Now, here's an interesting way to reinvent yourself in the music industry ... by hitting rewind and bringing things back to its essence.
Fresh out of bankruptcy earlier this month, Columbia House will relaunch as a vinyl records mail-order service, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The company's boss Jonathan Lippman thinks the old-school, music-playing format can not only disrupt music's digital age, but also be a hit with millennials.
"You can see a yearning and an interest to try a new format," Lippman told the Journal.
The strategy to sell vinyl actually brings Columbia House back to its origins of getting fans to subscribe to its mail-order service by offering everything from 8-track, vinyl, CDs and cassettes back in the day.
Lippman and Columbia House actually have numbers in their favor, as the Journal reports that vinyl record sales increased 52 percent during the first half of this year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
"It used to be that people who were buying records were DJs," Sharon Bechor, a DJ equipment and record store owner in New York City, told the Journal. "Now everyone does."
Lippman believes a resurgence of vinyl can coexist with the massive digital consumption of music, allowing fans to broaden their listening across formats.
"It's not that digitization is going away," Lippman told the Journal. "I think there is a sense among a lot of people of looking to get back to the broader experience of engaging with media."
The relaunched Columbia House vinyl service will allow subscribers to choose records across genres of music.
"Our goal is to give consumers the ability to select music that they will love," Lippman added.
Will the new strategy work?
