Weird History

How the "8 CDs for Penny" Club Worked (2020x120)

: 30, 2020

If you came of age in the pre-streaming era of the '90s, you remember having to buy your CDs from stores. Or, maybe you took advantage of the Columbia House music club and its eight-CDs-for-a-penny deal, a discount that was too good to be true. How could they sell products for next to nothing and still make a profit? With a business model that’s downright Kafka-esque, music clubs managed to make money hand over fist by maintaining a low overhead, a high markup, and an ever-changing set of confusing rules. The following slice of music industry history lets you in on how music clubs made money, what customers were paying for, and how exactly they were being screwed.