Magnolia Record Club

It wasn't really in my interest realm but to not make that a member exclusive (unless it was but it doesn't seem like it) feels like a poor decision. It was apparently super low stock to begin with and some other clubs do limit this kind of thing to a member-first look.
 
waruv said:
It wasn't really in my interest realm but to not make that a member exclusive (unless it was but it doesn't seem like it) feels like a poor decision. It was apparently super low stock to begin with and some other clubs do limit this kind of thing to a member-first look.
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It would be nice but Magnolia Store Exclusives aren't part of the club. You can't even get these exclusives shipped with your Record of The Month box, they are fulfilled from two different places I believe.
 
Twentytwo said:
It would be nice but Magnolia Store Exclusives aren't part of the club. You can't even get these exclusives shipped with your Record of The Month box, they are fulfilled from two different places I believe.
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Just feels like an odd overall decision given other clubs do have this kind of offering as a perk for being a subscriber. A bummer but so it goes.
 
waruv said:
Just feels like an odd overall decision given other clubs do have this kind of offering as a perk for being a subscriber. A bummer but so it goes.
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I agree but Avett Brothers are huge and this would have sold out instantly regardless if it was just for subscribers. Sounds like they only had a 100 copies to begin with.
 
Twentytwo said:
I really dig the discovery track for Magnolia but they really need to branch out some. Why can't we have some good country records or good rock records? Thad Cockrell is fine but there are too many releases just like this one in the discovery track. More records like Futurebirds and less Thad Cockrell records.
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I don’t disagree with this assessment at all. This one might grow on me though. First listen is just like, this is fine.
 
Twentytwo said:
I agree but Avett Brothers are huge and this would have sold out instantly regardless if it was just for subscribers. Sounds like they only had a 100 copies to begin with.
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In the end, I think these types of things are bad business decisions because there are many more left out than get in. In the end, it gave me VMP flashbacks at how they do things that don't make any business sense. I always felt that magnolia was different in that sense, but hey, as we have all found out with vinyl clubs, it's less about the music and the fan, and more about making money. Anyway, my knee jerk reaction was to say f... it, and cancel my membership, not because I didn't get it (well, maybe a little), but because I didn't like the feeling it gave me. I don't know, just a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, that could be the cheese sandwich I had for lunch...I think I'm just suffering from coronavirus fatigue + political fatigue + whatever else there is to screw my day up fatigue...recently, I stopped verbally communicating with people. My wife asked me if, when I do verbalize, I vould say something more than WTF...to which I responded with...WTF?
 
zarile9 said:
In the end, I think these types of things are bad business decisions because there are many more left out than get in. In the end, it gave me VMP flashbacks at how they do things that don't make any business sense. I always felt that magnolia was different in that sense, but hey, as we have all found out with vinyl clubs, it's less about the music and the fan, and more about making money. Anyway, my knee jerk reaction was to say f... it, and cancel my membership, not because I didn't get it (well, maybe a little), but because I didn't like the feeling it gave me. I don't know, just a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, that could be the cheese sandwich I had for lunch...I think I'm just suffering from coronavirus fatigue + political fatigue + whatever else there is to screw my day up fatigue...recently, I stopped verbally communicating with people. My wife asked me if, when I do verbalize, I vould say something more than WTF...to which I responded with...WTF?
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If it's any consolation, you're definitely not alone in that response based on the reply in the Magnolia FB group. VMP's name was dropped there, Magnolia's response has not been super well received, and there have been some cancellation threats.

I guess I'm just very much happy that this wouldn't have been a record I was looking to get (Avetts just aren't my thing), but the more I think about it the more absurd it seems to me that Magnolia got a small quantity of a very high interest item and then...did an email drop after The Guild was notified about it for wide purchase. At best it feels like a bad business decision. Alas, so it goes. With that said, the perks of the Magnolia subscription are a bit in question given the exclusives tend to pop up in the shop and have other, similar exclusives via other websites and things like this aren't able to be tied in.

Edit: I say this as my Phoebe is sitting next to me aching to be played so...maybe I can't quit this
 
Guys... Magnolia is not VMP. I can’t even think of a time something sold out quick for them. They underanticipated demand and/or made a bad deal with the Avetts. Who knows? I’d bet they’re going to learn from it. I also think comparing to VMPs bad business is in bad taste. Magnolia didn’t pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, they’re records outside of ROTM and discovery have never been exclusive to members.

As collectors, we often get entitled and upset about stuff. I’d bet Magnolia is already seeing if they can get more like they did with Margo.
 
waruv said:
If it's any consolation, you're definitely not alone in that response based on the reply in the Magnolia FB group. VMP's name was dropped there, Magnolia's response has not been super well received, and there have been some cancellation threats.

I guess I'm just very much happy that this wouldn't have been a record I was looking to get (Avetts just aren't my thing), but the more I think about it the more absurd it seems to me that Magnolia got a small quantity of a very high interest item and then...did an email drop after The Guild was notified about it for wide purchase. At best it feels like a bad business decision. Alas, so it goes. With that said, the perks of the Magnolia subscription are a bit in question given the exclusives tend to pop up in the shop and have other, similar exclusives via other websites and things like this aren't able to be tied in.

Edit: I say this as my Phoebe is sitting next to me aching to be played so...maybe I can't quit this
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Good to hear it's not just me.
 
Lee Newman said:
Guys... Magnolia is not VMP. I can’t even think of a time something sold out quick for them. They underanticipated demand and/or made a bad deal with the Avetts. Who knows? I’d bet they’re going to learn from it. I also think comparing to VMPs bad business is in bad taste. Magnolia didn’t pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, they’re records outside of ROTM and discovery have never been exclusive to members.

As collectors, we often get entitled and upset about stuff. I’d bet Magnolia is already seeing if they can get more like they did with Margo.
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As a famous Wiseman named Styx once said...i see the world through my cynical eyes, I'm a troubled young man I can tell...or something like that...
 
It'd be foolish to not acknowledge the difficulty in this kind of process. I don't think any industry has appropriately figured out the 'high demand item + online drop" method in a manner anyone is super happy with. I also collect Funko which is magnitudes bigger than MRC (not than vinyl but you know) and after years their online drops of exclusives are constantly maligned. Even huge retailers (Target, Walmart, Hot Topic, etc.) are not really good at that. Amazon Black Friday/Prime Day lightning deals are a shot in the dark at best. I also think it's completely fair to say that other records that aren't RotM/Discovery have never been exclusive because, well, they're not. Magnolia has had their prior signed editions open for sale and, in fact, that's how I found out about them originally. A change in process here could very well be, as Lee puts out there as a possibility, something that some party in this process balked at. I would imagine the machinations behind getting artists to agree to exclusives with a third party record company can be tough and the Avetts are huge enough to name their terms: they have their own paid fan club to work with and locking them out from a release could have been a non starter to getting this in the first place.

Further, like was suggested, Magnolia has at least acknowledged a wider point (in the FB Comments) that more club-exclusive items should be a priority and has committed going forward to more member exclusive opportunities. This is a good thing for subscribers.

With that said, an Avett Brothers signed variant is also, to several degrees, a much higher profile release than any other thing I've seen from Magnolia in my limited time in their stead. Like I said, I'm not an Avett Brothers fan and wouldn't have been in on this. Their last handful of prior signed editions are artists like Becca Mancari, Sarah Jarosz (one of my all-time favorite artists), and Margo Price. Even their headlining RoTM unsigned variants have artists that have, at best, a similar profile to the Avetts. I think they'd have to be incredibly naïve to not realize that a signed, limited option wouldn't go very quickly and be in very high demand for a band of this size. When you tack on that they didn't have a quantity limit of one with no advance notice to members outside of an email (after it dropped...with a metadata of "Gotta move quickly y'all"), I don't think it's unfair for people to be upset with them even if I'm personally not.

I don't think it's unreasonable for there to be a middle ground between the "new VMP" type comments and the "they did nothing wrong" comments.
 
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