Columbia House Music Club

The Best Deal on Music CDs Anywhere

Important Note: Columbia House Music Club is closed.

The Columbia House Music Club is closed and the following article is out of date. BMG Direct acquired The Columbia House Company in 2005 and the Columbia House Music Club was replaced by the long-running BMG Music Service. (The Columbia House DVD Club remains in place and unchanged.) Coming soon: an updated article about gleaning the best deal from the BMG Music Service.

Step 1: Pick your introductory CDs.

The standard deal gives you 12 CDs for free, plus $1.99 each for shipping and processing. So pick your 12 CDs from those available for your introductory selections. You don't get access to Columbia House's complete catalog of over 10,000 titles until you're a member, but there's still a lot to choose from when joining. Once your 12 CDs are in the shopping cart, proceed to the checkout.

That's step one: 12 CDs for a total of $23.88.

Step 2: Purchase your fulfillment CDs.

Now you have to buy five more CDs from Columbia House within the next two years at $14.98 or more plus shipping and processing. Try to choose fulfillment CDs priced at $14.98 if possible -- but you won't be getting a bum deal if your fulfillments are $17.98 either. The Columbia House Music Club has been slashing prices lately, so you can pre-order most new releases for $14.98 and even pick up most CDs in their catalog for between $14.98 and $16.98. Not bad.

Once your account is approved, you can log on to the Columbia House Music Club members-only website, which gives you access to their complete selection of over 10,000 music CDs. Let's say you decide to pick five fulfillment CDs priced at $14.98. The Columbia House Music Club's regular shipping and processing rate is $2.59 per CD. You're happy with your picks, so you proceed to the checkout.

That's step two: five CDs for a total of $87.85.

And you're done.

You've fulfilled your commitment. How'd you do?

You made out with 17 CDs for a grand total of $111.73, or $6.57 per CD. The average CD price at Amazon.com is about $14, so that's a pretty sweet deal. But you can get an even better deal if the Columbia House Music Club happens to run one of their "get two free when you buy one at regular price" promotions when you order your fulfillments. I was lucky with my last Columbia House Music Club membership and happened upon that deal, making out with 27 CDs (12 intros, five fulfillments, and 10 free CDs) for $137.63, or $5.09 per CD. If you wait a few months from the time you get your 12-CD intro package, a deal along these lines will probably pop up, but you should do some calculating to see if it will actually reduce your price-per-CD average. (Update: As of January 2004, Columbia House has been frequently offering a "get three free when you buy one at regular price" members-only deal that can lower the price-per-CD average to less than $4!)

While the Columbia House Music Club doesn't have Amazon.com's vast selection -- since they don't carry most CDs from independent record labels -- they carry most CDs from the major record labels past and present in nearly all popular genres. Some artists I've recently stocked up on at Columbia House include The Clash, Pavement, The Replacements, Led Zeppelin, The Flaming Lips, Wilco, Bob Dylan, The Cure, Miles Davis, and Weezer. I'm sure they have lots of music you dig, too. Although I like a lot of indie stuff you can't get here, the Columbia House Music Club is probably the single best deal on major-label music anywhere.

If you find this article helpful, you can show your support by joining the Columbia House Music Club through the links or ads on this page.

Join the Columbia House Music Club.

Article published 04.21.2003; updated 02.16.2006.

Read our article about the Columbia House DVD Club.