[78-L] End of An Era - No More "Buy One Get 12 FREE" (read on)

[Steve Ramm]

FYI:
 
BMG Music Service Stops Taking New Members December 23, 2008 - Retail 

By Lou Hau, N.Y.BMG Music Service stopped accepting new members this week, marking the end of the once-ubiquitous "12 for the price of one" offers that the mail-order CD club was known for.A spokesperson for BMG Music Service parent Direct Brands confirmed Tuesday that the music club is no longer accepting new members, although she declined to comment on whether the company plans to shut down the club completely."We are still very actively engaged with our existing member base and will be making more changes to serve them...more effectively later in 2009," the spokesperson said.The club's former home page bmgmusic.com now greets visitors with an invitation to join Direct Brands' other music service Yourmusic.com, which sells all CDs in its catalog for $6.99 each, but requires members to purchase at least one CD a month.BMG Music Service informed its members earlier in December that it will discontinue its Music Points Program at the end of January. The frequent-buyer program awarded points for each purchase that could be applied toward a free CD. The club said members can continue to redeem existing music points through April 30.In a deal announced in July, Bertelsmann AG sold Direct Group North America, which included BMG Music Service, Columbia House, Book-of-the-Month Club and other direct marketing clubs, to private-investment firm Najafi Companies of Phoenix. Najafi renamed the business Direct Brands.In Bertelsmann's 2007 annual report, which was released in March before the sale of the direct marketing business, the German media conglomerate said it planned to discontinue its CD clubs in 2010 "on account of the slump in the physical music market."
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