history of the "record-club"?

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

I would enjoy learning more about the history of "record-clubs" and how they operated, both from a business and audiophile standpoints, etc....like columbia house and Rca record club or what have you...

[michel1969]

Columbia record club

More Columbia record club

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

hmmm,,,thanks

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Here's one about the British company World Record Club, which seems to have started at about the same time as the Columbia club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Record_Club

RCA Victor also had a club, I think. And there was also Readers Digest, which was kind of the same.

But I recall some reference to a very early record club before the war. Can't remember where it came from at present. If I think of it, I'll come back.

MG

[JSngry]

The Capitol Record Club was where you got The Beatles & The Beach Boys & Al Martino & Nat Cole & all that EMI stuff.

http://www.friktech.com/btls/rci.htm

http://www.rarebeatles.com/photopg6/y&trcad.htm

Edited November 27, 2008 by JSngry

[JSngry]

I used to belong to The Record Club Of America: http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/bs.../vpost?id=87267

Got my copy of Trane's Transition from them in fact.

[GA Russell]

I was a member briefly of the RCA Record Club in 1966. I quit as soon as I saw what was available. They sold only albums that were months old, and as a teenager I only wanted the newest stuff!

Of course it's the same today, but now I don't care if a record was released six months ago. To me now, that's new!

I think the real revolution occurred in 1998 (as I recall) when BMG (the successor to RCA) put their entire inventory online, so that you no longer had to wonder what was available, and you could buy what you wanted most rather than what was featured in the latest mailing.

I may be wrong, but I believe that record club items were not made of the same high quality vinyl as what was used for store-bought discs. That changed with the introduction of CDs of course. (I've never heard of whether there was much difference when the quality of store-bought vinyl plummeted in the 70s.)

[captainwrong]

I used to belong to The Record Club Of America: http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/bs.../vpost?id=87267

Got my copy of Trane's Transition from them in fact.

Funny. I just bought a mono Kulu Se Mama that appears to have come from the Capitol club. (It has a Capitol number on the spine.)

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

yes, i believe most if not all of the club releases were mastered from vault COPIES.....

[sidewinder]

Here's one about the British company World Record Club, which seems to have started at about the same time as the Columbia club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Record_Club

They also issued some nice British Jazz originals of the early 60s including sought-after titles by Tubby Hayes, Paul Gonsalves, Ronnie Ross, Bill LeSage etc. I have a couple of them and the sound quality is good.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Here's one about the British company World Record Club, which seems to have started at about the same time as the Columbia club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Record_Club

They also issued some nice British Jazz originals of the early 60s including sought-after titles by Tubby Hayes, Paul Gonsalves, Ronnie Ross, Bill LeSage etc. I have a couple of them and the sound quality is good.

They also issued Hoagy Carmichael's Pacific Jazz album with Art Pepper etc. clearly sometime after EMI took over UA in 1980; I bought mine in 1989, but it might not have been a recent release, but it did say Liberty was part of Capitol. Don't like the pressing of this one much.

MG

[medjuck]

Someone told me recently (Friday in fact) that George Avakian came up with the idea for the Columbia Record Club.

[Jazzmoose]

The only record club I remember joining was Records Unlimited, back in the early 70s. I assume it worked like most record clubs, although it was an early convert to the not having to buy eight or ten LPs to finish your obligation. That was a pretty important difference to a high school kid...

Strange that I can find no reference to this on the internet. Another forgotten aspect of life, I suppose.

[GA Russell]

The Capitol Record Club was where you got The Beatles & The Beach Boys & Al Martino & Nat Cole & all that EMI stuff...

http://www.rarebeatles.com/photopg6/y&trcad.htm

By the time October of '66 rolled around, Yesterday & Today was very old news. I can't imagine a high school kid who was interested in owning that record not already having it by then.