I ran across an article today on how Columbia House and BMG made money on those record clubs. (http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/91126) This brought back some great memories of getting the 11 free albums in the mail! (Remember, kids, you couldn’t always download music for free!) The interesting thing I learned in this article was that Columbia House wasn’t even paying for a license to make these records and tapes! They did pay a 75% royalty, but never a license. I do remember getting records that were scratched upon arrival, but thinking nothing of it. When I hear certain songs now, I expect that particular skip in the music. LOL It appears that they were making sub-par products. Defective tapes, thin records, etc.

So, essentially, we were being sold illegal copies of music from these record clubs! Now go back and think about how threatening they were to you at 12 years old-demanding their money-making phone calls, etc.!

The article states that even with all the free music and losing money on people like me who just wanted the inital shipment, they made millions of dollars a year!

Makes me feel a lot better about the $26 I “owed” them for shipping the initial selections! 🙂