Vinyl Me Please Anthology

MikeH said:
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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Agreed, that was my main point, if they made the experience truly special, it wouldn't matter if they did get reissued later. The Anthology series "seems" to be for the true die hard's of the genre or label, to which that "experience", done correctly, would have been well worth the price tag alone.
 
MikeH said:
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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I saw a new black Demon Days yesterday for $27. It made me really glad that I sold my VMP for $150. FOMO is real.
 
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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I think VMP needs to understand that creating a Facebook page and having a staggered release schedule is not an experience. As usual, everything that they own, I.e. execution, was lacking. You can’t create a Facebook group and assume someone like @seeirwin was going to come in and do your work for you. Just like they shouldn’t expect the community they had to return when they build their new thing, nor should they expect a community like they had to be built under parameters. Honestly, they should let the community and experience line die with the old VMP. Let the new VMP be what it is.
 
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HiFi Guy said:
I saw a new black Demon Days yesterday for $27. It made me really glad that I sold my VMP for $150. FOMO is real.
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Yep. It got a general repress after about a year. I think you can still sell the red version for around $50, but I sort of wish I had flipped mine at the time too. Still mad that the VMP version has that stupid pause between Don't Get Lost in Heaven and Demon Days at the end...
 
AnthonyI said:
Agreed, that was my main point, if they made the experience truly special, it wouldn't matter if they did get reissued later. The Anthology series "seems" to be for the true die hard's of the genre or label, to which that "experience", done correctly, would have been well worth the price tag alone.
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I agree, and the very format of the anthology was meant to push the idea of an experience. Getting two records at a time forces you to only listen to those two records in a given period. I love that idea, I think they were smart to come up with it. I just think they dropped the ball on pretty much everything else. And maybe they just overpromised and overhyped a little, which, fine. Maybe they'll tone it down for the next one (and maybe even price it more reasonably). I've been very annoyed throughout this whole thing, but at the end of the day, the worst problems with the box (Gordon sleeve, Wayne label) are both going to be fixed. I'd still get future boxes, but it's going to be pretty dependent on price and what exactly is in it. The "experience" definitely won't be a factor for me in the future.
 
Lee Newman said:
I think VMP needs to understand that creating a Facebook page and having a staggered release schedule is not an experience. As usual, everything that they own, I.e. execution, was lacking. You can’t create a Facebook group and assume someone like @seeirwin was going to come in and do your work for you. Just like they shouldn’t expect the community they had to return when they build their new thing, nor should they expect a community like they had to be built under parameters. Honestly, they should let the community and experience line die with the old VMP. Let the new VMP do what it is.
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Agree with ya on that. They dropped the ball on a ton of things. I actually don't hate the staggered release schedule but I do hate not having the liner notes they promised until the end. Would have been great to read the liner notes as you are listening to the albums. They also should have gotten somebody to write actual articles like @seeirwin like you said instead of just posting some links every once in awhile or doing a spotify playlist. Had they done some sort of microsite with more background, history, music theory, etc it would have been amazing. Instead, nothing.
 
MikeH said:
Agree with ya on that. They dropped the ball on a ton of things. I actually don't hate the staggered release schedule but I do hate not having the liner notes they promised until the end. Would have been great to read the liner notes as you are listening to the albums. They also should have gotten somebody to write actual articles like @seeirwin like you said instead of just posting some links every once in awhile or doing a spotify playlist. Had they done some sort of microsite with more background, history, music theory, etc it would have been amazing. Instead, nothing.
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Wait - I don't understand this. You are getting liner notes AFTER you get the albums the liner notes are about?

That's strange, right? I'm not the only one that thinks that is strange? Isn't the point of liner notes to listen to the album while you read the notes?
 
Teeeee said:
Wait - I don't understand this. You are getting liner notes AFTER you get the albums the liner notes are about?

That's strange, right? I'm not the only one that thinks that is strange? Isn't the point of liner notes to listen to the album while you read the notes?
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So the albums themselves have the original liner notes on the back of the albums (except for the Dexter Calling which is getting reprinted). But VMP has done a book of additional liner notes by Ben Ratliff that come with the last shipment. I get that they wanted the albums to be a bit of a surprise and sending the book of liner notes up front would have spoiled the surprise, but most people already knew the releases and I would have rather had the book of notes up front instead of being "surprised" by what the releases were.
 
Teeeee said:
Wait - I don't understand this. You are getting liner notes AFTER you get the albums the liner notes are about?

That's strange, right? I'm not the only one that thinks that is strange? Isn't the point of liner notes to listen to the album while you read the notes?
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I don’t mind liner notes after. I actually never read liner notes until I’ve listened to the album.

Since this is gonna be a floppy book like every other booklet they’ve done (I assume), I would have divided it into three. You would have gotten set one. Set two plus set one liner notes. Set three plus set two liners and a fourth shipment with the box and last liners.

I’m weird though. Now if it was gonna be a hardcover book like Beatles Mono or a Bowie box. That would have been cool to get afterwards as one item.
 
MikeH said:
So the albums themselves have the original liner notes on the back of the albums (except for the Dexter Calling which is getting reprinted). But VMP has done a book of additional liner notes by Ben Ratliff that come with the last shipment. I get that they wanted the albums to be a bit of a surprise and sending the book of liner notes up front would have spoiled the surprise, but most people already knew the releases and I would have rather had the book of notes up front instead of being "surprised" by what the releases were.
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Lee Newman said:
I don’t mind liner notes after. I actually never read liner notes until I’ve listened to the album.

Since this is gonna be a floppy book like every other booklet they’ve done (I assume), I would have divided it into three. You would have gotten set one. Set two plus set one liner notes. Set three plus set two liners and a fourth shipment with the box and last liners.

I’m weird though. Now if it was gonna be a hardcover book like Beatles Mono or a Bowie box. That would have been cool to get afterwards as one item.
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OK, this makes more sense. Not ruining the surprise. Lee's idea is a good one. And now that I have the explanation of why - I can see how this makes the "experience" last a bit longer. Hopefully it prompts people to re-listen while reading.

That book has the potential to be stunning! I hope they execute it well. Fingers crossed for you all!
 
Did they really pitch the release delay as a feature? I am surprised to read that some people think that's something that was a good idea or at all VMP' s "idea." The only reason companies do that is so they can get all the money up front while they can spread their expenses out. Pure win for them, no tangible benefit to the consumer. At least subscriptions usually give you the option to spread it out monthly.
 
dhodo said:
Did they really pitch the release delay as a feature? I am surprised to read that some people think that's something that was a good idea or at all VMP' s "idea." The only reason companies do that is so they can get all the money up front while they can spread their expenses out. Pure win for them, no tangible benefit to the consumer. At least subscriptions usually give you the option to spread it out monthly.
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I actually don't mind it, especially if it had been done well. The idea was you'd get a podcast plus two albums every two weeks for 6 weeks. Podcast would give some historical context, you'd learn about that era of Blue Note, get to sit down and listen to those two albums a lot and learn about the music and sub genre. Then your next batch would come. In theory, I like the idea because if I got 6 records at once, I likely wouldn't sit down and pay enough attention to them all individually to give them a deep listen. In practice, not getting the full liner notes up front and not getting a super informative podcast or any other additional materials to learn from has made it feel disjointed and not well thought out.
 
I still compare these to a Music Matters releases so the prices were right (if the execution was there)
wmeugene said:
Thought I saw some post on reddit or here that teased a Fania Anthology as #2 around October.
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I think a few things have been teased (Storf made it sound like two boxes were in the works)
wynn72 said:
Still waiting on my replacement for Silver from weeks ago. Ridiculous....
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I just received my Dexter replacement
dhodo said:
Did they really pitch the release delay as a feature? I am surprised to read that some people think that's something that was a good idea or at all VMP' s "idea." The only reason companies do that is so they can get all the money up front while they can spread their expenses out. Pure win for them, no tangible benefit to the consumer. At least subscriptions usually give you the option to spread it out monthly.
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The "delay" between has been a small window, it is not like we are waiting a month or more (unless you international)

My suggestion will be for them to announce all the selections prior to going on sale and what exactly the "extras" will be.
 
Lee Newman said:
I don’t mind liner notes after. I actually never read liner notes until I’ve listened to the album.

Since this is gonna be a floppy book like every other booklet they’ve done (I assume), I would have divided it into three. You would have gotten set one. Set two plus set one liner notes. Set three plus set two liners and a fourth shipment with the box and last liners.

I’m weird though. Now if it was gonna be a hardcover book like Beatles Mono or a Bowie box. That would have been cool to get afterwards as one item.
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I agree with ya...wish they had either done some digital liner notes up front or divided it into 3 floppy books. I tend to read liner notes as I listen to the album and it often makes me enjoy the first listen more. Overall, I just wish they did a better job contextualizing each album, whether that was with liner notes up front of additional information about the records or time period in Blue Note's history, etc. The podcast is fine and it's cool to listen to Don Was, but overall it's just somewhat amateurish and doesn't add much to the whole experience.
 
MikeH said:
I actually don't mind it, especially if it had been done well. The idea was you'd get a podcast plus two albums every two weeks for 6 weeks. Podcast would give some historical context, you'd learn about that era of Blue Note, get to sit down and listen to those two albums a lot and learn about the music and sub genre. Then your next batch would come. In theory, I like the idea because if I got 6 records at once, I likely wouldn't sit down and pay enough attention to them all individually to give them a deep listen. In practice, not getting the full liner notes up front and not getting a super informative podcast or any other additional materials to learn from has made it feel disjointed and not well thought out.
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I'm not saying it is bad and I totally get the perceived benefit to the consumer. I would probably do the same with 6 at once. But yeah, it fails with the booklet. It would be more of a win-win if they staggered the charges accordingly.

My main point was just that VMP did not choose to do it that way to benefit the consumer even though people may prefer it. No one would have been less happy if they sent them all with the first shipment.
 
Enoch said:
I still compare these to a Music Matters releases so the prices were right (if the execution was there)
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Yeah these were priced about the same as Music Matters and Analogue Productions, $35 for single and $45 to $50 for double LP albums which I don't think was unfair. It just so happens that Tone Poets is a killer value that is made even better by Amazon's cutthroat pricing.

I think once the sleeve and Wayne Shorter LP are fixed, I'll be pretty happy with the overall package. I think the 2ish week split in between packages kind of came back to bite them as I assume VMP would've gone back and checked packages two and three if they were not in production one after the other.
 
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