Columbia House is Shutting Down (Again), This Time for Good

The 71-year-old mail-order music club Columbia House, which most recently sold DVDs and books, is shutting down after a rocky two-and-a-half decades.

Wow! 12 CDs for a penny?! Columbia House, the umbrella brand for Columbia Records’ mail-order music clubs, including the well-known Columbia Record Club—which was somehow still operating in 2026—is shutting down. The company, which most recently was selling books and DVDs, broke the news with a message on the Columbia House website.

“After 9/15/26, The Columbia House will no longer be accepting new orders,” the message reads. “You can still purchase books with your credit card or credits as normal.”

Columbia Records founded Columbia House in 1955 to send albums directly to otherwise hard-to-reach consumers. They did so by selling a set of records for just pennies in exchange for purchasing further releases later on at full cost.

By the 1970s, the Columbia House brand had significant market presence, which lasted throughout the ’80s and ’90s. The service eventually evolved to include cassettes and CDs as those became the ubiquitous methods of listening to music. In 1996, the service peaked with 16 million members.

But around the time peer-to-peer music-sharing platform Napster became a major topic of concern in the music industry, Columbia House switched ownership several times. In 2005, longtime competitor BMG Direct Marketing (formerly known as the RCA Music Service or RCA Victor Record Club) purchased Columbia House and consolidated operations.

In 2008, private investment group Najafi Companies acquired the company (alongside book club operator Bookspan) and renamed it Direct Brands. Direct Brands shut down its music mail-order operations the following year. However, it continued to use the Columbia House brand to market videos in the U.S. and Canada, selling DVDs and Blu-rays through the controversial practice of negative option billing.

DB Media, its Canadian subsidiary, ceased operations in December 2010, and all staff were dismissed, but its U.S. operations continued. Two years later, the company was sold to Pride Tree Holdings, and in 2013, the company changed its name to Filmed Entertainment.

In 2015, the company filed for bankruptcy and then promised a comeback amid the vinyl resurgence just a few months later. Notably, Sony Music still owns the Columbia House trademark, but Edge Line Ventures LLC is the current licensee of the Columbia House name.