Columbia House (direct‐mailing distributor of club editions of releases)

Direct-mailing distributor of major label releases for many music labels. Columbia House was born 1971, but originally began its existence as CBS Direct Marketing Services in 1966, which was formed as parent of (and due to the growth of) Columbia Record Club (which started in 1955 and is still reflected by the legacy "CRC" code that is used by Columbia House on the non-vinyl releases they manufacture & distribute). Usually keeps the original label's cat# and adds the "C" prefix to it (on CD releases). Catalog #'s of both the original label and Columbia House usually appear on the CD's. Columbia House did not offer CDs before 1986.

Columbia House declared bankruptcy and ceased operations in August 2015. It was revived 4 months later.