Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)

MikeH said:
people didn't really buy them when they were $20 either to be fair haha. A bunch of the "lost sounds found" from years ago never sold out when they were that price. Think The Books, Jim Sullivan and others are still in stock…

VMP is definitely pricey especially if you only dip in for a month. Think it’s $36/month on a yearly. I'm struggling to think of other reissue labels that do AAA with nice jackets (and don’t own the music) for under $35-40 though. Jackpot is close, but i think they are $30 for BNC quality thin jackets. Don’t think it would be remotely possible for them to make their monthly charges $18-$22 again. The quality of the mastering and jackets has gone up since those days for sure. I’d rather see them eliminate stuff like the OBI and art prints and charge less.

I think if they lowered the monthly if the plant ever got sorted out, that could bring a lot of people in. The curation is hit or miss for me too. Too much Nilsson this year. Too many represses and not enough things making membership worth it.

Even the most loyal VMP customers on discord are pretty pissed at how the Dolly track went down. They were told the only way to get the records was to subscribe, then later a bunch went into the store and ended up being included in 40% off sales.
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VMP’s sweet spot is twofold:

1) AAA audiophile reissues, that tend to be the definitive 33 rpm release (think most Classics and a number of their older monthly titles)
2) Great sounding reissues of that haven’t been on vinyl in a long time (or ever) or have only a ho-hum standard release. A lot of the Essentials and RHH seem to mine this one.

Curation helps a lot with #1 and is absolutely vital for #2. #1 is the bread and butter of most audiophile labels these days. #2 requires a lot more work and is harder to execute well. The Lost Sounds Found think sounds great in theory, but isn’t sustainable as anything but a 3rd or worse priority.
 
Store drops over the last few years have fallen off a lot for me. Seems they fall into one of these categories:

1) A color variant of an album that is also getting a wide release to indie/other shops
2) A wildly overpriced set that doesn't actually sell well until a massive discount code is issued or they allow it into swaps
3) An open pre-order for a reasonably in demand item. Higher-than-you-want-to-pay price, no pressing limits.
4) A sought after release that gets 500-1,000 pressings that sells out in 5 minutes.
5) Something that nobody asked for that will sit in the store for months until it hits swaps


Seems like they just can't figure out the balance of price/demand/availability/exclusivity. I know striking that balance can be tricky, but they used to be pretty good at it. Seems like they either abandoned that idea or the logistics just aren't there.

For me, part of the draw to a record club is being able to purchase limited variants that are not(and essentially won't be) generally available to those who don't have a membership. Feels like the store drops have basically just turned into a pre-order factory with high prices and unlimited pressing numbers so they can churn out as much cash as possible.
 
wmeugene said:
VMP’s sweet spot is twofold:

1) AAA audiophile reissues, that tend to be the definitive 33 rpm release (think most Classics and a number of their older monthly titles)
2) Great sounding reissues of that haven’t been on vinyl in a long time (or ever) or have only a ho-hum standard release. A lot of the Essentials and RHH seem to mine this one.

Curation helps a lot with #1 and is absolutely vital for #2. #1 is the bread and butter of most audiophile labels these days. #2 requires a lot more work and is harder to execute well. The Lost Sounds Found think sounds great in theory, but isn’t sustainable as anything but a 3rd or worse priority.
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The tricky thing is curating well enough to try to satisfy many subscribers each month. Swaps for credit/other store exclusives and the different tracks help…but if you’re swapping for credit more often than not, then the sub probably doesn’t make sense. I have trouble finding things to buy with credit. There’s the occasional anthology but outside of that, only the true exclusives really interest me. Loved Fleetwood Mac, Nina, Sly, and the Elton exclusives. Most other stuff lately is either way too long of a preorder or is available elsewhere.
 
roffle24 said:
Store drops over the last few years have fallen off a lot for me. Seems they fall into one of these categories:

1) A color variant of an album that is also getting a wide release to indie/other shops
2) A wildly overpriced set that doesn't actually sell well until a massive discount code is issued or they allow it into swaps
3) An open pre-order for a reasonably in demand item. Higher-than-you-want-to-pay price, no pressing limits.
4) A sought after release that gets 500-1,000 pressings that sells out in 5 minutes.
5) Something that nobody asked for that will sit in the store for months until it hits swaps


Seems like they just can't figure out the balance of price/demand/availability/exclusivity. I know striking that balance can be tricky, but they used to be pretty good at it. Seems like they either abandoned that idea or the logistics just aren't there.

For me, part of the draw to a record club is being able to purchase limited variants that are not(and essentially won't be) generally available to those who don't have a membership. Feels like the store drops have basically just turned into a pre-order factory with high prices and unlimited pressing numbers so they can churn out as much cash as possible.
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The true exclusives have been awesome IMO but I can imagine those are hard to do because so many labels are now doing their own reissue series. Rights are probably expensive when you can convince labels to let you do them.

The nonesuch series is kinda interesting to me so far, as is the Latin music series but the preorder dates are way too far out for me
 
Skalap said:
My opinion is that this is all bullshit and Impulse box will start shipping later today!
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Although the cat pics are making me feel warm and fuzzy, once again I am getting bad vibes from VMP.

The QC/startup probs at new plant, big sales to generate fast $$$s, and internal corporate infighting (who really owns this new plant anyway and are they now still going to support it) makes me want to sit this one out.

So I just cashed out, asked for, and got a fast refund for my highly discounted Story of the Dead box. Don’t really need the box and definitely don’t need the drama. I had already dropped back to paying monthly for Classics sub and picking up others when needed.
 
POGunter said:
Although the cat pics are making me feel warm and fuzzy, once again I am getting bad vibes from VMP.

The QC/startup probs at new plant, big sales to generate fast $$$s, and internal corporate infighting (who really owns this new plant anyway and are they now still going to support it) makes me want to sit this one out.

So I just cashed out, asked for, and got a fast refund for my highly discounted Story of the Dead box. Don’t really need the box and definitely don’t need the drama. I had already dropped back to paying monthly for Classics sub and picking up others when needed.
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VMP does not own the plant. They will not be supporting it. My guess is that it gets liquidated and never opens. They have no funding now. Looking like Story of the Dead is gonna be pressed at RTI it seems but who knows when.

My sub is through November so we'll see what happens between now and then.
 
POGunter said:
So I just cashed out, asked for, and got a fast refund for my highly discounted Story of the Dead box. Don’t really need the box and definitely don’t need the drama. I had already dropped back to paying monthly for Classics sub and picking up others when needed.
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I'm in a cautious holding pattern with GD and Impulse both on pre-order. Hoping I don't regret not cancelling this when I have the chance.
 
MikeH said:
They should hopefully be announcing soon where and when these might be pressed. Im Holding for that too before deciding what to do
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Yeah, debating whether to cancel Impulse, but hopeful they can still get them pressed fairly soon. All the mastering and metalwork is done (there are RTI test pressings on cogs), so maybe now that they know it won't be pressed at VMP it will actually go faster. That and I already PIFed some of the albums I had in the set and I don't feel like buying them again separately.

If it's GZ though, I think I'll cancel
 
D Jilla said:
Yeah, debating whether to cancel Impulse, but hopeful they can still get them pressed fairly soon. All the mastering and metalwork is done (there are RTI test pressings on cogs), so maybe now that they know it won't be pressed at VMP it will actually go faster. That and I already PIFed some of the albums I had in the set and I don't feel like buying them again separately.

If it's GZ though, I think I'll cancel
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they seemed to indicate that it'll be at RTI or Furnace but will wait to see some official communication on it.
 
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