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A mail-order club that once offered new members as many as 12 CDs for a penny has announced its closure after 71 years. But Columbia House, which ceased music sales and Canadian operations in 2010, removed the closing announcement from its website on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
CBC News has reached out to the company for more information about its future.<\/p>\n
Music enthusiasts first spotted the closing notice this weekend. It said, “after 9\/15\/26, The Columbia House will no longer be accepting new orders.” <\/p>\n
The company was originally started by Columbia Records in 1955 as Columbia Record Club, aiming to expand music sales to regions where consumers didn’t have access to record stores. The mail-order business exploded, adding new technology as it evolved, including cassettes and CDs. Eventually, DVDs of films and TV shows were added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A CD display is shown at Grooves Records in London, Ont., in 2023. (Michelle Both\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Early customers were lured in by magazine and newspaper inserts that promised multiple records, tapes or CDs if customers simply mailed in a penny \u2014 provided that they also agreed to purchase a minimum number of musical releases every month going forward. <\/p>\n
The model was successful: according to a 2011 article<\/a> from the Boston Phoenix, Columbia House had shipped more than a billion records and accounted for 15 per cent of all CD sales by 1994.\u00a0<\/p>\n But revenue dipped as music consumers started finding more options online. In 2010, then owned by Direct Brands, Columbia House stopped selling music, shifting its mail-order business to solely DVDs. It also closed operations in Canada.<\/p>\n If this week’s news sparks deja vu, that may be because the parent of Columbia House, then Filmed Entertainment Inc., already filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. in 2015<\/a> \u2014 but the company has been quietly limping along on DVD sales until now.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company said in 2015 that its revenue had peaked in 1996 at approximately $1.4 billion US.\u00a0<\/p>\n The news comes amid a swell of enthusiasm for physical media. Data compiled by Music Canada from a report on global music trends found that 2025 was another banner year for vinyl sales<\/a>, with record stores also reporting an uptick in business. <\/p>\n WATCH | This London burger joint is bringing back video rentals: Step inside this new old-school video rental shop in London, Ont.<\/p>\n The days of walking into a video shop and renting a movie don’t have to be in the past. A burger shop on Richmond Row in London, Ont., has pivoted to VHS tapes and DVDs. CBC’s Kendra Seguin takes a visit to Half Life Bookshop & Video on Richmond Row to check it out.<\/p>\n Although many already said their goodbyes to Columbia House’s nostalgic model of music collection amid the flurry of articles around the 2015 bankruptcy filing, this week’s news has music appreciators flocking to social media to honour the company that once helped them build their music libraries \u2014 and to joke about unpaid fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787102411_366_default.jpg\")
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