Vinyl Me Please Classics

sylvian said:
At this point, I'd seriously advise anyone to not bother waiting and go pick up the reissue from a few years back. It's still available and comes with the same shit this one will!
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It’s just not cheap for US customers, at least on discogs. same price or more than VMP with shipping since last I checked there weren’t any US copies available.
 
I've been reduced to the swap for credit. BVSC I own a decent press on and the record still doesn't get much spin, certainly don't need the double. The swaps suffer from me being a member for too long and too many choices that I'm just not excited about...So though I think the store is overpriced, I guess I overpaying for an AP pressing of a good album that I'd rather just buy from acoustic sounds is the path? Ugh. I'll finish out my sub, but without a pretty strong run, I'm team Forum. The investment doesn't break even anymore.
 
HuddieLedbetter said:
I've been reduced to the swap for credit. BVSC I own a decent press on and the record still doesn't get much spin, certainly don't need the double. The swaps suffer from me being a member for too long and too many choices that I'm just not excited about...So though I think the store is overpriced, I guess I overpaying for an AP pressing of a good album that I'd rather just buy from acoustic sounds is the path? Ugh. I'll finish out my sub, but without a pretty strong run, I'm team Forum. The investment doesn't break even anymore.
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The reasons for being a US member have gotten worse and worse by the month...I was a sucker and resubbed for the buy 2 get 1 free month because A) I thought BVSC would be a new remaster and B) I really wanted Spiritualized. Should have just stuck with not being a member though hah.
 
MikeH said:
The reasons for being a US member have gotten worse and worse by the month...I was a sucker and resubbed for the buy 2 get 1 free month because A) I thought BVSC would be a new remaster and B) I really wanted Spiritualized. Should have just stuck with not being a member though hah.
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The Spirtualized album is the only thing that didn't make me seriously contemplate leaving this month. I'm on a month-to-month plan, so I can cancel at any time. It definitely has gotten worse, I didn't think seriously about keeping either of the side subs this month.
 
wmeugene said:
The Spirtualized album is the only thing that didn't make me seriously contemplate leaving this month. I'm on a month-to-month plan, so I can cancel at any time. It definitely has gotten worse, I didn't think seriously about keeping either of the side subs this month.
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I'm counting on them getting spiritualized right (I know, I know... Only myself to blame)
 
MikeH said:
VMP is having a serious case of awful logistics again. Anybody could have told you that BarKays was going to get swapped like crazy. VMP has been counting on all the classics subscribers to keep just accepting every album they feed them and people have gotten smart to it. There are only so many cheap titles they can get away with pressing and charging $30 for.

They have pushed their buy two months get one free promo so hard that they now have more members than albums being pressed. It’s wild that they couldn’t have predicted this.
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AFAIK they charge $27 for them, or $23 for an add on.
 
MikeH said:
A one month is $29+ tax. But if you sign up for longer it’s $27. And my point still stands. Not everything needs an expensive reissue...
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I would imagine a large majority of customers are on the 3 month or longer plan though. I like this classics pick, I love funk. I do like coldblooded slightly more so hoping I can swap to that in the future, however I am not disappointed in the money talks pick personally.
The cheapest NM you can get on discogs is $22+ shipping from Canada. The rest are in Europe.
 
SpinningSince85 said:
I would imagine a large majority of customers are on the 3 month or longer plan though. I like this classics pick, I love funk. I do like coldblooded slightly more so hoping I can swap to that in the future, however I am not disappointed in the money talks pick personally.
The cheapest NM you can get on discogs is $22+ shipping from Canada. The rest are in Europe.
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That seems to be the overwhelming opinion on a lot of the classics releases lately though outside of Sahara. It’s not anything that people are super amped to get. If VMP didn’t reissue this one I doubt many people would be looking to buy it. Classics was an automatic buy from me every month for awhile. Now it seems they are running into a wall with good options to pick from and end up choosing deep catalogue cuts from bands without super deep catalogues of good stuff.
 
MikeH said:
That seems to be the overwhelming opinion on a lot of the classics releases lately though outside of Sahara. It’s not anything that people are super amped to get. If VMP didn’t reissue this one I doubt many people would be looking to buy it. Classics was an automatic buy from me every month for awhile. Now it seems they are running into a wall with good options to pick from and end up choosing deep catalogue cuts from bands without super deep catalogues of good stuff.
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Yeah, I had never heard of this album before VMP picked it. Now that I have, I want it. Would I have found it on my own and purchased it on my own without VMP? Who knows, but doubtful as I don't like paying $30+ for a NM copy of a record.
 
MikeH said:
That seems to be the overwhelming opinion on a lot of the classics releases lately though outside of Sahara. It’s not anything that people are super amped to get. If VMP didn’t reissue this one I doubt many people would be looking to buy it. Classics was an automatic buy from me every month for awhile. Now it seems they are running into a wall with good options to pick from and end up choosing deep catalogue cuts from bands without super deep catalogues of good stuff.
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I dunno. I don't know if you can blame it on needing to do deep cuts. I think you can blame it on Storf. It really seems like he has this thing where he wants to elevate the deeper less acclaimed cuts over other options. I don't know how else to explain the King pick. That and prioritizing "never before reissued," which they keep touting and doesn't matter, especially when the originals aren't particularly sought after.
 
dhodo said:
I dunno. I don't know if you can blame it on needing to do deep cuts. I think you can blame it on Storf. It really seems like he has this thing where he wants to elevate the deeper less acclaimed cuts over other options. I don't know how else to explain the King pick. That and prioritizing "never before reissued," which they keep touting and doesn't matter, especially when the originals aren't particularly sought after.
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I loved the king pick, another one I have never heard but love it now that I have.
 
dhodo said:
I dunno. I don't know if you can blame it on needing to do deep cuts. I think you can blame it on Storf. It really seems like he has this thing where he wants to elevate the deeper less acclaimed cuts over other options. I don't know how else to explain the King pick. That and prioritizing "never before reissued," which they keep touting and doesn't matter, especially when the originals aren't particularly sought after.
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I think the reasoning behind picking deeper cuts is that the licensing fees on bands’ best albums are probably higher and VMP can’t afford it and still hit their margins. Labels are catching on that they can just reissue bands’ best albums on their own and they don’t need VMP. My best guess is that VMP blows their licensing budget on 2-3 albums a year and try to fill the rest in. And then they tout these releases as undiscovered/under appreciated classics that only they have the excellent curation power to reintroduce to the masses.

and while the King album is nowhere near his best work, I’m with @SpinningSince85. It’s still a fun one. My fiancée loves it and it’s a good album to throw while we are doing stuff around the apartment.
 
SpinningSince85 said:
I loved the king pick, another one I have never heard but love it now that I have.
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That's great, I'm not trying to take anything away from people who enjoy it, but I think Jammed Together and Years Gone By would have been better long out of print picks and I don't think anyone would have complained if they did a high quality AAA of I'll Play The Blues For You or Live Wire/Blues Power even though they are available.

That's ignoring the obvious choice that is also out of print in a high quality mono version.

I think you would have a hard time finding Albert King fans who would list King's Things in their top 3 or even 5 essential records of his. I just thought it was a good example of Storf thinking "people don't ever talk about this King record, let's do it," instead of trying to pick an essential one.
 
MikeH said:
I think the reasoning behind picking deeper cuts is that the licensing fees on bands’ best albums are probably higher and VMP can’t afford it and still hit their margins. Labels are catching on that they can just reissue bands’ best albums on their own and they don’t need VMP. My best guess is that VMP blows their licensing budget on 2-3 albums a year and try to fill the rest in. And then they tout these releases as undiscovered/under appreciated classics that only they have the excellent curation power to reintroduce to the masses.

and while the King album is nowhere near his best work, I’m with @SpinningSince85. It’s still a fun one. My fiancée loves it and it’s a good album to throw while we are doing stuff around the apartment.
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You really think the licensing would have been significantly more on any of the King records besides Bad Sign?
 
dhodo said:
You really think the licensing would have been significantly more on any of the King records besides Bad Sign?
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It’s one of the only things that makes sense in my head as to why VMP is choosing all of these titles lately. Combined with Storf saying when they did the BN anthology that they were only given 12 albums to choose from in the BN catalogue, I think they have way less say over what albums they get to choose to reissue than people think. Or Storf just has bad/weird taste.

when the company goes around flaunting how much money they clear every year, labels likely take notice and up their licensing fees for the more wanted titles in artist catalogues.
 
MikeH said:
It’s one of the only things that makes sense in my head as to why VMP is choosing all of these titles lately. Combined with Storf saying when they did the BN anthology that they were only given 12 albums to choose from in the BN catalogue, I think they have way less say over what albums they get to choose to reissue than people think. Or Storf just has bad/weird taste.
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Didn't he say in the write-up for this month that the reason they did it was because someone involved with it or the label was talking about how it is underrated?

Him saying stuff like that is why I feel like he has this weird thing where he prefers to do underrated albums by default. Like not that he necessarily prefers the underrated albums to the essentials, but that he loves telling people "this album is better than people think, you just didn't give it a chance!" Kinda like the Future write up as well, so I feel like he gravitates towards those picks. Maybe it is some sort of justification after the fact though and he has less control, like you say.

Edit:He also comes off to me as the kind of person who thinks every album in every artist he loves' catalogue is amazing and all the ones people don't like as much are underrated. Which is cool, but I don't have room in my collection or budget for too many of those titles at the moment, so I don't really want someone like that curating for me if they aren't curating essentials. As recommendation to check out, sure! But as a record they're trying to ship me as part of a subscription? It's usually gonna be a pass.
 
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