Columbia House and BMG were record clubs in the 1990s. This was a subscription service that regularly sent music album CDs to your house. They advertised in mailings, TV, radio, etc. It was ubiquitous.
The catalog for available records was quite vast. 
In order to get new customers, these record clubs had a loss leader marketing approach. You would get 5-10 CDs for only a penny for signing up, and you are not charged for the first month. After, there is a hefty cost. The CDs are yours to keep, but you need to cancel the membership before the first payment is due.
Word spread pretty fast that the deal was legit. For many of us kids pre-internet piracy, Columbia House represents the biggest album haul of that era.
Jaybob32@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
It was a tape then CD subscription. Except you initially got 10 or 15 albums for a penny or a dollar, I can’t remember. But then you had to buy so many CDs over the next year or something. And the prices were stupid.