The game of Columbia House and music-by-mail

Before Spotify, there was Columbia House—the iconic "8 CDs for a penny" club that lived in every magazine ad. But a few enterprising New Jersey men took it way too far. It's a wild dive into the loopholes of analog-era e-commerce, the nostalgia of handwritten order forms, and the fine print that fueled my teenage CD collection.  N.J. man admits using aliases to bilk music-by-mail clubs (Deseret News, Nov 19, 1999) '8 CDs For a Penny' Company Files for Bankruptcy (Laura Wagner, NPR, Aug 11, 2015) The Club You Don't Want Let Into (Jonathan Rowe, Spin, Jun 21, 2021) Instagram: @condensedsouppodcast [email protected] *This episode was recorded in my bedroom.