Vinyl Me Please Anthology

Really wonder what the fallout from the Dead anthology will be. With the others they could spin them as selling out fairly quickly, even if it was transferring some stock to other retailers. But the Dead box is going to be an albatross for them for a long time I think. Wonder if they will show up as a loss-leader for Black Friday?
 
Considering this box is most fitting for people with lighter knowledge of the Dead (despite it being extremely cost-prohibitive for most newcomers), I’m not really opposed to the podcast hosted and through the lense of those also with limited exposure. Some of the complaints about Storf podcasts is that he speaks too much, fanboys, and interjects with his own knowledge a bit too much. Likely won’t be the case here, and the experts will be given much more time to speak.

And I could have missed something but did Storf and Amileah actually do the curation or just the podcasts? Because I do agree it would be very silly for them, or any newcomer, to actually pick the albums (especially the live ones) but saw no indication that was the case.
Based on the titles, it seems to have been curated by a newcomer. And Storf has been heavily involved in every box set’s curation so far. I wouldn’t mind them doing the podcast either because it could be an interesting angle.

As a relative newcomer to the Dead, I would have signed up for this if it wasn’t for the prohibitive cost as you mentioned. I’m guessing the licensing was a crazy price though. Pauly recently hinted on reddit that it hasn’t sold well at all and they have plenty of slip mats left. @jamieanderson1968 i feel like they did lose a ton of money on this. Will be interesting to see if they put it on sale at some point. Can’t imagine the cost of having 5000+ 14LP box sets sitting on shelves. They haven’t really updated when the boxes will ship right? I’m starting to wonder if Herbie will be the last box or even come out at this point.
 
Based on the titles, it seems to have been curated by a newcomer. And Storf has been heavily involved in every box set’s curation so far. I wouldn’t mind them doing the podcast either because it could be an interesting angle.

As a relative newcomer to the Dead, I would have signed up for this if it wasn’t for the prohibitive cost as you mentioned. I’m guessing the licensing was a crazy price though. Pauly recently hinted on reddit that it hasn’t sold well at all and they have plenty of slip mats left. @jamieanderson1968 i feel like they did lose a ton of money on this. Will be interesting to see if they put it on sale at some point. Can’t imagine the cost of having 5000+ 14LP box sets sitting on shelves. They haven’t really updated when the boxes will ship right? I’m starting to wonder if Herbie will be the last box or even come out at this point.

Yeah not sure what they were thinking. Id have to assume licensing was so expensive that they had to sell 6k at this high price to turn a profit, and they were so excited by the idea of doing a Dead set they didnt think about if that was really possible and it was worth doing from a business perspective .

I agree they’ll probably lose alot on this one and it is probably a nail in the coffin to Anthology (the main reason I think the original more tracks plan is coming back).
I just wonder what their plans are for all these unsold boxes. As someone who did purchase, it will certainly hurt to see a massive sale on it, but it’s got to happen to at least recoup some costs.
 
I will be surprised if they do another past Herbie. I will be shocked if Herbie gets shelved. He is too big of an artist to screw over like that.

Agreed. And it is probably too far along in planning/production and costs paid, contracts signed. I doubt this will nearly as expensive or pressed in the numbers of the Dead set though. It should do decent
 
Herbie will sell better than the Dead anyways. Jazz cats have more disposable income than Dead heads.
Not necessarily true. Look at the resell value of the Dead archival releases and the healthy market doing so. 14lps of unreleased live material on vinyl would have sold like hotcakes, even at that price.

Problem is this set was picked by a bunch of people who had no idea a) what makes the Dead special and b) what Deadheads want. Most Deadheads don't care about the studio albums and that stuff has been packaged to death. And Storf clearly doesn't know what he's talking about because the contemporary live albums really aren't reflective of the live shows. Except probably Skulls & Roses, which isn't even on here.

I'm sure the powers that be at Grateful Dead Merchandising laughed all the way to the bank at this idea that VMP would pay a premium to release American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, and Live Dead for the hundredth time. Without A Net is the only rarity and that was thrown in literally for that reason and that reason alone.
 
Not necessarily true. Look at the resell value of the Dead archival releases and the healthy market doing so. 14lps of unreleased Live material on vinyl would have sold like hotcakes, even at that price.

Problem is this set was picked by a bunch of people who had no idea a) what makes the Dead special and b) what Deadheads want. Most Deadheads don't care about the studio albums and that stuff has been packaged to death. And Storf clearly doesn't know what he's talking about because the contemporary live albums really aren't reflective of the live shows. Except probably Skulls & Roses, which isn't even on here. I'm sure the powers that be at Grateful Dead Merchandising laughed all the way to the bank at this idea that VMP would pay a premium to release American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, and Live Dead for the hundredth time. Without A Net is the only rarity and that was thrown in literally for that reason and that reason alone.

As the only person who bought this I look forward to receiving my numbered 1/7500 box. And my slip mat. Also numbered 1/7500.
 
Not necessarily true. Look at the resell value of the Dead archival releases and the healthy market doing so. 14lps of unreleased live material on vinyl would have sold like hotcakes, even at that price.

Problem is this set was picked by a bunch of people who had no idea a) what makes the Dead special and b) what Deadheads want. Most Deadheads don't care about the studio albums and that stuff has been packaged to death. And Storf clearly doesn't know what he's talking about because the contemporary live albums really aren't reflective of the live shows. Except probably Skulls & Roses, which isn't even on here.

I'm sure the powers that be at Grateful Dead Merchandising laughed all the way to the bank at this idea that VMP would pay a premium to release American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, and Live Dead for the hundredth time. Without A Net is the only rarity and that was thrown in literally for that reason and that reason alone.
Yea...it's still baffling to me. It was too expensive for most people new to the dead (like me) to find it accessible. If this was $250 like the others even if it had less albums in it, I would have hopped on it for sure. I'm not sure who put this set together and thought "yea--we'll sell over $3,000,000 worth of this box set!". The bigger number pressing also made less people buy it I think. Had this been 1,000-1,500 I think it would have sold out within a week.

@wynn72 - I'm sure you will like the box though. I don't doubt the quality of the records will be good. I've gotten the BN and Zamrock boxes and the records + box were both great quality. I haven't been disappointed yet by the actual music + vinyl. Podcasts were always a throw in for me as were the other little things. But I have actually loved both Anthologies I have gotten. I just truly wish the price point was less on this one because as someone who didn't own any Dead on wax prior to this, it's been really fun exploring their catalogue and picking up a few choice live and studio releases.

I was trying to remember how long the other box sets took from purchase to arrival but can't quite remember. Plus they likely have delays from pandemic and every week feels like a month at this point hah. Hopefully they mail yours out soon though!
 
From Storf...kind of crazy that the people curating and putting out the box set and doing a podcast on the Dead have minimal knowledge about the Dead...


And mowing my lawn. In case you didn’t know, VMP is releasing an 8 album, 14 LP box set under VMP Anthology containing 4 live Dead records, and 4 studio records. It’s a very handsome set, and it’ll start shipping soon. As part of this set, me and Amileah have been tasked with taking a journey through the Dead along with the folks buying this to better understand the Dead. We’ve been spending the last 8 weeks making a podcast to accompany this box set, and have been talking to a mix of Dead experts, Dead Heads, and to each other, about the Dead. Amileah had limited exposure to the Dead before she started, while I had always found the live stuff to be a bit byzantine, and was entirely unsure of what to listen to, for, and why I should listen to live Dead.

My main takeaway from my experience with the Dead so far is that they are a rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are on the spectrum of being a fan of them; there is no right or wrong way to love the Dead. And they are also the only band where there are essentially three tiers of exploration to be had: the studio albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded in the studio at that time and place), the officially released live albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded like live, generally, over the course of a tour they were proud of), and the archive of live shows (which are documents of how they sounded, show by show).


Which is to say, as someone who only listened to studio Dead before May 1, I have a newfound appreciation for live Dead. They are a band worthy of the obsession I found strange and inexplicable before this experience! Letting my guard down to let them in has been a welcome blanket for me this summer.
“They are the rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are of being of fan of them.” What does this mean? I’m not trying to be funny or sarcastic.

Also, I think the idea of selling something so expensive that really only works for people who aren’t yet fans of the band doesn’t seem like a smart business model.
 
Also, I think the idea of selling something so expensive that really only works for people who aren’t yet fans of the band doesn’t seem like a smart business model.
I could not agree more with this, their model for marketing this is insane to me.

The casual fan doesn't want to be educated by another casual fan and have to pay a premium for it.
The die-hard fan doesn't want to be educated by a casual fan and have to pay anything for it.

Who are they even trying to entice with this logic?
 
All of the above might be correct, but I don't care...I just want my box! It has to be ready by now.
Dont get me wrong I know people will want this for the records themselves, I just dont know why they are marketing it by saying they themselves dont know much about the group.

Im almost certainly going to get the Herbie boxset for the records alone. I would absolutely love a podcast or book written by someone with more knowledge on his music, but it doesnt look like that will be the case judging on this.
 
I would absolutely love a podcast or book written by someone with more knowledge on his music, but it doesnt look like that will be the case judging on this.
Sadly this will be done by Storf so it will be written like a 14 year old created a Wikipedia page, riddled with errors and typos, all printed poorly at kinkos
 
Yea...it's still baffling to me. It was too expensive for most people new to the dead (like me) to find it accessible. If this was $250 like the others even if it had less albums in it, I would have hopped on it for sure. I'm not sure who put this set together and thought "yea--we'll sell over $3,000,000 worth of this box set!". The bigger number pressing also made less people buy it I think. Had this been 1,000-1,500 I think it would have sold out within a week.

@wynn72 - I'm sure you will like the box though. I don't doubt the quality of the records will be good. I've gotten the BN and Zamrock boxes and the records + box were both great quality. I haven't been disappointed yet by the actual music + vinyl. Podcasts were always a throw in for me as were the other little things. But I have actually loved both Anthologies I have gotten. I just truly wish the price point was less on this one because as someone who didn't own any Dead on wax prior to this, it's been really fun exploring their catalogue and picking up a few choice live and studio releases.

I was trying to remember how long the other box sets took from purchase to arrival but can't quite remember. Plus they likely have delays from pandemic and every week feels like a month at this point hah. Hopefully they mail yours out soon though!
For what you're getting, $250 would have been the perfect price point.

There's no curveball in this set other than Terrapin Station (which isn't that good) being the latter day studio choice over In The Dark.

I'm hopeful they break these up and sell them compartmentally...that's the only way they don't take a huge loss on this. I need to get E72 and Without A Net on vinyl, and would have no issue paying VMP 3LP prices for both. I bet they could sell a lot of these as store exclusives

Which goes to my biggest issue with the Anthology is that their pricing implies you're paying a premium to buy the box together versus getting a discount for buying in bulk, which is literally what every other box set does.
 
All of the above might be correct, but I don't care...I just want my box! It has to be ready by now.
See man, I’m not saying that the box doesn’t have really cool components, it definitely does. I’ve been collecting dead CDs and vinyl for over 15 years, and I thought the box was cool. But the way they are advertising it is so strange to me. Make me feel like it’s something that a fan would want, not something that’s meant to just be an intro to the band, because that shuts the door on so many people. I’m just a fool, but they didn’t even try to fool me
 
See man, I’m not saying that the box doesn’t have really cool components, it definitely does. I’ve been collecting dead CDs and vinyl for over 15 years, and I thought the box was cool. But the way they are advertising it is so strange to me. Make me feel like it’s something that a fan would want, not something that’s meant to just be an intro to the band, because that shuts the door on so many people. I’m just a fool, but they didn’t even try to fool me
They don’t know what they don’t know. Overall this set will probably be a financial flop for VMP. I just hope they come through with quality presses.
 
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