“The mail-order music company that once tantalized countless broke teenagers by offering popular CDs for pocket change no longer exists,” Kim Bellware reports for The Huffington Post.
“Filmed Entertainment Inc., the parent company of Columbia House, on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and is seeking to sell off the last vestiges of what was once a billion-dollar business,” Bellware reports. “Famous for its eight-CDs-for-a-penny deals, Columbia House was at the height of its popularity in the mid-’90s, when it accounted for 15 percent of all CD sales, according to The Boston Phoenix’s 2011 profile of the company. Columbia House reached its peak revenue in 1996, raking in roughly $1.4 billion that year. But the company’s fortunes have been in a steady two-decade decline, netting just $17 million last year.”
Bellware reports, “‘This decline is directly attributable to a confluence of market factors that substantially altered the manner in which consumers purchase and listen to music, as well as the way consumers purchase and watch movies and television series at home,’ FEI Director Glenn Langberg said in court papers, according to The Wall Street Journal.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Once upon a time, in what feels like eons ago, we ordered up 8 CDs for a penny and then promptly cancelled our membership as soon as we fulfilled the “buy three CDs at exorbitant prices” term. Did you?
This is what disruption looks like:
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Samsung pulls plug on music, e-book store duds – May 30, 2014
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: All 300 Blockbuster retail stores to close by January – November 6, 2013
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: BlackBerry’s BBM Music is dead – April 8, 2013
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: HMV is dead – January 15, 2013
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Wal-Mart axes online music store – August 10, 2011
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Nokia pulls plug on ‘Comes With Music’ – January 17, 2011
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Sky Songs is dead – December 08, 2010
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: SpiralFrog croaks – March 19, 2009
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Total Music is dead – February 11, 2009
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Ruckus is dead – February 08, 2009
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Starz pulls plug on ‘Vongo’ – August 13, 2008
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Yahoo! Music Store is dead – July 24, 2008
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Yahoo shutters online music subscription service – February 04, 2008
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Wal-Mart pulls plug on movie download store – December 27, 2007
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Virgin Digital is dead – September 24, 2007
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: MTV’s Urge is dead – August 21, 2007
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Google pulls plug on Google Video – August 13, 2007
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Sony disconnects Connect – June 17, 2007
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: AOL Music Now folds – January 12, 2007
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Virgin shutters U.S. music service – January 05, 2007
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: MSN Music stops selling music downloads – November 03, 2006
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Japan’s Oricon bows out – November 01, 2006
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Tower Records liquidated – October 09, 2006
More blood on Apple iTunes Music Store’s play button: MyCokeMusic is dead – June 20, 2006
Apple’s iTunes Music Store has blood on its play button: BuyMusic.com is dead – March 28, 2004
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tayster” for the heads up.]