Critter
Active Member
I just can't tell yet if the sticker was a template they bought at PartyCity or not...
Vinyl Me Please Anthology
- Thread starter mdmost
- Start date
I initially thought the abruptness of the forum shutdown was weird, but I’m sure now that they realized the mistakes they'd made on the cover/label/foil stamping, on top of the other recent VMP controversies, would ruin their relationship with Blue Note, which could potentially make them a lot of money. Let's not forget that (1) they also didn’t deliver exclusive content or discounts or giveaways or listening parties like they said they would, (2) they censored a thread, and (3) they promised people would become a “true student of jazz” and then didn’t provide very much that could be construed as educational, not to mention the removal of liner notes from the Dexter album to make it more difficult to be educated or the timing of the informational booklet (which comes after we’re done listening to the records).
With that in mind, shutting down the forum abruptly probably seemed like the only way to avert another PR crisis. They knew that when we saw the product we’d realize they made more mistakes and we’d complain on the forums for 300 pages that things were already bad enough and that they are incompetent, and Blue Note would never work with them again. So they decided to nuke the forums and could only give us a couple of days warning because people were about to start getting shipments. Then they pointed people to Reddit, where many people in their target demographic for this set do not go. They probably didn’t bet that as many of us would end up here, but it's still not as high profile as the crucifixion they would have endured on their own forums.
The whole thing has made me totally soured to them now, and I used to be a huge VMP fanboy. In my real life, I’d break up with this girl. But with vinyl I’m that guy who keeps going back to his bad girlfriend.
"Next week, I'll break up with her, I promise..."
<listens to Al Green and Camp Lo>
"Well, maybe it can wait one more month..."
From a business case study perspective, I'm interested to see if nuking your own community ends up being a good way to handle fallout from a screwup. Will depend on what they rebuild later (which, by the way, they have no idea what they're going to do, they're just saying "we'll think of something better eventually" to get us off their backs) and whether we are willing to come back when the time comes. Personally, I won't be.
(But maybe I will haha)
With that in mind, shutting down the forum abruptly probably seemed like the only way to avert another PR crisis. They knew that when we saw the product we’d realize they made more mistakes and we’d complain on the forums for 300 pages that things were already bad enough and that they are incompetent, and Blue Note would never work with them again. So they decided to nuke the forums and could only give us a couple of days warning because people were about to start getting shipments. Then they pointed people to Reddit, where many people in their target demographic for this set do not go. They probably didn’t bet that as many of us would end up here, but it's still not as high profile as the crucifixion they would have endured on their own forums.
The whole thing has made me totally soured to them now, and I used to be a huge VMP fanboy. In my real life, I’d break up with this girl. But with vinyl I’m that guy who keeps going back to his bad girlfriend.
"Next week, I'll break up with her, I promise..."
<listens to Al Green and Camp Lo>
"Well, maybe it can wait one more month..."
From a business case study perspective, I'm interested to see if nuking your own community ends up being a good way to handle fallout from a screwup. Will depend on what they rebuild later (which, by the way, they have no idea what they're going to do, they're just saying "we'll think of something better eventually" to get us off their backs) and whether we are willing to come back when the time comes. Personally, I won't be.
(But maybe I will haha)
MikeH
Well-Known Member
The fine folks here have already rebuilt the forum as far as I'm concerned and it doesn't have the pitfalls that the VMP one did. I feel like the new forum, if they ever make one, will be facebook too.
Djxfactor511
Well-Known Member
On your first (and partially third) points, we're only a third of the way through this adventure, so there's still plenty of time.
I agree with your concerns though.
wmeugene
Well-Known Member
I certainly think the Anthology explains the timing. Whether it was as above or to replace it with the vapid Facebook group as the form of interaction, the timing is not coincidental.
Oh, I agree, there's still time. I just mean at the time they decided to shut down the forums all of those things were true and would have led to hundreds of pages of vitriolic posts. I hope they'll turn it around with the time they have left.
As others have said, I must also say: the first two albums sound wonderful and look great too, aforementioned issues notwithstanding. Great picks and a great package. And the way they packed it was superb as well.
Tyr
Well-Known Member
Tyler is still a part of VMP. That's the only information we have been given.
He is still working on other stuff too (anybody check out his youtube show or his song he released on Spotify?). Outside of that, no idea.
sahomerrocks
Well-Known Member
I honestly think we're giving them too much credit to assume they caught the mistakes post-production before the consumer did
Chucktshoes
Well-Known Member
It would be a break from historical pattern for them to catch the issue first. Other than Queen, it’s almost always brought to their attention by some unlucky soul who ordered from them.
In the early days they caught an error on the Donuts release, sent everyone the full album anyway with a note saying there was an error on one of the records and that replacements would be sent, and then sent the replacement record with the next shipment. All without you having to do anything.
wmeugene
Well-Known Member
Those were the days. Their response there and to Queen was fantastic. They’re on an 0-fer streak for 2019.
MikeH
Well-Known Member
Selling out looks good for VMP. There are quite a few whispers of them trying to get more investors involved. It's potentially why that Lloyd Star guy was brought on at the end of last year.
duke86fan
Well-Known Member
Since the Facebook can't be used for criticism. Used the one way they can
Anthology@
Email them and show them you care, whether it's about the foil stamp (which is slightly explained but not really in the faq), the Dexter cover, the label, anything (though not about the semi-censoring since that's a little different)
Show that you would cancel or refund or anything because of this
and please be civil... we dont wanna seem like hostile people who will try to kill VMP for anything they do
Anthology@
Email them and show them you care, whether it's about the foil stamp (which is slightly explained but not really in the faq), the Dexter cover, the label, anything (though not about the semi-censoring since that's a little different)
Show that you would cancel or refund or anything because of this
and please be civil... we dont wanna seem like hostile people who will try to kill VMP for anything they do
They really should have just done a single artist anthology or something for the first one. Something that didn’t have as many moving parts. Then they could have piloted the FB group thing and gotten all of the troubles out of the way before building up to something like this. Starting with Blue Note with AAA records and deluxe packaging for the first anthology was insanely overly ambitious. It really seems they’re just winging this shit. I know we still have several weeks left but it wouldn’t surprise me if there will be further delays with the records.
As for the content that we were promised, shouldn’t they have put together a bunch of shit (podcasts, articles, music, discussions, contests) waaaay before anything else? That would help keep the discussion going and keep us all excited for the product throughout the whole rollout. At a minimum do a few things per week on FB and through email. I also expect zero contests even though that was also promised.
As for the content that we were promised, shouldn’t they have put together a bunch of shit (podcasts, articles, music, discussions, contests) waaaay before anything else? That would help keep the discussion going and keep us all excited for the product throughout the whole rollout. At a minimum do a few things per week on FB and through email. I also expect zero contests even though that was also promised.
Investors should be running for the hills if they had one glance at the QA/QC issues this year.
mondie
New Member
I am struggling to think of a single business that has succeeded by ignoring its customers and pretending their claims were unfounded; switching off the forum for the paper thin reasons given seem to confirm they did so for these reasons. I have been a 'casual' customer of VMP in the past and been very happy with the LP's I bought. However, their marketing has always been OTT to the point of being cringeworthy. That actually pushed me away but that could be my age or sensitivity to hyperbole. However you view their marketing spin, they certainly set customer expectations high so when customers were unhappy regardless of how valid their complaints were, I believe they set themselves up for dissatisfaction.
MikeH
Well-Known Member
I think it might have been @Clint Howard who used the analogy of it being like waking up one day and deciding you want to try your hand at playing baseball and your first attempt is trying out for a MLB team. The problem is they wanted to do premium pricing on a box set and jazz + blue note is probably the best way to get that sweet sweet cash. They already had a relationship with Blue Note and could easily and cheaply market this box set to VMP and Blue Note's built in subscriber base. The fact that it sold out in 3 hours will make them and investors think that it was successful but to customers, it has been fuck up after fuck up.