13 Records or Tapes For A Penny?

I remember I was in high school and wanting to expand my music library. I was working so I thought no big deal when I got this thing in the mail that said I could get 13 records or tapes for just 1 cent. I had recently gotten a portable eight-track tape player (because I thought eight-tracks were going to be around forever) and so I picked out 13 eight-track tapes. I remember some of them being Styx, Queen, Billy Joel and others.

So I filled out the paper and as I was filling it out, I saw the fine print that I had to agree to buy a number of other albums at regular club prices over the next few years and that I would automatically receive a new title every month unless I sent the card back saying I didn't want it. Once I got it I had so many days to buy it or return it.

I bring this up today because according to the Associated Press, one of the companies that was big in this, Columbia House, filed for bankruptcy after years of falling sales. In the 1990s, Napster damaged them by allowing people to share music for free. Followed by Apple's iPods and iTunes, which meant you could download and take your music anywhere. Then came Amazon, Netflix and others. Columbia's sales went from a peak of 1.4 billion in 1996 to just 17 million last year. The music club ended in 2010 and it had combined operations with one-time rival BMG Music.

Columbia House started in 1955, initially offering vinyl records.

As Bob Dylan said, "oh the times are a changing"

By the way I still  have a working JC Penny Stereo eight-track tape player in my garage, and a few tapes.