Vinyl Me Please Anthology

avecigrec said:
I would definitely snag this if it showed up in swaps. But that's about it.

[edit to add:] It's definitely something I would love to have from an archival standpoint, but not something I'd see myself setting out to listen to very often.
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I’m in the exact same boat. I do appreciate the effort that went into this, though.

I’m hoping the next HH anthology is a bit more… mainstream, I guess? Like I’d be all over a Def Jux or Rhymesayers antho in a heartbeat.
 
Hemotep said:
I agree with you on the last point. But I don't know what their goal would be otherwise, since they aren't doing this just to be altruistic. And my point is mostly that who cares if it's interesting, since that doesn't seem to make anyone "interested".
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I think the price is the biggest problem with people being interested.

I've given up on figuring out what venture capitalist funded business's goals are. Most of the time it doesn't seem like these people are doing anything to turn a profit. I mean how long do places like google, amazon, etc lose money before they turn a profit. It seems like there is some kind of rich people nonsense I don't understand voodoo with nonsense like this.

I'm absolutely certain that at better prices these things would move and ultimately be more profitable and be better for their "portfolio" or whatever, but then I'm not a venture capitalist and have no desire to truly understand how they work.
 
avecigrec said:
Pretty sure they get paid more (or all) on the licensing fee than per unit, so they oughtta be covered
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I imagine that's true, but none of them are getting much when you divide it up either which way. I was thinking about it more for them as being about the exposure and getting more people who will check out other stuff they've done.
 
Lee Newman said:
I think the price is the biggest problem with people being interested.

I've given up on figuring out what venture capitalist funded business's goals are. Most of the time it doesn't seem like these people are doing anything to turn a profit. I mean how long do places like google, amazon, etc lose money before they turn a profit. It seems like there is some kind of rich people nonsense I don't understand voodoo with nonsense like this.

I'm absolutely certain that at better prices these things would move and ultimately be more profitable and be better for their "portfolio" or whatever, but then I'm not a venture capitalist and have no desire to truly understand how they work.
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IMO how it works is the Amazon model, also used by Facebook, Google, Spotify et.al. - start off cheap, losing money. Force everyone else out of business while losing tons because, unlike competitors with shareholders and lenders, you have deep pockets and oligarchs who will sink in all the money you need until you reach the goal - a monopoly. Then, like Amazon has been doing, you ultimately control the supply chain, or actually are the supply chain. And you can raise prices all you like.
 
RHANDMJ said:
IMO how it works is the Amazon model, also used by Facebook, Google, Spotify et.al. - start off cheap, losing money. Force everyone else out of business while losing tons because, unlike competitors with shareholders and lenders, you have deep pockets and oligarchs who will sink in all the money you need until you reach the goal - a monopoly. Then, like Amazon has been doing, you ultimately control the supply chain, or actually are the supply chain. And you can raise prices all you like.
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I mean, I guess, but there is no chance of VMP taking over all vinyl.
 
Lee Newman said:
I mean, I guess, but there is no chance of VMP taking over all vinyl.
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Right, there is not. Amazon have already done that, with Chad holding the audiophile part close to some extent.

I suspect that, although VC funded, VMP has to turn a profit. But the Anthology series looks like a marquee product intended to boost the brand, and as such intended to sell steady over the long term rather than an intense, short period like most releases.
 
Any further thoughts on VMP's part in the ever-increasing retail cost of vinyl across the board? Have they not intentionally stoked the current flames of specialty/exclusive and "limited" releases? While clearly seeing the secondary market for many of their releases, which often includes prices at double -- and sometimes much, much higher -- the original price from VMP?
Just based on watching their business since 2015, I think they're making real profit. Their prices have increased way more than other retailers, and prices keep going up. Folks seem to be paying.

Sorry to digress. I know this is the "Anthology" thread. Maybe this conversation exists elsewhere on N&G.

Anyways, I might buy the Memphis Rap Box? I've got about half the VMP Anthology box sets, and have really enjoyed them all. I'm one of those folks that is annoyed (in general by VMP), but doesn't really care about the cost. Maybe wait to hear some opinions on this one...
 
Felis Concolor said:
Any further thoughts on VMP's part in the ever-increasing retail cost of vinyl across the board? Have they not intentionally stoked the current flames of specialty/exclusive and "limited" releases? While clearly seeing the secondary market for many of their releases, which often includes prices at double -- and sometimes much, much higher -- the original price from VMP?
Just based on watching their business since 2015, I think they're making real profit. Their prices have increased way more than other retailers, and prices keep going up. Folks seem to be paying.

Sorry to digress. I know this is the "Anthology" thread. Maybe this conversation exists elsewhere on N&G.

Anyways, I might buy the Memphis Rap Box? I've got about half the VMP Anthology box sets, and have really enjoyed them all. I'm one of those folks that is annoyed (in general by VMP), but doesn't really care about the cost. Maybe wait to hear some opinions on this one...
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Every vinyl company pushes the FOMO since they realized how much it sells. And most have raised prices in the past few years again. Newbury Comics is the first company I remember really pushing limited color variants years and years ago. They now flip their OWN records in their stores. $40 single LPs are becoming normalized but it's not just because of VMP. AP and MoFi helped set the $40 price tag (buy now cry later! fuck chad!), then other companies jumped on that regardless of specs and try to take advantage of people not really knowing much about the pressing process. Lots of generic GZ cuts out there now selling for $40+ under the guise of being limited, or being a title that was badly in need of a reissue and the labels phoned it in. @RHANDMJ can tell you about how Amazon caused vinyl prices to go up across the board.

I will say by and large, VMP is actually spending the money on improving the records. I've been a member on and off since their 2nd year in business. They've gone from generic GZ cuts to doing a majority AAA cut by top engineers, nice jackets, etc. I don't think that pressing at GZ was necessarily a price choice--I think they primarily had to do that just to meet deadlines with the numbers of ROTM they were pressing. QRP mostly stopped pressing for other companies (and VMP stole their plant manager for their own plant), RTI was backed up like crazy, Pallas was having issues, etc.

I'll be very curious how the VMP plant goes. I'm rooting for it to succeed because it will be great to have another good pressing plant out there. As for anthologies, I've always seen this as their pet project and most companies have those. I'm sure they know the financials and how many they need to sell to break even. I know people made fun of them for the Grateful Dead box set, but they did end up selling it out and the demand was there for them to repress it. I'm not saying that this Memphis rap set will sell out anytime soon, but I don't think they ever expected this one to sell out day 1.

The Anthologies are a curious one because many of them do not sell out and they must be losing "profit" on them every day with warehousing costs. But I doubt they would keep making them if they are real big money losers. It seems they have them planned out for at least the next year knowing full well that the majority of them don't sell out quickly at all. I do think they made a mistake putting some in swaps awhile ago because now everyone assumes that every set is going to end up in swaps eventually.

VMP still has a bunch of issues to work out but I do think they have mostly improved in a lot of areas even from a few years ago. They also pretty constantly have coupon codes or offers to bring the prices down on subscriptions and items in their store. Like right now you can get a referral for $80 off a yearly subscription PLUS 8 free records which drastically brings the price down for members (something like $18 per album). They do also seem to be trying to pilot a loyalty program of sorts and giving bigger discounts on sales to people who have remained members for a long time. They did those regional hip hop sales last month and I think you could get up to 40% off if you've been a member for over 2 years or something.
 
MikeH said:
Every vinyl company pushes the FOMO since they realized how much it sells. And most have raised prices in the past few years again. Newbury Comics is the first company I remember really pushing limited color variants years and years ago. They now flip their OWN records in their stores. $40 single LPs are becoming normalized but it's not just because of VMP. AP and MoFi helped set the $40 price tag (buy now cry later! fuck chad!), then other companies jumped on that regardless of specs and try to take advantage of people not really knowing much about the pressing process. Lots of generic GZ cuts out there now selling for $40+ under the guise of being limited, or being a title that was badly in need of a reissue and the labels phoned it in. @RHANDMJ can tell you about how Amazon caused vinyl prices to go up across the board.

I will say by and large, VMP is actually spending the money on improving the records. I've been a member on and off since their 2nd year in business. They've gone from generic GZ cuts to doing a majority AAA cut by top engineers, nice jackets, etc. I don't think that pressing at GZ was necessarily a price choice--I think they primarily had to do that just to meet deadlines with the numbers of ROTM they were pressing. QRP mostly stopped pressing for other companies (and VMP stole their plant manager for their own plant), RTI was backed up like crazy, Pallas was having issues, etc.

I'll be very curious how the VMP plant goes. I'm rooting for it to succeed because it will be great to have another good pressing plant out there. As for anthologies, I've always seen this as their pet project and most companies have those. I'm sure they know the financials and how many they need to sell to break even. I know people made fun of them for the Grateful Dead box set, but they did end up selling it out and the demand was there for them to repress it. I'm not saying that this Memphis rap set will sell out anytime soon, but I don't think they ever expected this one to sell out day 1.

The Anthologies are a curious one because many of them do not sell out and they must be losing "profit" on them every day with warehousing costs. But I doubt they would keep making them if they are real big money losers. It seems they have them planned out for at least the next year knowing full well that the majority of them don't sell out quickly at all. I do think they made a mistake putting some in swaps awhile ago because now everyone assumes that every set is going to end up in swaps eventually.

VMP still has a bunch of issues to work out but I do think they have mostly improved in a lot of areas even from a few years ago. They also pretty constantly have coupon codes or offers to bring the prices down on subscriptions and items in their store. Like right now you can get a referral for $80 off a yearly subscription PLUS 8 free records which drastically brings the price down for members (something like $18 per album). They do also seem to be trying to pilot a loyalty program of sorts and giving bigger discounts on sales to people who have remained members for a long time. They did those regional hip hop sales last month and I think you could get up to 40% off if you've been a member for over 2 years or something.
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People are beta testing the loyalty program?
 
bdm105 said:
As a 6? 7? Year member I sure hope so haha
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It’s consecutive membership just FYI. Not if you joined 6 years ago and then stopped a year ago, for example. I’ve been a member on and off since I think the 2nd year VMP was around but have been a member consecutively for only a year or so and my discount was 30% off last time on select RHH titles. They seemed to do a little test of it when they did those regional RHH sales a month or so ago.
 
MikeH said:
It’s consecutive membership just FYI. Not if you joined 6 years ago and then stopped a year ago, for example. I’ve been a member on and off since I think the 2nd year VMP was around but have been a member consecutively for only a year or so and my discount was 30% off last time on select RHH titles. They seemed to do a little test of it when they did those regional RHH sales a month or so ago.
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Yeah my membership has never lapsed. Maybe I got the email and didn't read it close enough
 
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