Did anyone receive an album they liked from either Columbia House or BMG's selection of the month?

July 26, 2006 7:56 AM

Did anyone receive an album they liked from either Columbia House or BMG's selection of the month?

I am amazed that when I talk with friends, there is almost universal enmity towards the automatic selections that Columbia House and BMG would send out unless you sent in a card specifically declining that month's selection. My two most memorable shipments were "Songs for a Soulful Wedding," which I must have received due to checking off that I like 'Frank Sinatra' type music, and a Hall & Oates album that my brother got. Now I know some of you are thinking that Hall and Oates sold a lot of albums, but even if he was a fan (which he's not), this was no album with "Man Eater" or "Kiss on my List," it was 1990's "Ooh Yeah".
What other albums did people receive?
What kind of heuristic did these music clubs use to determine shipments? Was it related to over printing?
Did anybody get an album they cherish?

posted by Java_Man to grab bag (10 comments total)

Only once. Every month I have to go to BMG's website and click "No Thanks" for their lame featured selection. Sometimes I get too busy and forget to go back and click "No Thanks", or I miss the album notice in the first place. Once I forgot to check and they sent me Death Cab For Cutie's "Plans", which is alright. I was going to buy it anyway (albeit for much less...).

On a related note - what's the easiest way to cancel my BMG account? Hopefully without spending 10 hours on the phone with one of their reps?
posted by sprocket87 at 8:14 AM on July 26, 2006

Back when I was a member of Columbia House, I recall there being an option to auto-decline any selection of the month (from their web page). I never actually got an album of the month, period, but I know there were several occasions where the album of the month was an album that I already owned (but I think I only listed "Rock" and "Alternative" as musical styles that I liked, so it only sent me recommendations from those genres, and they were generally top-10-ish albums that were almost universally liked [except, most likely, here on MeFi]).
posted by antifuse at 8:18 AM on July 26, 2006

I can't remember ever getting anything I liked from either company. As for albums, the only one I remember was King's X's Faith Hope Love, which was not my cup of tea. It seems Bang Tango was also a selection once (both of these in the late 1980s/early 90s), but I might be misremembering that. I definitely don't remember getting a montly selection that was very good.

I've wondered more than once if the albums being sent to people aren't just underselling albums by a label owned by one of the music club companies, but I haven't been interested enough to look into it.

sprocket87: write a note saying you want your account canceled. They're not AOL; they'll do it. Or just use this link.
posted by Tuwa at 8:27 AM on July 26, 2006

I never signed up for one of these. But my dog did -- several times. He was always displeased with the record of the month selections they kept sending. Like he totally hates the Eagles, man! But I was happy to sell them at the local record store for him.

Usually they figured out in 3 or 4 months that dogs can't pay their bills, and stopped sending 'em.

good times.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 9:20 AM on July 26, 2006

I foolishly joined one of these in high school, though I can't remember which it was.

I wrote "return to sender" on every automatic shipment I received and left them in my mailbox. After a half dozen months or so, they simply stopped automatically shipping me anything that wasn't requested.
posted by utsutsu at 9:49 AM on July 26, 2006

I forgot to add that no, none of them were ever good. I had a hard enough time choosing good cd's for my initial joining purchase of 11 or so albums.
posted by utsutsu at 9:50 AM on July 26, 2006

I joined one in high school too, and simply wrote "STOP" in huge letters with a black Sharpie on the bill. Never heard from them again. As I recall, the automatic selections included Whitney Houston's Bodyguard soundtrack and something by Sting. Not to my taste, even back when my taste in music was pretty bad.

Frankly, I'm stunned to discover that these still exist. I joined by taping a penny to a postcard and mailing it in.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 10:15 AM on July 26, 2006

Be careful about simply sending them back. When I did BMG in high school, I sent one of the automatic selections back, which they claimed to never have received. After a few months of trying to convince them of this, I got a letter from a collection agency.
posted by chimmyc at 10:52 AM on July 26, 2006

I once got a CD from Columbia House that said on the outside it was my new order , "Best of....", and I opened it, foolishly thinking I had ordered a Best Of" CD.

I was upset when I opened it, to find out that it was "New Order, Best of New Order". It had Bizarre Love Triangle on it, which I hated, and 10 other songs I'd never heard of.
posted by stovenator at 12:56 AM on July 27, 2006

Hum You'd Prefer An Astronaut
posted by carsonb at 1:27 PM on July 30, 2006