# Record clubs and royalites

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/record-clubs-and-royalites/640861>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 13, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/record-clubs-and-royalites/640861 "2012-11-13T04:34:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/record-clubs-and-royalites/640861/1 "2012-11-13T04:34:40Z")

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Remember those record clubs where you got a dozen or so albums (or 8-tracks, or cassettes, or later cds) for a penny, but then you had to buy x number of albums in the next three years at regular price (and pay through the nose for shipping, as I recall)? How did they pay the royalties on those first dozen albums?

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**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/record-clubs-and-royalites/640861/2 "2012-11-13T04:43:16Z")

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> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> How did they pay the royalties on those first dozen albums?

They bought them?

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/record-clubs-and-royalites/640861/3 "2012-11-13T15:36:38Z")

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Same as any other cost model. The profit on your remaing obligations more than covered the cost of the first few “free” albums, especially with “shipping and handling” and generally cutting out the middlemen.

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**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/record-clubs-and-royalites/640861/4 "2012-11-14T03:15:36Z")

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I looked up [this article](http://books.google.com/books?id=TA8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA52&dq=record+clubs+intitle:billboard&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dQyjUPPMHuOkiQLMsIHoDQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=record%20clubs%20intitle%3Abillboard&f=false) on record clubs. Apparently neither the record label nor the artists received royalties on free product. The only royalties paid were to composers, and even those were at reduced rates.