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

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DECADE END MEGALIST 10-19

ITS THAT TIME OF THE DECADE AGAIN TO GET TOGETHER ALL OF OUR DECADE END LISTS AND MAKE A COLLECTIVE FORUM DECADE END MEGALIST!!!! Rules: Everyone has 100 points distribute to their favorite albums of the decade, however the most points you can give to a single album is 20 points. I'll calculate...
www.needlesandgrooves.com www.needlesandgrooves.com
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Yeppers. Probably woulda went with a Kurt Vile album at #4. I love me druggie guitar based indie rock. I also tried to avoid artists that had great albums that came out in prior decades.
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Excellent choice. Got to see them perform in NYC a few years back, incredibly moving performance. Probs my fave indie/rock release of the 2010’s after Crack Up and then maybe Amen Dunes - Freedom
 
gaporter said:
This is an interesting question I don't know if I could even begin to answer 🤔
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Yeah, it is a very hard question! I don’t know if in 5 years, my top 3 albums will remain the same. All I know is that Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly will always be #1!

I can imagine other albums like Danny Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition, Rosalia’s Los Angeles, Janelle Monae’s The Archandroid, Kids See Ghosts’ self-titled, and Tame Impala’s Current’s taking a spot or something in the top 3! But I think To Pimp A Butterfly will always be my favourite album of the 2010’s, unquestionably! ♥️
 
Here's my take on The Great VMP Massacree -

If you're into vinyl for the music - what's actually created by the artist, goes in your ears and proceeds to your soul, VMP is a commodity you can easily throw away and buy the same music, likely for less, via another outlet.

If you're into vinyl for the pageantry - foil stamps, limited variants, special colors and packaging that have nothing to do with the music, you may have a tougher time with the price hike. At the same time, if this is your bag there are usually other limited pressing options out there for the same money or less than VMP.

There's very, very, very little that VMP releases that can't be had elsewhere in a similar form, in a similar timeframe, most likely for less money.

With that said, if you're into music for the anorak, disregard all of the above.
 
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Wow, felt like I got slapped upside the head checking into N&G tonight... Had no idea VMP was pulling this BS. After being a 5 year member I didn't get an email or any notice like a lot of others are saying.

My grandfathered $75 going to $119 is completely nuts and honestly I'm shocked. I'm completely done after my 3 months end. Much rather spend my dough on Bandcamp, Bullmoose, Secretly Society, and my local who all have their shit together. Ridiculous!
 
NathanRicaud said:
Yeah, it is a very hard question! I don’t know if in 5 years, my top 3 albums will remain the same. All I know is that Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly will always be #1!

I can imagine other albums like Danny Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition, Rosalia’s Los Angeles, Janelle Monae’s The Archandroid, Kids See Ghosts’ self-titled, and Tame Impala’s Current’s taking a spot or something in the top 3! But I think To Pimp A Butterfly will always be my favourite album of the 2010’s, unquestionably! ♥
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Have you listened to Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker or Lonerism?
 
Ghost said:
Have you listened to Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker or Lonerism?
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Yes, I especially love Lonerism out of those two, but Currents is easily my favourite! The velvety, dreamy, post disco psychedelic, smooth, trippy, glamorous production of Currents absolutely melts me! I’ve got the biggest crush on that album! 🙈
 
I've just learned about that VMP price increase bullshit an hour ago and spent the last hour reading through the last 15 pages of this thread.
There's no way I would pay about 45€ for non- audiophile records. But what really kills VMP for me is the price increase of add-ons to $33. The add-ons have been the real deal, and if they would have kept them to the former price, I even might accept the subscription price increase. But with both imcreases there's no way I would want to continue my membership. I will get Spiritualized next month and then I'm out. I just canceled my add-ons.
There are so many other places to buy vinyl for a good value, also limited editions.
I really enjoyed @Joe Mac 's comments by the way, especially in regards to @NathanRicaud. Very true what Joe said.

I'm pretty sure that VMP will loose a very high percentage of their customers due to this. It actually even feels like it's their plan, maybe as a result of the BVSC problem. I also doubt they still exist in a year. I don't feel like wanting to support a business further that constantly pulls such things.
 
Bluecloud777 said:
I've just learned about that VMP price increase bullshit an hour ago and spent the last hour reading through the last 15 pages of this thread.
There's no way I would pay about 45€ for non- audiophile records. But what really kills VMP for me is the price increase of add-ons to $33. The add-ons have been the real deal, and if they would have kept them to the former price, I even might accept the subscription price increase. But with both imcreases there's no way I would want to continue my membership. I will get Spiritualized next month and then I'm out. I just canceled my add-ons.
There are so many other places to buy vinyl for a good value, also limited editions.
I really enjoyed @Joe Mac 's comments by the way, especially in regards to @NathanRicaud. Very true what Joe said.

I'm pretty sure that VMP will loose a very high percentage of their customers due to this. It actually even feels like it's their plan, maybe as a result of the BVSC problem. I also doubt they still exist in a year. I don't feel like wanting to support a business further that constantly pulls such things.
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mmmmm I completely agree with what you've said here. It's just so expensive overall now, especially with add-ons being USD$33 now! Like, that isn't cheap at all! I think the Classics ROTM's in general are worth USD$33, as they are similar to a single LP Analogue Productions pressing quality wise, but the issue is if the Classics ROTM is a record you want! Like Analogue Productions has a lot of single LP 33 1/3RPM pressings; Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and other titles, which are all incredible. The VMP Classics titles don't compare to those, you know what I mean!

The Rap & Hip-Hop ROTM track is very hit and miss at the moment. I would only pay USD$33 for only half the ROTM’s VMP have picked this year (El-P, Blackalicious, Prince Paul & Lord Finesse)!

The Essentials being at that price for internationals is just way too expensive, especially with the add-ons at that price now! 😿🙅‍♂️⚠️

And what I don’t understand is that VMP have been doing promotions where you sign up and get the 3rd month free. So if VMP can afford to have those promotions and profit, why are they drastically increasing their prices!?! Doesn’t make sense! 🤨
 
NathanRicaud said:
mmmmm I completely agree with what you've said here. It's just so expensive overall now, especially with add-ons being USD$33 now! Like, that isn't cheap at all! I think the Classics ROTM's in general are worth USD$33, as they are similar to a single LP Analogue Productions pressing quality wise, but the issue is if the Classics ROTM is a record you want! Like Analogue Productions has a lot of single LP 33 1/3RPM pressings; Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and other titles, which are all incredible. The VMP Classics titles don't compare to those, you know what I mean!

The Rap & Hip-Hop ROTM track is very hit and miss at the moment. I would only pay USD$33 for only half the ROTM’s VMP have picked this year (El-P, Blackalicious, Prince Paul & Lord Finesse)!

The Essentials being at that price for internationals is just way too expensive, especially with the add-ons at that price now! 😿🙅‍♂️⚠

And what I don’t understand is that VMP have been doing promotions where you sign up and get the 3rd month free. So if VMP can afford to have those promotions and profit, why are they drastically increasing their prices!?! Doesn’t make sense! 🤨
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Maybe as others said before, it's the Grateful Dead desaster or the fact they have sent out lots of single packages recently instead of just one box. I've received 5 records in 4 packages; must have cost them lots of unnecessary postage and this has happened to so many people around here.
Or it's the most likely reason: greed. To see if they get through with it. And all these things don't feel like they care that much about music anymore (and certainly not about the community as we've seen when they did shut down the old forum, and I bet they would love to censor reddit too), but just about getting the highest profit possible. You can see that in regards to so many aspects, for instance the poor scanning of many sleeves.
 
I have always imagined the VMP leaders sitting at a large table and everyone is quiet and have their hands either in tight fists, closed together, or maybe elbows on the table with their hands on their face covering their own eyes. The team meeting then goes like this:

"Ok, things have been tough. We all have known this. And at the moment, after collecting everyone's ideas out of the box it seems that we agree on increasing the price of everything. Yes, we've done this several times before, but we have no choice. We have an image to keep and the costs are becoming more high for production. We have to do this."

And after that, the team sits quietly and no one looks at each other. There's some mouth breathing by a rather large employee and another member has gas, so you can hear them make farts inside their butts without the air coming out.

"I think this is a baaaaaaadddd idea. How are we going to do this? It's going to cause a huge upset."

The members continue to sit quietly still. Some are trying to think about what they can order from postmates when they get home, and others are thinking about the sweat running down their armpits.

"Look, we'll send an email with the announcement and we can do the one month sub again and also try to entice them with discounts if they go for the long term plan, but for now let's go ahead and immediately start the process and see if we can lock them in before the socials go off and the forum loosers start b*tchin'"

The team members all look straight forward and nod gently. Then they all get up and walk away to their desks. On their computer screens they see the the long list of customer service requests emails and they sigh.

"I hate this job..."

Over in the corner one of the interns takes a glance across the room at the dry erase board and sees the next ROTM titles. Channel Orange, Deloused in the Comatorium, Lateralus, E. 1999 Eternal, Loveless, Selected Ambient Works 2, and one with three question marks and the word "soundtrack" next to it.
 
Stringthing75 said:
My international 12 month sub is up to $499 from $399.
I dont think anyone here or at VMP could even attempt to justify that.
I am out.
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I was pondering this on this mornings walk with poocho. The discounted yearly is $374 for international which at the current exchange rate is about £284. That works out about £23 a record per month posted which is honestly not that bad given you can swap into classics. In fact its on par with some shop prices... but in the middle of a pandemic who has that sort of money to chuck straight at this and there is a nagging feeling that this is the start of the the proper full helter skelter slide into oblivion for VMP so I'd question whether you'd actually get the full years worth.

|There is also the very questionable picks in essentials and classics of late that are all things than make you go hmmm. In fact they're things that make you go hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmmmmmmmmm. Its actually a really solid deal but feels like a mega, mega gamble in fairly challenging times.
 
Rowan said:
I was pondering this on this mornings walk with poocho. The discounted yearly is $374 for international which at the current exchange rate is about £284. That works out about £23 a record per month posted which is honestly not that bad given you can swap into classics. In fact its on par with some shop prices... but in the middle of a pandemic who has that sort of money to chuck straight at this and there is a nagging feeling that this is the start of the the proper full helter skelter slide into oblivion for VMP so I'd question whether you'd actually get the full years worth.

|There is also the very questionable picks in essentials and classics of late that are all things than make you go hmmm. In fact they're things that make you go hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmmmmmmmmm. Its actually a really solid deal but feels like a mega, mega gamble in fairly challenging times.
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Discounted price? How do you get that?
 
Bluecloud777 said:
I've just learned about that VMP price increase bullshit an hour ago and spent the last hour reading through the last 15 pages of this thread.
There's no way I would pay about 45€ for non- audiophile records. But what really kills VMP for me is the price increase of add-ons to $33. The add-ons have been the real deal, and if they would have kept them to the former price, I even might accept the subscription price increase. But with both imcreases there's no way I would want to continue my membership. I will get Spiritualized next month and then I'm out. I just canceled my add-ons.
There are so many other places to buy vinyl for a good value, also limited editions.
I really enjoyed @Joe Mac 's comments by the way, especially in regards to @NathanRicaud. Very true what Joe said.

I'm pretty sure that VMP will loose a very high percentage of their customers due to this. It actually even feels like it's their plan, maybe as a result of the BVSC problem. I also doubt they still exist in a year. I don't feel like wanting to support a business further that constantly pulls such things.
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Out of the loop what's the BVSC problem?

I've always been surprised they can afford to ship internationally for so cheap and especially recently when they've been doing individual packages. They must have been taking a big hit on that and that could have caught up with them.

The international prices now kind of reflect what you normally pay for an import - usually like 20 usd shipping on a $25 record, but that's also the reason I pass on almost all imports and in any case can end up picking them up through a local distributor.

I think the worst is that they actually convinced themselves they're a premium product like AP or MoFi.

I'm slightly worried about open pre-orders I have with them that won't get shipped until October. Does PayPal cover you in cases like this? I fear they could also go under as it looks like they also have cash flow issues.
 
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