BMG Music Service ending

When I was kid, I used to join BMG, than know as Columbia House ten thousand times under countless alias such as John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Bon Scott etc, I hate to see it go even if their selections in the last few years have not been so great anyway here is the story from RS:

The BMG Music Service — the mail-order company famous for offering CDs at deals like “12 for the price of one” — has revealed in an e-mail to subscribers that they will cease operations on June 30, 2009. The writing seemed to be on the wall in December 2008, when Rolling Stone reported on the company’s announcement that they’d no longer allow new subscribers to sign up; at the time the service said they were “very actively engaged with our existing member base and will be making more changes to serve them.” Instead, three months later BMG Music Service is encouraging current subscribers to join up with sister site yourmusic.com, which offers albums at a discount price of $6.99 with no shipping fees.
In the e-mail, BMG told subscribers, “You will receive one more Featured Selection Announcement email from us” and “You will still be able to shop at bmgmusic.com through May 31, 2009.” However, the service will cease to exist on June 30th, so if you have any “Music Points” or “certificates for free CDs,” you may went to stop hesitating and just order Viva la Vida already. BMG, Columbia House and similar services claimed a large chunk of CD sales in the 1990s. Columbia House stopped selling CDs when it was bought by BMG Direct in 2005; today Columbia House operates as a DVD club.

It's not like we didn't see this coming, but man-oh-man, cd retailers are dropping like flies. It's really happening much faster that I thought.

That's kind of a bummer but as MG71 said, it's not exactly shocking either.

I was a member of BMG Music Club for most of the 90s and into the early '00s, but had stopped ordering stuff from them over time because most of their "new" release offerings were either top 40 crap or it was stuff that I already had or could find cheaper elsewhere. The last time I ordered anything from'em was probably seven or eight years ago. Though I was still getting junk mail from them saying "We miss you!" and offers to re-join the club up until two or three years ago, when those letters stopped coming I thought "Hmm, I guess they finally gave up on me," haha.

With the rise of the Internet in the 90s their business model became instantly out of date anyway. When those clubs started back in the 70s, their bread and butter customers were people in out of the way rural areas who didn't have a record store nearby. Nowadays you've got Amazon and zillions of other sites that provide the same service, at prices that are way cheaper than BMG or Columbia House, so they have become unnecessary.

I was a member in the mid to late 90's but got tired of seeing only popular releases.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

It's not like we didn't see this coming, but man-oh-man, cd retailers are dropping like flies. It's really happening much faster that I thought.

Yeah, there seems to be a bunch of reasons for this, but primarily I blame it on the greed of the major record labels.

For years now the retail stores have been begging the labels to drop their wholesale prices so they could price items more competitively, but the labels wouldn't budge. Right now there is a battle being waged by places like Borders who are threatening to cut their CD/DVD stock by 70% if the labels don't give them a better deal.

Then you have the download stores like iTunes and Amazon, where you can buy a full length album for under $10 without having to pay shipping prices or waiting for it to arrive. The lower price points at the online shops changed the mindset of the average consumer, who all of a sudden wondered why they were paying $18.99 for a CD at FYE when they could either buy the same disc at Amazon for $12.99...or purchase the download for $8.99. The labels should have seen this coming and adjusted their prices accordingly...but again they didn't pay any attention.

Now you have the recession on top of everything else, people aren't spending nearly as much money on entertainment items. This recession will finally force the hand of the record labels...if they don't act this time, their 27 year old cash cow is going to vanish like the 8-track.

I was a member of both BMG and Columbia House at various times - always was a great way to add to the collection Meet my membership requires, joining BMG, meet those, joing back up with CH.

not really a big shock. those of us who actually buy cds these days are getting fewer & fewer.

Alright! Now all my BMG CDs will be considered OOP!!!! Look out eBay, I'm gonna sell these for BIG BUCKS! Woo-hoo!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

It's not like we didn't see this coming, but man-oh-man, cd retailers are dropping like flies. It's really happening much faster that I thought.

It's fear. Newbury Comics is opening new stores! They just opened a big "mega" store on route 1 a few months back. It's packed, all the time. Why? Because the demand is still there, and they know it. And their prices are great!

It's also bad business practices. The CEOs of these companies that are going under sure did well for themselves, but their greed is what made their hole too deep. Newbury Comics does it the right way.

Eyesore wrote:

It's fear. Newbury Comics is opening new stores! They just opened a big "mega" store on route 1 a few months back. It's packed, all the time. Why? Because the demand is still there, and they know it. And their prices are great!

Well, tell'em to open one in New Jersey for cryin' out loud!! It seems to me like you do pretty well finding cool stuff there and I could use a new scrounging spot!

I got almost all my box sets through BMG. Every so often they'd have all their box sets discounted and I'd go nuts.

I got a ton of albums from BMG. I had an account up until 2007. Sign of the times.

Eyesore wrote:

It's fear. Newbury Comics is opening new stores! They just opened a big "mega" store on route 1 a few months back. It's packed, all the time. Why? Because the demand is still there, and they know it. And their prices are great!

In LA, every "mega" store is gone. In fact, just about every CD shop is gone. There is only Amoeba Records and CD Trader that I know that still operates and has great selections. All four of the Tower Records are gone, Virgin Megastore is gone, the Wherehouses have been gone a long time, even the 3 smaller CD shops I used to go to are gone as of 2007. Hopefully Amoeba will stay put.

I never used BMG. I always thought it was stupid and a waste of money. The only thing I ever wanted from there when I couldnt find it anywhere else was Metallica Garage Days Re Revisited. I'll never forget the day a friend of mine got it I was so pissed and I asked him if he could get me one but he wouldnt. So needless to say we were no longer friends.

So I took a look at that yourmusic.com page and its actually not that bad. Once I find out whats going on with a cd deal I might just sign up to that one. The only thing about it is you are charged 6.99 each month plus the price of the cd. So I was thinking of picking all the cds I wanted bought them all in one shot instead of them coming each month and then just canceling so I only get charged that 6.99 once. Make sense?

I did yourmusic.com for awhile. Its a good way to get a collection of commons.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

So I took a look at that yourmusic.com page and its actually not that bad. Once I find out whats going on with a cd deal I might just sign up to that one. The only thing about it is you are charged 6.99 each month plus the price of the cd. So I was thinking of picking all the cds I wanted bought them all in one shot instead of them coming each month and then just canceling so I only get charged that 6.99 once. Make sense?

I really enjoyed that club, they have a ton of great jazz titles as well as the usual rock stuff. You're actually not charged $6.99+ the price of a CD. The $6.99 gets you one CD per month from your queue, if you want to purchase additional discs they are $6.99 each. It's as easy to use as Netflix.

I have many a C.D's through BMG. Having lived in Indiana for a good portion of my life, it didn't take long for my orders to get through, since they were located out of Indianapolis. I really took advantage of the freebies. I would sign my Mother & Father up, which would then garner me I think a total of 6 more free C.D's. They might pick one C.D a piece that they wanted for themselves, and then I would pick another 9 0r 10 or whatever it was. Here I was, getting like 37 C.D's for free, and only paying regular price for 3!!! Of course there was always shipping and handling, but I was still making out wonderfully.

I'm not by any means a shady character, but while I was away at school, I signed myself up under my middle name as well. The C.D's kept coming, and nobody cared, or so my roommate told me. She had worked for BMG over the summer and said they knew about all the scams, but they didn't care. They were making plenty of money.

I do remember a good buddy of mine who lived in a frat house while at Indiana University stating that BMG sent them a notice stating that there were too many members that lived at the one household. Hence, their membership ended. I don't know how many it would take before BMG stated enough was enough, but it sounded like they were pretty lenient regarding all of that ridiculousness.

Anyways, R.I.P. BMG

Im a BMG member but I never bought too much from them not really fond of their selection (well based on my tastes) I have 1 free CD coming from them just gotta decide what to pick out