ICYMI -  Sixteen Million People Fell for (and Benefited From) This CD Deal

ICYMI - Sixteen Million People Fell for (and Benefited From) This CD Deal

Columbia House once had sixteen million members across North America, and music expert Eric Alper explains how a penny-CD mail order club grew into a genuine billion dollar business. The scale of it is far bigger than the nostalgic joke it's become.

Eric also reveals the reason record labels were willing to let those CDs go out for almost nothing: the artists behind them were never paid a cent, because the whole arrangement was quietly filed under promotion. He walks through the formats Columbia House sold across decades, from vinyl records to eight-track tapes, and how long each one stayed on offer.

By the end, Eric connects the company's business model to something still affecting people's bank accounts today, a habit that started with Columbia House and never really went away.

Topics: Eric Alper, Columbia House, music industry history, penny CD scam, negative billing

GUEST: Eric Alper | That Eric Alper | Home | @‌thatericalper

Originally aired on 2026-09-17

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(2501)

NEW - Throwback Thursday: Columbia House - Did You Actually Pay for Your Ten Free Tapes?

NEW - Throwback Thursday: Columbia House - Did You Actually Pay for Your Ten Free Tapes?

A friend hands over a card. Ten tapes, practically free, just don't bother cancelling and nobody comes looking. That was the pitch, and millions of people took it without asking the one question that ...

18 Sep 8min

Shiftheads - University Report Just Priced Out Alberta Leaving Canada

Shiftheads - University Report Just Priced Out Alberta Leaving Canada

The Alberta separation referendum arrives in just over a month, and broadcaster Rob Breakenridge lays out what a new university report says it would actually cost, so you know the real numbers before ...

18 Sep 9min

NEW - What Would Business Owners Would Do With Lower Taxes?

NEW - What Would Business Owners Would Do With Lower Taxes?

Small business taxes get treated like an abstract line item until Corinne Pohlmann of CFIB puts real numbers on what businesses pay just to keep an employee on payroll, whether or not the business tur...

18 Sep 10min

Why Columbia House Never Actually Had to Cancel Anyone

Why Columbia House Never Actually Had to Cancel Anyone

Columbia House recently shut down, and Ed Conroy finally explains the business model that kept it running for decades after everyone assumed it should have collapsed. It came to Canada in 1979, and th...

18 Sep 9min

The Real Star of Brad Pitt's New Movie Isn't Brad Pitt

The Real Star of Brad Pitt's New Movie Isn't Brad Pitt

Richard Crouse previews Heart of the Beast, a survival thriller starring Brad Pitt as a stranded special forces officer fighting to survive the Alaskan wilderness, and reveals who Pitt himself says wa...

18 Sep 19min

Your Biggest Expense Isn't Rent, Gas, or Groceries

Your Biggest Expense Isn't Rent, Gas, or Groceries

Your tax bill outweighs every other expense Canadians complain about, and new research backs that up. Shane and Ryan break down why the conversation around cost of living keeps missing the actual numb...

17 Sep 9min

NEW - Canada's US Relationship Isn't the Ceiling Anymore

NEW - Canada's US Relationship Isn't the Ceiling Anymore

A stalled trade deal with the United States gets reframed here as something other than a loss. Jamie Ellerton argues Canadians have been treating a shrinking relationship with the US as the new ceilin...

17 Sep 19min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
bt-dokumentar-2
aftenpodden-usa
popradet
forklart
stopp-verden
fotballpodden-2
det-store-bildet
nokon-ma-ga
rss-espen-lee-usensurert
rss-gukild-johaug
hanna-de-heldige
dine-penger-pengeradet
rss-ness
saken
unitedno
aftenbla-bla
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
frokostshowet-pa-p5