Another sign that the world is moving on arrived in my e-mail box today: A note from BMG Music Service informing me that the music club is folding as of June 30. I guess this time they really mean it when they say the offer for that stack of CDs comes "with nothing more to buy … ever."They're replacing the club with a new service, yourmusic.com, which sounds like a boneheaded, cue-based Netflix approach, except you don't send the music back.
I've been a member of BMG since the early '90s. Like everybody else, I couldn't pass up those dozen CDs for a penny deals, and it was a decent way to boost a music collection, even if their editions were sometimes dodgy. I can remember some of the cassettes I got back in the day didn't include liner notes. And it was a pain to have to mail in that card declining the featured selection that you wouldn't want in a million years.
Steep shipping charges and the delay for new releases were always problems, but a bigger obstacle in recent years has been lack of selection. There have been numerous times when, lured to the site by an offer of 60 percent off with no shipping and handling, I would have bought something if there were anything I wanted. Looking for Goldfrapp's back catalog? Go elsewhere.
Of course, BMG deals in physical media, which can't catch a break these days. Really, though, when Amazon MP3 sells a hot new album for a few bucks on release day, it's not a surprise that the era of the music club gets an obit this year.
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