Vinyl Me Please Anthology

jamieanderson1968 said:
As we get into the final stretch, what are peoples thoughts so far on Anthology, aside from printing, pressing and shipping issues? I had hoped for a better experience and have found the podcasts and video AMAs a bit lacking. Personally I think the liner/listening notes should have come out with the box shipment.

But the music has been amazing. I could have possibly built my own collection with the same titles, but in Canada (and pricy shipping) I doubt I could have done it for the same price or much cheaper.

So far for me I would rank them:
Shorter
Gordon/Donaldson (tied, depends on my mood)
Silver

I have been driving a lot lately and snuck ahead and listened to Hutcherson. Sadly on first 2 listens it did not grab me at all. The Akinmusire is an entirely different piece. Its powerful and I love it but I am not sure how often I will spin it compared to the other titles.

But I guess the BN Anthology has done its job in that it has opened my ears much more to jazz. I have picked up a couple of BN80 titles and another 4-5 on pre-order. Thankfully VMP is not doing anything exclusive wise that I feel compelled to pick up.

Still 2 more releases to come, plus liner notes, but the music has been top notch. The package has been good (soured a bit by several missteps). But the experience and community has been lacking. Overall I am happy but would seriously have to consider whether I would do another Anthology series.
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Music is great everything else didn't perform at the price point
 
jkeech said:
Man I didn't sign up for Anthology but this really sounds like VMP is reallyyyyy dropping the ball here. I've been a member since December 2014 and I absolutely loved this company. Now I'm definitely leaning towards not renewing this year.
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I'm in the same boat. I have a long way to go on my yearly sub unfortunately, but since the forum closed down I've realized just how little I've utilized VMP in the last year or so. If you don't count the FlyLo bundle, I can barely remember the last time I actually liked one of their exclusives enough to pay for it (I think it was Slowdive, which seems like eons ago). On top of that, I think I've kept maybe half of the AOTM and Classics offerings in the past year? I joined in 2015 and those early years were fantastic for me as far as curation goes, but it's been really lacking for quite a while. And with the alarming execution problems of "game changing" products like Anthology, I'm really really questioning the value of staying a member.

So basically they need to start showing me a noticeable uptick in membership value in my remaining subscription months. Otherwise, one or two gems a year isn't worth the hassle of selling half of my monthly boxes on Discogs because there's nothing left to swap for, and I'm not springing for the extra offerings like Anthology... I doubt it's going to happen though. It was great for me when CJ was the primary curator, but hasn't been at that level for a long time IMO. I just don't think I'm aligned enough with the musical tastes of Storf and whomever else is picking things these days.
 
Lee Newman said:
Counterpoint, has anything sold out since the forum closed?
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VMP.
jamieanderson1968 said:
As we get into the final stretch, what are peoples thoughts so far on Anthology, aside from printing, pressing and shipping issues?
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Gonna reserve judgment for when the set is complete. I'm hoping the booklet that comes with the final records clearly explains the differences in the six different styles of jazz featured in the set. Input from @seeirwin has been the most valuable 'extra' for me so far. I do like the concept of getting 2 albums at a time.

It'll be interesting to see how the next Anthology set is priced and how many units they make. I'm guessing the Stax Anthology will have to be $199 and 500 units.
 
High Rant District said:
VMP.

Gonna reserve judgment for when the set is complete. I'm hoping the booklet that comes with the final records clearly explains the differences in the six different styles of jazz featured in the set. Input from @seeirwin has been the most valuable 'extra' for me so far. I do like the concept of getting 2 albums at a time.

It'll be interesting to see how the next Anthology set is priced and how many units they make. I'm guessing the Stax Anthology will have to be $199 and 500 units.
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Is a Stax anthology coming?
 
If they do another anthology, they will have to drastically lower the price point to get people to buy it. Blue Note had an entire other non—VMP fan base built in. Not sure of many other fan bases that would spend $230-$280 on the box set of 6 albums of the roll out and errors are similar to this first batch. Jazz is the only genre that seems to regularly sell higher end audiophile pressings for $35-45 per LP.
 
wmeugene said:
I have 4 tone poet level pressings so far in a fancy box that I paid too much money for (about $38 per LP versus the $25-29 I've paid for my other tone poets).

That's how I view this one. Do I feel ripped off? Not really, but I do feel like I overpaid for what it is.
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But to be fair, none of these are being pressed as Tone Poets. It’s why I got Anthology. These are mostly albums that haven’t been reissued in at least a decade. Now if BN announces represses of all these albums for the Tone Poet line, I’ll be pissed. If I were to try to buy other vinyl pressings of all six of these albums in NM or even VG+ shape, I’d likely be looking at more than $230.
 
MikeH said:
But to be fair, none of these are being pressed as Tone Poets. It’s why I got Anthology. These are mostly albums that haven’t been reissued in at least a decade. Now if BN announces represses of all these albums for the Tone Poet line, I’ll be pissed. If I were to try to buy other vinyl pressings of all six of these albums in NM or even VG+ shape, I’d likely be looking at more than $230.
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That’s why I don’t feel ripped off per se, but there isn’t anything that makes the released titles any better than tone poets which cost about $10 less per title. In fact the lack of gatefolds and the errors further highlight the lack of value here.

I appreciate the album choices and that’s the redeeming factor in all of this.
 
My thoughts with hindsight are that the anthology has been really overpriced, especially for international customers. I see why they are being compared to TPs but a closer comparison for me is VMPs own Classics. They are now AAA where available, pressed at a good plant, come with a tip-on sleeve (with no extra material) and are available as low as $23 when bought as an extra with shipping included. On an annual int'l sub, each month is $33 + $23 for an extra meaning each pair of records can be produced and shipped for $56, ergo all 6 could have been had for $168 at their existing price structure. That's $112 for a booklet and a box! So yeah, I feel like it was really overpriced based on their own existing price structure.
 
Mr Moore said:
My thoughts with hindsight are that the anthology has been really overpriced, especially for international customers. I see why they are being compared to TPs but a closer comparison for me is VMPs own Classics. They are now AAA where available, pressed at a good plant, come with a tip-on sleeve (with no extra material) and are available as low as $23 when bought as an extra with shipping included. On an annual int'l sub, each month is $33 + $23 for an extra meaning each pair of records can be produced and shipped for $56, ergo all 6 could have been had for $168 at their existing price structure. That's $112 for a booklet and a box! So yeah, I feel like it was really overpriced based on their own existing price structure.
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I was sold on the "extras" making up for the absurdly high per-LP price. But if you're just looking at per-LP, this box was incredibly overpriced. Although, @MikeH points out that these are all pretty rare records, so getting them in good shape outside of the anthology is going to be really pricey. I suspect these are going to be worth something going forward-- unless they repress them all again, then we just got ripped off. Personally though, I don't like thinking about a purchase in terms of resale value, considering I doubt I'll ever sell these. So yeah, this box was overpriced and VMP did NOT live up to their hype/promises. I'd do another box if the per-LP pricing was reasonable and I really wanted it but I won't ever hold my breath for an "experience" again.
 
MikeH said:
If they do another anthology, they will have to drastically lower the price point to get people to buy it. Blue Note had an entire other non—VMP fan base built in. Not sure of many other fan bases that would spend $230-$280 on the box set of 6 albums of the roll out and errors are similar to this first batch. Jazz is the only genre that seems to regularly sell higher end audiophile pressings for $35-45 per LP.
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I'd probably do $200 plus or minus 30ish for a good blues box.
 
I think the Anthology concept was great, I also think that the "Experience" was just hype. That hype should have been just as important as the pressings because my gut tells me these will be repressed individually in the future by Blue Note. BN is too big a company to put all their eggs in one basket on a potential profit stream with these pressings. I honestly hope I'm wrong but VMP collaborations of the past always seemed to have some sort of exclusive "window" attached to it.

Now if the experience was something truly special, well, now you have a selling point over just single releases.
 
Listening to the new podcast. They just barely graze the history of Blue Note and I wish they had gone into way more detail. Info about RVG and his process, how the company was sold a couple times through the late 60s-70s, the way the label changed, the way the pressing plants moved around, all that stuff is super interesting.
 
AnthonyI said:
I think the Anthology concept was great, I also think that the "Experience" was just hype. That hype should have been just as important as the pressings because my gut tells me these will be repressed individually in the future by Blue Note. BN is too big a company to put all their eggs in one basket on a potential profit stream with these pressings. I honestly hope I'm wrong but VMP collaborations of the past always seemed to have some sort of exclusive "window" attached to it.

Now if the experience was something truly special, well, now you have a selling point over just single releases.
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Well it’s interesting because these albums from Anthology mostly haven’t had reissues in 10+ years or have never been pressed in the case of Ambrose. I also would have to check but the other VMP BN records haven’t really had recent represses as far as I know (maybe Johnny Griffin did). So while yes, they often do repress “exclusive” VMP albums in wider pressings like Demon days, there are quite a few that haven’t gotten repressed like Fiona, Biggie, etc.

Speaking for myself, I went in on the box because of the album choices. Schizophrenia is one of my favorite BN albums and it has been very difficult to find in very good shape for under $50. I liked all the other albums as well. So I don’t necessarily feel ripped off but I am disappointed because the product could have been so much more and it just wasn’t due to laziness from VMP. Incorrect sleeves, wrong labels, handwritten number instead of foil printed, lack of original content on their “private members only forum”...had they delivered on all of that I would be in on round two depending on the label choice. But I find myself saying I won’t subscribe no matter what it is right now.
 
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