Vinyl Me Please Essentials

RobbieBobby said:
I'm really not trying to insult anyone here, but how was announcing the next 3 months of Essentials a scam? From what I recall from that day, VMP made the announcement, everyone freaked out, and then there was discussion pretty early on about whether it was exclusive. I don't recall when the QOTSA announcement about a standard edition came out but I don't believe there was a huge gap.

So what was unethical? Did VMP say they were the only ones to get this reissue? Would it have been better if they waited till yesterday to tell everyone about getting Songs for the Deaf? For people that signed up for the 3 months but then wanted to back out, were any refunds or cancellations denied?

I feel like a lot of companies play this exclusivity/FOMO game. I fell for it with Fat Beats when they reissued Step In the Arena by Gang Starr. I thought it was exclusively through them, spent 35 bucks, then saw a plain black variant on Amazon a couple months later for a lot cheaper. Sure I felt bad about my own impulsive nature, but I'm not sure Fat Beats did anything unethical either.

I'm rambling a bit, but I am genuinely curious what was really wrong about them announcing titles in advance like they did. Did it stoke FOMO? Absolutely. Did they likely get a ton of new customers who might even still believe that this is the way to get Songs for the Deaf? I am sure. I just don't beleive, personally, that this is a scam. I beleive there is likely some truth to them wanting to get the numbers early on how. many they would need pressed. Otherwise, we would all be in here screaming about how they are so short sighted and poorly run for not having enough copies of such a sought after record to go around, etc. Etc.

Or maybe I'm just an apologist and a shill.
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Ah good old doubIé bob at it again...

I didn’t say it was a scam, I said it was a bit shady. Basically they released the next three records in advance with myriad warnings about how these particular records were ENORMOUS and they couldn’t guarantee availability and we’d all have to sign up right there and then to be sure.

it was enormous, Songs For The Deaf had been the forum number 1 requested album for the year I’d been on their forums and probably longer! Lots of people, including me, will have re-subbed for it. The next day queens announced a concurrent release. That’s fucking annoying! It’s not wrong, it’s not a scam but it is a bit shady towards their customers.

anyway feel free to write me a 3,000 essay on why a company just down the road from you, and that you have no connection with, can’t ever be wrong
 
Joe Mac said:
Ah good old doubIé bob at it again...

I didn’t say it was a scam, I said it was a bit shady. Basically they released the next three records in advance with myriad warnings about how these particular records were ENORMOUS and they couldn’t guarantee availability and we’d all have to sign up right there and then to be sure.

it was enormous, Songs For The Deaf had been the forum number 1 requested album for the year I’d been on their forums and probably longer! Lots of people, including me, will have re-subbed for it. The next day queens announced a concurrent release. That’s fucking annoying! It’s not wrong, it’s not a scam but it is a bit shady towards their customers.

anyway feel free to write me a 3,000 essay on why a company just down the road from you, and that you have no connection with, can’t ever be wrong
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I live for you alluding to some alterior motives, I really do. Like a million poeple live in this city at this point, VMP has an army of us!

But seriously, don't be like that. You know I have been plenty critical of their pricing in the Anthology thread, even after being called a shill there too.
 
RobbieBobby said:
I live for you alluding to some alterior motives, I really do. Like a million poeple live in this city at this point, VMP has an army of us!

But seriously, don't be like that. You know I have been plenty critical of their pricing in the Anthology thread, even after being called a shill there too.
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I mean yeah I’ll not do that when you don’t incorrectly state that I said scam when I said sneaky/shady...
 
Lik
RobbieBobby said:
I guess I was more referring to the other guy, your post was just the one I replied to. For that I apologize.
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And likewise! I suppose we all need to realise that some of us are coming from a place of profound disappointment in them (23rd Oct shipping date on top of the previous) and some are happy with the service and acknowledge that it’s not wrong to be pissed off at this or to accept it.
 
RobbieBobby said:
I'm really not trying to insult anyone here, but how was announcing the next 3 months of Essentials a scam? From what I recall from that day, VMP made the announcement, everyone freaked out, and then there was discussion pretty early on about whether it was exclusive. I don't recall when the QOTSA announcement about a standard edition came out but I don't believe there was a huge gap.
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There was a pretty big gap. You might be thinking of what we were talking about on here, which was a line at the end of an email that only people on the QOTSA mailing list received which implied that reissues were coming. That is the only thing that came relatively soon after VMP's announcement. I think assuming that informed a significant amount of VMP's customers is a pretty big reach considering the majority of pressings are at least timed exclusives and most people didn't even see that email. Even people on here didn't want to take the chance of assuming we understood the implication because of FOMO.

The rest of your post just shows that your bar for what you think is unscrupulous business practice is higher than others. Saying you only think it would be bad if they refused cancellations is a weird take.
 
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RobbieBobby said:
I'm really not trying to insult anyone here, but how was announcing the next 3 months of Essentials a scam? From what I recall from that day, VMP made the announcement, everyone freaked out, and then there was discussion pretty early on about whether it was exclusive. I don't recall when the QOTSA announcement about a standard edition came out but I don't believe there was a huge gap.

So what was unethical? Did VMP say they were the only ones to get this reissue? Would it have been better if they waited till yesterday to tell everyone about getting Songs for the Deaf? For people that signed up for the 3 months but then wanted to back out, were any refunds or cancellations denied?

I feel like a lot of companies play this exclusivity/FOMO game. I fell for it with Fat Beats when they reissued Step In the Arena by Gang Starr. I thought it was exclusively through them, spent 35 bucks, then saw a plain black variant on Amazon a couple months later for a lot cheaper. Sure I felt bad about my own impulsive nature, but I'm not sure Fat Beats did anything unethical either.

I'm rambling a bit, but I am genuinely curious what was really wrong about them announcing titles in advance like they did. Did it stoke FOMO? Absolutely. Did they likely get a ton of new customers who might even still believe that this is the way to get Songs for the Deaf? I am sure. I just don't beleive, personally, that this is a scam. I beleive there is likely some truth to them wanting to get the numbers early on how. many they would need pressed. Otherwise, we would all be in here screaming about how they are so short sighted and poorly run for not having enough copies of such a sought after record to go around, etc. Etc.

Or maybe I'm just an apologist and a shill.
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If i can chip in here....

The point is VMP have a history of getting exclusivity for a good number of months. 6 and even 12 months in many cases.
The one time they get zero exclusivity is on a big ole whale of a release and they then at the same time throw in the 3 month membership to boost sales from it. It was 100% a money grab.

They could have explained the merits of the great package for similar price as general release and not wrapped 3 months into it.
Dodgy
 
Less evil woulda been “hey sign up so you can get the deluxe edition of QOTSA.” Instead it was “sign up for the next three months or you might miss out on the album, the biggest release we’ve ever had!!!!” I don’t really care, but I imagine a lot of folks thought the exclusive window would have been a lot longer, even after QOTSA made their post the next day.
 
Murfocakes said:
I think someone wiser than me may have said this before but...

I think they should release Holy Diver

View attachment 20719
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This is the third post of yours TODAY with this photo in it, and I hope it's planted like an easter egg in other forum spots!

Don't know if you have a channel called MTV Classic in Berlin, we do here.
Every Friday night they have a block of old school metal videos from 9pm-1am. Must be at least one Dio video an hour.
I'll raise a glass to you when they play "Holy Diver." Because they 100% play that every week!
 
Murfocakes said:
someone wiser than me may have said this
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qIPSoCq.jpg
 
MadLucas said:
This is the third post of yours TODAY with this photo in it, and I hope it's planted like an easter egg in other forum spots!

Don't know if you have a channel called MTV Classic in Berlin, we do here.
Every Friday night they have a block of old school metal videos from 9pm-1am. Must be at least one Dio video an hour.
I'll raise a glass to you when they play "Holy Diver." Because they 100% play that every week!
Click to expand...

Where can I stream that channel? It sounds like TV perfection.
 
The Commish said:
Where can I stream that channel? It sounds like TV perfection.
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Fair question, it’s channel 118 for me.

BONUS: Every Sunday night at midnight is, you guessed it, Vintage 120 Minutes videos!

The flip side, for all these blocks, roughly 50-60% is similar/same each week with some variables. But it’s fun to turn on now and then.
 
They were absolutely making it seem like they got an exclusive repress. Not calling it the "deluxe version" from the getgo was absolutely shady as hell. Scam? Maybe in the same way homeopathy is a scam... not illegal but real shitty.

Now they're calling it deluxe and like, fine, that's good. Classics is my main track so I just had to add on Soft Bulletin which I wanted anyway. And I'll keep it for Aretha. But acting like it was exclusive, or at least not mentioning that it's only a variant, was absolutely preying on people.

I like VMP. I think they have a legitimately good product. But I think their bullshit business practices are going to fuck then in the long run. I wish they'd just he honest about what they do and keep releasing really solid records without the shady FOMO shit.
 
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