business
The end of a music era. Columbia House mail-order club is going out of business
Summary by The Nashville Editorial Desk Debra Worley , as published by WSMV 4 News (NBC affiliate)
· August 20, 2026
· 1 min read
Photo: WSMV 4 News (NBC affiliate) · view original
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Summary created by The Nashville Editorial Desk — automated, rule-governed Byline on source page Debra Worley, as published by WSMV 4 News (NBC affiliate) Original story Read at the source Source published Aug 20, 2026 Indexed here Aug 20, 2026 AI assistance Automated summary drawn from the source’s own published text Prepublication human review No — editorial rules, flagged-item review, and published samples
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Key points The company brought in over $1 billion a year at its peak, selling CDs to Gen Xers building their music libraries. After closing its CD business in 2008, Columbia House shifted to selling DVDs.
Columbia House, a mail-order club, is closing for good. The club was known for its offers of cheap music, such as a dozen CDs for a penny each, with the commitment to buy more at full price later. It started in 1955 selling vinyl albums and became well-known in the 1980s and 1990s for its cassette and CD sales.
The company brought in over $1 billion a year at its peak, selling CDs to Gen Xers building their music libraries. After closing its CD business in 2008, Columbia House shifted to selling DVDs.
Further details on the closure are available from the company's website, which posted a notice about no longer accepting new orders.
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WSMV 4 News (NBC affiliate) reported and published this story. The Nashville selected it, summarised the key facts above, and links to the original. We did not report this story and we added no reporting of our own to it.
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As published by WSMV 4 News (NBC affiliate) . The Nashville selects stories from publishers’ feeds, summarises them, and links back to the publisher that reported them. We add no reporting of our own. We attribute every source, link to the original report, and follow a documented editorial standards policy. To understand how stories are selected and reviewed, read our about page .
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Category: business Published: August 20, 2026 Source: WSMV 4 News (NBC affiliate) Reading time: 1 min
Frequently asked about this story
What is this story about? Columbia House, a mail-order club, is closing for good. The club was known for its offers of cheap music, such as a dozen CDs for a penny each, with the commitment to buy more at full price later. It…
When was this published? This article was first published on August 20, 2026 by WSMV 4 News (NBC affiliate) and curated for The Nashville readers.
Who reported this story? This story was reported by Debra Worley at WSMV 4 News (NBC affiliate). To learn more about how The Nashville selects and reviews stories, see our editorial standards .
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