Jan
Well-Known Member
But what would they do with more time?
C´mon forum. No one made thsi joke? yàll are getting lazy.
Vinyl Me Please Anthology
- Thread starter mdmost
- Start date
But what would they do with more time?
C´mon forum. No one made thsi joke? yàll are getting lazy.
bother
Well-Known Member
I'm actually kind of happy that this was rushed. I mean, if they had time to spare and this is the level of product they put together for the money then I'd feel like they were purposefully ripping us off. At least this is just.... unintentional badness.
wmeugene
Well-Known Member
What doesn’t make sense to me that this was “rushed” is that the test pressings are from February. This was released in May. One would think planning would have began at least 60-90 days before the test pressings were done.
The fact that they didn’t catch the typos, artwork issues, and clearly didn’t have enough boxes for the notes is astounding.
MikeH
Well-Known Member
So we should stay away from the second one if we don’t want to deal with the same QC errors eh? Haha
MikeH
Well-Known Member
The weird thing is why was this rushed to begin with? Why not launch it later if they don’t have the time? Also, a lot of their problems would have been solved by actually describing what they are selling next time, instead of overpromising and underdelivering. If could have simply been branded as Blue Note x VMP- 6 albums from 6 eras from one of the most storied jazz labels in music history. These albums haven’t been re-released for at least 10 years and one has never been on vinyl. High quality pressings (RTI + Kevin Gray remasters) housed in a box with a few pamphlet containing a few sentences from Ben Ratliff. With some podcasts featuring Don Was.
I think they still would have sold out. Instead, they created that FOMO that they always try to do and made it seem like they were giving you a history lesson and educational experience.
btf1980
Well-Known Member
I don’t understand why it was rushed either. Were there arbitrary deadlines outside of self imposed ones? What was the benefit of rushing in this case? The more I think about it, the less sense it makes.
Selaws
Well-Known Member
+1 for this. Both are fantastic books and cover the whole Blue Note history in amazing detail. Add the The Cover Art of Blue Note Records Vols 1 & 2 by Glyn Callingham and Graham Marsh and I would say your pretty much set. Oh and listen to the music.......obviously
bother
Well-Known Member
Yeah I totally agree with you, if they had just been honest and up front about what they were doing, I'd be much less annoyed about all this. I mean, the shipping issues aside, they essentially overpromised and underdelivered. Feels a bit like a bait and switch.
But why rush? Who knows. Maybe to reach a deadline they agreed on with Blue Note? Maybe they didn't really rush and they're now just using that as an excuse for a poorly staffed and poorly executed product.
Fortunately, they were working with what seems like a label that's trying to do things right. The stuff that Blue Note provided is all fantastic. Great albums, great sound. The pressings also seem pretty darn great, I mean they should be, it's RTI, label thing aside. It's just the stuff VMP had to take care of that ended up messy....
MikeH
Well-Known Member
Which begs the question, why does Blue Note need VMP for any of this? Just about every aspect of the project that VMP handled was fucked up.
bother
Well-Known Member
Well I'm pretty new to the whole scene, but I wonder if Blue Note didn't know how big of a winner they were going to have with TP and BN80? Could be they were hedging their bets and hoping a little more exposure from VMP's audience would help their overall reach.
Which, to be totally real, it definitely worked. I'm great proof of that. I got this box set sort of on a whim with the idea that I'd learn some more about jazz and maybe get into it...... and now I've bought everything BN's put out so far this year. So from that perspective, getting guys like me on board the jazzexpress, this was probably a win for BN overall.
So yeah, all this said, I still haven't ruled out signing up for the next one. At the end of the day, I really like the music and I really like the idea of getting two records every couple weeks. Price point has to be right and the topic has to be interesting enough, and I'll definitely go into it with my expectations as low as they can get, but I haven't 100% written it off.
btf1980
Well-Known Member
With the success of the Tone Poet and the 80th anniversary series, Blue Note really doesn’t need them. My guess would be that they were trying to tap into VMP’s younger audience that isn’t jazz focused, but might have the disposable income to purchase the set. The whole thing was promoted as a “jazz school” of sorts. They were supposed to give the customers an education in a community. That was the hook. Blue Note’s core audience doesn’t need a jazz education.
Crenshaw Blvd
Well-Known Member
Captions are overrated...much like VMP.
MikeH
Well-Known Member
Very well could be that. Based on the FB group though, my gut tells me that MAYBE half of the 1000 subscribers are from VMP versus people who found out about the box through Blue Note or Billboard's link. And of those 500 or so, a lot of people were already into jazz and were going to buy the Tone Poet and other stuff whether or not this Anthology existed. I think the history/educational aspect to it was a draw for a subsection of subscribers for sure. So maybe, at best, they got a few hundred people to buy the TP that wouldn't have gotten it prior to this set.
I'm personally excited that it has gotten more people into jazz although now I have more competition on ebay auctions
It's a great time to be a jazz fan.
MikeH
Well-Known Member
That was one part of the hook. The other, for many of us, was Blue Note represses of albums that haven't been repressed in 10+ years. The education part was an added bonus which is why I'm not super bummed that it didn't happen (I never expected it to).
Enoch
Well-Known Member
They email he referenced they followed up over the phone but I am sure your email was great and they weren't in responding
I got the same line that Storf gave us, we didn't think it would sell out so quickly, it was honestly one of the most head-scratching parts of the conversation and there were many
Enoch
Well-Known Member
I can't verify and do wonder if it was true or not but Lloyd said only those that did the email notification thing (which BN was a part of by design) were the ones that bought it. Again I have zero verification and have a hard time believing it.Very well could be that. Based on the FB group though, my gut tells me that MAYBE half of the 1000 subscribers are from VMP versus people who found out about the box through Blue Note or Billboard's link. And of those 500 or so, a lot of people were already into jazz and were going to buy the Tone Poet and other stuff whether or not this Anthology existed. I think the history/educational aspect to it was a draw for a subsection of subscribers for sure. So maybe, at best, they got a few hundred people to buy the TP that wouldn't have gotten it prior to this set.
I'm personally excited that it has gotten more people into jazz although now I have more competition on ebay auctions
MikeH
Well-Known Member
Haha I tease but thanks buddy.
MikeH
Well-Known Member
Eh, wouldn't be shocked by that to be honest. I didn't really think that the billboard article made people buy it because who actually reads Billboard? I just meant that a bunch of subscribers seem to be Blue Note customers more than VMP customers based on the types of people that are participating the most in the FB group. And as you said, the BN fan base was integrated through that email notification too. I don't really know how else people would have found out about Anthology outside of the Blue Note email list telling people to sign up for early access or if they were a VMP member who also got that email.
Enoch
Well-Known Member
I know