MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A longtime mail order business has announced it will take its final orders next month. Columbia House sent generations of music lovers running to check the mailbox. It promoted mail order deals that sounded almost too good to be true, as you can hear in this TV ad.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Any 12 records or tapes, one penny. Or any six compact discs for $1. Either way you look at it, it's a small price to pay for one giant chunk of music.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Those deals had a catch. After the initial shipment, you were part of the club and had to buy more albums at regular club price. Columbia House would also ship you unsolicited releases in the mail, unless you sent back a reply card refusing the offer.
KELLY: The record club launched in 1955. As technology changed, it pivoted from vinyl to reel-to-reel, 8-tracks to cassette tapes and, finally, CDs and DVDs. At its peak in the 1990s, it had millions of members. It was pulling in $1.4 billion in revenue. And as it proclaimed, in this jingle, it was big enough to entertain America.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Columbia House. We love to entertain America.
SUMMERS: The club eventually abandoned music in 2010 to focus on DVDs. And though Columbia House survived multiple corporate restructuring, and even a 2015 bankruptcy, now, even its mail order DVD sales are coming to an end.
KELLY: End of an era. A message on its website reads, after September 15, 2026, the Columbia House will no longer be accepting new orders. YouTuber Channel 33 RPM first spotted the notice and a call to Columbia House's customer service line confirmed the news. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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