMG now reside.

Off-topic story...Several years ago I worked for an insurance company. I left the company and they were eventually sold and moved out of that building. Skip forward a couple more years and I found myself working for a Financial Planning company that had moved into the office space of my former employer. LOL. I always liked that building. I felt like I was returning home.

[Rae]

Teenage me scammed many a cassette and CD from Columbia House, and the less said about that, probably the better.

~Rae