The Verge:

There was a time in the not-too-distant past where you couldn’t just open Spotify, your favorite torrent client, or iTunes and get hold of a song you wanted to hear. No, you had to obtain actual physical goods that they sold in things called stores. That is, of course, unless you were a member of the Columbia House music club.

Mail-order convenience was big back then, and the idea of a subscription music service that came to your door was pretty appealing. But times change and mediums mutate, and now The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Columbia House has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It was an ugly ending. Revenues for Columbia House peaked in 1996 at $1.4 billion, but last year the company declared net revenue of just $17 million.

Living in the backwoods of Nova Scotia as a kid without much money and no access to a record store, Columbia House was the only way many of us could get the latest CDs and cassette tapes. And, getting 12 albums for a penny also may have been my first lesson in “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.