Remember this ad? Four former Columbia House employees reminisce about the best worst deal in music buying history.
From The AV Club:
Chris Wilcha: The whole business was premised on this concept called negative option. Which just sounds so creepy and draconian and weird, but the idea that if you don't say no, we're going to send you shit. It's going to fill your mailbox, and we're going to keep sending it unless you panic and beat us back. That was how the money was getting generated.
Sasha Frere-Jones: Most times when you're trying to get somebody to buy something, you are actively trying to get them to go and buy the thing, even if now it's clicking or subscribing and subscription. Columbia House had this brilliant, perverse method which was [that] you sign up and then all you have to do is tell us not to send you things, and if you don't remember that, we are going to sell you something and you have to pay for. And enough people will like that? Okay. And it was a profitable business. Could you ever get anyone to do that again?
Piotr Orlov: You can get a free trial of software, and if you don't deal with turning it off, you're going to get billed for $49. Again, all these things are precursors to how business is being done on the internet.
"Four Columbia House insiders explain the shady math behind "8 CDs for a penny""
Below, Chris Wilcha's Columbia House documentary, "The Target Shoots First":
The Target Shoots First from Chris Wilcha on Vimeo.
