What Happened to CD Clubs & Stores to Buy CDs?

Columbia House got bought by BMG, and the sites merged. I don't know how much less selection BMG has vs. earlier years - I have always used the site to "backfill" my collection, as they often have year-old "new releases" and remastered classic albums, and at good prices of course.

I don't listen to or collect classical, so I don't know what the landscape is for acquiring classical music. For rock, jazz, blues, etc., the stores are all gone, replaced by Amazon and the like. The selection is better than it ever was at even the best stores, you have a vast used market that drives the price way down, you can shop, easily, from your own home, and delivery is fast even if it's not instant like at a B&M shop.

My biggest problem with buying online is that you have to know something exists before buying. One of the true joys of shopping at Tower or other brick and mortar shops was discovering NEW stuff that was either just released OR that you weren't even aware existed. I've developed a whole new skill set when it comes to buying my tunes, and although I'm probably spending as much as ever, it ain't nowhere near as much fun!!!

Chazro, excellent point you make! Before, you would discover something in the stores, try it out by listening to it and buy it or not. That opportunity has gone completely. Instead , what I do, is meeting weekly with friends of similar interests and exchange news and ideas or try to follow developments online. If someone has better strategies, I'd be very keen to find out about it. It might even be worth a new thread....

The recording industry's greed caused this demise. If they had reduced prices instead of increasing them (after all, a CD costs 50 cents to make), as would have made sense after twenty years of manufacturing this medium, places like Tower and others would have continued to exist and make money.

Prices went the opposite way. For a number of years, full line CDs were $14.99. There was a time when EMI, I believe, reduced full line prices to $12.99. The problem was that the other labels didn't want to follow suit. After that, we slowly saw a decline in CD sales, and then a price increase upward, where full line at Tower were $16.99 to $18.99.

Tower used to have great sales: $11.99-$12.99 for full line, $8.99-$9.99 for mid line, $5.99-$6.99 for budget line. This spurred sales, and people bought and bought. But, for the greedy labels, this wasn't good enough, so, over time, these sales became less frequent. Tower would have a January storewide sale where everything was on sale, even imports and small labels that never went on sale.

Like every aspect of our great economy/society, it's all disintegrating and nobody gives a damn.

Good comments here. While I agree that I miss the store brousing to uncover new music, I have found that "discovery process" has been replaced with websites like Rapsody, CD Baby, Yourmusic.com and Amazon to where I can customize a search and it is as effective as my days of combing the stores (that are now gone). I still visit our local Barnes & Noble once a month to scan the CD inventory, I typically find at least one new artist to investigate. I just can't keep up with all the new (good) stuff out there.