Vinyl Me Please Anthology

[whiskeychaser84]

The key takeaway I had from the survey is: I don't trust VMP. They promised the moon with the first box and gave us something that looked like it came out of a junk pile. They can promise whatever they want, but actually living up to these promises is a whole other thing.

 

[seeirwin]

From VMP:

Some key improvements we're working on...

1. Updating our quality control process to be much more comprehensive, and making sure we have all components in-hand early on to eliminate risk of production issues.

2. Shipping Anthology all at once, while keeping the element of surprise alive for everyone who wants it (we have some tricks up our sleeve to accomplish this!). Also working on a redesigned shipping box for safer deliveries.

3. More extensive, truly exclusive content of all types. Longer and more robust podcast, liner notes that are available with each "episode" rather than all at the end, more written/editorial content, and behind the scenes stuff.

I'm a little bummed about #2. I really liked the staggered shipments.

 

[Colonel_Angus]

(we have some tricks up our sleeve to accomplish this!)

 

[JonnyH]

I'm a little bummed about #2. I really liked the staggered shipments.

I'm a little bummed about #2. I really liked the staggered shipments.

They changed the game so much they aren't going to do it again.

 

[Ericj32]

I'm a little bummed about #2. I really liked the staggered shipments.

I'm curious what you enjoyed about the staggered shipments? Did all of your shipments arrive mostly on time? Did you know which records were going to be in each shipment or were you truly going in blind?

I'm paranoid that packages left at my front door will go missing and also of records warping in 90F heat and DC summer humidity before I get home to pick them up, but I'd much rather get everything in one shipment. Just one big box with maybe 3 smaller mailers inside containing the records for each installment and you open them as you go. Or something slightly more elegant than that haha. Then I'd have everything I need safe and secure in my apartment and wouldn't need to worry about future shipping delays or making sure that I pick them up from my doorstep before they melt or get snatched.

Waiting until the very end for the liner notes booklet would have driven me nuts, too. They could find a way to make it so that you don't have to spoil the surprise for yourself until you're ready to move on to the next record - just use a sticker or something to hold those pages of the booklet together until you're ready, and then you cut open the seal to embark on your next musical adventure into the unknown. Or just make separate liner notes booklets for each installment and then some kind of larger thing to store them in. Or do one booklet and make each page like a huge lotto ticket so you have to scratch it off to reveal what the next record is and see the liner notes lol. Each new record could feel like you're opening a new present, and having all of these secret presents waiting for you in your home and not knowing what they are would be immensely satisfying for me haha. Almost satisfying enough to shell out $200+ for 6 mystery records.

P.S. your posts in this thread (and I imagine in the anthology facebook group) were very informative and enlightening. I would shell out $200 for your 6 mystery records and your version of an interactive educational experience with liner notes and podcasts/videos. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Mather]

Album #1 in the BlurNowtE AntHorRgy BorX has arrived!

Thanks so much @moohoohahaha for this wonderfully seam split Horace! I can't remember what else was wrong with this one, wrong Mono/Stereo labels I think? I'm going to have to label them to keep track of errors...

If anyone has an extra damaged box they don't want lemme know! Or any of the final 3 in damaged form that are kicking around... I'll pay ya... The image of this Frankensteined creation sitting on a shelf makes me laugh to no end, I gotta make it happen... I've got crayons for labeling and everything...

 

[bother]

I'm a little bummed about #2. I really liked the staggered shipments.

Yeah I agree with this although I can totally see the arguments against it. Personally I think the staggered shipment thing makes the anthology unique and not just another random box set.

I bought into this for the "experience" I thought they were promising. I wanted to learn about jazz and I thought VMP was going to put some effort into that aspect. I didn't really sign up because I particularly cared about the picks or the label to be honest. I didn't know anything about Blue Note or really jazz at the time. I didn't expect them to go super in-depth, but I expected at least.... something.

Since singing up, I've learned a lot. But I think I've learned it all despite VMP, not because of them. They sent me six records that sound great and are of varying package quality and that's as far as I'll go for them. Otherwise, I've really gotten into collecting/listening to jazz in general. But yeah, their "experience" was really one of frustration.

 

[ThePakoBuelna]

View attachment 9742
Album #1 in the BlurNowtE AntHorRgy BorX has arrived!
View attachment 9743
Thanks so much @moohoohahaha for this wonderfully seam split Horace! I can't remember what else was wrong with this one, wrong Mono/Stereo labels I think? I'm going to have to label them to keep track of errors...

If anyone has an extra damaged box they don't want lemme know! Or any of the final 3 in damaged form that are kicking around... I'll pay ya... The image of this Frankensteined creation sitting on a shelf makes me laugh to no end, I gotta make it happen... I've got crayons for labeling and everything...

I'm gonna need updates on that!

 

[whiskeychaser84]

Just one big box with maybe 3 smaller mailers inside containing the records for each installment and you open them as you go.

VMP can't even get labels right let alone something of this Russian nesting doll complexity. If they try to do this, you just know VMP is going to end up putting the wrong records in the wrong numbered smaller inside mailers.

 

[Mather]

I'm gonna need updates on that!

So far I have the first 3 records here accounted for courtesy @marshall and @moohoohahaha , I THINK I have a mangled booklet courtesy of @beaty but I haven't seen him since last week so I'm not positive on that one. @Enoch offered me one of the last 3 but he's kinda taking a break from here so I don't know if that's gunna happen, we'll see... So that would leave me needing a busted box and the last two, one of which is a double LP so that might be tough haha

EDIT: Actually now that I look back I see the one @Enoch said he might be able to help me out with was the 2LP Ambrose as his has a nasty seam split so we'll see haha

 

[seeirwin]

I'm curious what you enjoyed about the staggered shipments? Did all of your shipments arrive mostly on time? Did you know which records were going to be in each shipment or were you truly going in blind?

I'm paranoid that packages left at my front door will go missing and also of records warping in 90F heat and DC summer humidity before I get home to pick them up, but I'd much rather get everything in one shipment. Just one big box with maybe 3 smaller mailers inside containing the records for each installment and you open them as you go. Or something slightly more elegant than that haha. Then I'd have everything I need safe and secure in my apartment and wouldn't need to worry about future shipping delays or making sure that I pick them up from my doorstep before they melt or get snatched.

Waiting until the very end for the liner notes booklet would have driven me nuts, too. They could find a way to make it so that you don't have to spoil the surprise for yourself until you're ready to move on to the next record - just use a sticker or something to hold those pages of the booklet together until you're ready, and then you cut open the seal to embark on your next musical adventure into the unknown. Or just make separate liner notes booklets for each installment and then some kind of larger thing to store them in. Or do one booklet and make each page like a huge lotto ticket so you have to scratch it off to reveal what the next record is and see the liner notes lol. Each new record could feel like you're opening a new present, and having all of these secret presents waiting for you in your home and not knowing what they are would be immensely satisfying for me haha. Almost satisfying enough to shell out $200+ for 6 mystery records.

P.S. your posts in this thread (and I imagine in the anthology facebook group) were very informative and enlightening. I would shell out $200 for your 6 mystery records and your version of an interactive educational experience with liner notes and podcasts/videos. Thank you for sharing!

I liked the staggered shipments because I enjoyed being able to focus on two records for a few weeks to try to put them in some sort of context with each other and with the previous and/or upcoming shipments. My shipments always arrived a week or two after everyone else's seemed to start rolling in. I haven't even received the last box yet because I've been out of town. I knew which records were in the box because some sleuths on the old VMP forum had it all figured out. I wouldn't have minded going in blind, as I have usually enjoyed VMP's curation on the Classics subscription.

I really like your 3 smaller open-as-you-go mailers idea. I hope they do something like that in the future.

Thanks for the feedback about my posts. Maybe we can do some sort of Needles and Grooves Anthology some day!

 

[seeirwin]

Yeah I agree with this although I can totally see the arguments against it. Personally I think the staggered shipment thing makes the anthology unique and not just another random box set.

I bought into this for the "experience" I thought they were promising. I wanted to learn about jazz and I thought VMP was going to put some effort into that aspect. I didn't really sign up because I particularly cared about the picks or the label to be honest. I didn't know anything about Blue Note or really jazz at the time. I didn't expect them to go super in-depth, but I expected at least.... something.

Since singing up, I've learned a lot. But I think I've learned it all despite VMP, not because of them. They sent me six records that sound great and are of varying package quality and that's as far as I'll go for them. Otherwise, I've really gotten into collecting/listening to jazz in general. But yeah, their "experience" was really one of frustration.

I was also disappointed there wasn't more to the "become a student of jazz" angle they teased. Where has your listening taken you since the 6 records in the Anthology?

 

[agutierrezb]

From VMP:

Some key improvements we're working on...

1. Updating our quality control process to be much more comprehensive, and making sure we have all components in-hand early on to eliminate risk of production issues.

2. Shipping Anthology all at once, while keeping the element of surprise alive for everyone who wants it (we have some tricks up our sleeve to accomplish this!). Also working on a redesigned shipping box for safer deliveries.

3. More extensive, truly exclusive content of all types. Longer and more robust podcast, liner notes that are available with each "episode" rather than all at the end, more written/editorial content, and behind the scenes stuff.

The "surprise" element was a very silly thing from the start. It only brought them trouble, and now that they have realized it, they're trying to stick with it, just in a different way.

 

[CCKrone]

I told them the surprise thing was kinda dumb and wouldn't ruin anything if it went away.
I'm more angry about the shipping issues where I didn't get my box sometimes until people were on their next box.
This is exactly against what we were promised and definitely was a problem. I still don't have my third box and I completed the damn survey.
I think it would have been better with some logistical tweaks. I only got it because I love Blue Note records

 

[Hogues]

I was also disappointed there wasn't more to the "become a student of jazz" angle they teased. Where has your listening taken you since the 6 records in the Anthology?

I know that this wasn't for me, but this took me to the Tone Poet series. We'll see how that goes.

 

[seeirwin]

I know that this wasn't for me, but this took me to the Tone Poet series. We'll see how that goes.

Which Tone Poets do you like so far? The curation on those titles has been pretty interesting, IMO.

 

[Hogues]

Which Tone Poets do you like so far? The curation on those titles has been pretty interesting, IMO.

I just received my first three titles; Now He Sings, Now he Sobs, Cornbread and Contours. I plan on listening to them over the course of the long weekend.

 

[High Rant District]

I wonder if the next Anthology isn't from a genre that is stereotypically reissued for "audiophiles" whether they'll go the Kevin Gray/RTI route again, or use GZ.

Poorly pressed VMP records (via GZ) and horrible shipping (via Saddle Creek) have been staples of VMP subscriptions. Now add to the equation that VMP are tightening up on reasons for replacing records, excluding corner dings and warps that a nickel won't fit under. If a record or box set is coming from GZ and/or via Saddle Creek, I'm not interested.

As un-purist as it sounds to a jazzbo , colored vinyl like the previous VMP Blue Notes and a hard cover book might have done it for me.

Interesting! I'd have felt the set would be far less 'valuable' if the records weren't black. Black records make me perceive that the music is more important than the fashion aspect.

2. Shipping Anthology all at once, while keeping the element of surprise alive for everyone who wants it (we have some tricks up our sleeve to accomplish this!). Also working on a redesigned shipping box for safer deliveries.

I'm a little bummed about #2. I really liked the staggered shipments.

The staggered shipments were a major positive for me as well. There's the time to slowly digest the records that's a big plus for me. Also, like it or not, when you get a VMP record you really need to open it, examine it and spin it right away. Otherwise, if there's a defect, you risk them running out of replacement copies. Having 'tricks up their sleeves', which I take to mean they'd be in a package within a package but all arriving at once, doesn't overcome this; you have to consume everything right away.

Waiting until the very end for the liner notes booklet would have driven me nuts, too.

That part bugged me too, until I read the liner notes.

 

[AudioAce]

So far I have the first 3 records here accounted for courtesy @marshall and @moohoohahaha , I THINK I have a mangled booklet courtesy of @beaty but I haven't seen him since last week so I'm not positive on that one. @Enoch offered me one of the last 3 but he's kinda taking a break from here so I don't know if that's gunna happen, we'll see... So that would leave me needing a busted box and the last two, one of which is a double LP so that might be tough haha

EDIT: Actually now that I look back I see the one @Enoch said he might be able to help me out with was the 2LP Ambrose as his has a nasty seam split so we'll see haha

I really wanna see the finished product. Janky Jazzbo Box is something I need in my life.

 

[TrainFan73]

From VMP:

Some key improvements we're working on...

1. Updating our quality control process to be much more comprehensive, and making sure we have all components in-hand early on to eliminate risk of production issues.

2. Shipping Anthology all at once, while keeping the element of surprise alive for everyone who wants it (we have some tricks up our sleeve to accomplish this!). Also working on a redesigned shipping box for safer deliveries.

3. More extensive, truly exclusive content of all types. Longer and more robust podcast, liner notes that are available with each "episode" rather than all at the end, more written/editorial content, and behind the scenes stuff.

I mean 2 and 3 directly conflict with each other.