Vinyl Me Please Classics

Rowan said:
The thing is that classics could genuinely be amazing. High quality pressing, fantasyland source material and tapes, the leading industry names overseeing the mastering and a frankly bargain price. It could be amazing if they didn't insist on picking MOR throw aways on the basis that the band/ artist who recorded them also did some good stuff.

It genuinely has the potential to be the best sub on offer anywhere. Maybe the low price of the sub means they need to dip down the list but then they should bung the price up a couple of dollars instead to preserve the quality and stop fucking around. If the material is consistently good then I'm sure folks would find a little bit more.
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Yeah I’m wondering if some of the recent classics picks are due more to things like licensing fees or trying to build a relationship with a label to get them to work with VMP on certain releases, and needing to commit to putting out a certain number of their other albums. That would make more sense from a business perspective. But coming out and telling everyone that wouldn’t sell those records.

I wonder if Storf makes those comments about building his own record collection to actually try to deflect from that reality (about bottom lines and agreements with labels) and build FOMO for some of these releases that people aren’t really that excited about. By telling people that he himself wants the record and has been trying to track it down, he might be trying to signal that he (an indisputably certified, proven, time-tested music expert) personally feels that it is valuable - and I think he expects that his own feelings about a record will carry a lot of weight with casual subscribers who just want a music nerd to tell them what records would be cool to have. I wouldn’t be surprised if he thinks that advertising a record to the typical VMP customer as “an ROTM that he personally wants“ is more effective than advertising it as something that “he thinks everyone should have in their collection.” By making it sound like a release that he, even he, has been desperately hunting for and is just now, by the miracle of VMP, able to add to his collection, it may build more FOMO and lead more people to buy the record even if they don’t really think that they like it.
 
Ericj32 said:
Yeah I’m wondering if some of the recent classics picks are due more to things like licensing fees or trying to build a relationship with a label to get them to work with VMP on certain releases, and needing to commit to putting out a certain number of their other albums. That would make more sense from a business perspective. But coming out and telling everyone that wouldn’t sell those records.

I wonder if Storf makes those comments about building his own record collection to actually try to deflect from that reality (about bottom lines and agreements with labels) and build FOMO for some of these releases that people aren’t really that excited about. By telling people that he himself wants the record and has been trying to track it down, he might be trying to signal that he (an indisputably certified, proven, time-tested music expert) personally feels that it is valuable - and I think he expects that his own feelings about a record will carry a lot of weight with casual subscribers who just want a music nerd to tell them what records would be cool to have. I wouldn’t be surprised if he thinks that advertising a record to the typical VMP customer as “an ROTM that he personally wants“ is more effective than advertising it as something that “he thinks everyone should have in their collection.” By making it sound like a release that he, even he, has been desperately hunting for and is just now, by the miracle of VMP, able to add to his collection, it may build more FOMO and lead more people to buy the record even if they don’t really think that they like it.
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Very good point.
 
Ericj32 said:
Yeah I’m wondering if some of the recent classics picks are due more to things like licensing fees or trying to build a relationship with a label to get them to work with VMP on certain releases, and needing to commit to putting out a certain number of their other albums. That would make more sense from a business perspective. But coming out and telling everyone that wouldn’t sell those records.

I wonder if Storf makes those comments about building his own record collection to actually try to deflect from that reality (about bottom lines and agreements with labels) and build FOMO for some of these releases that people aren’t really that excited about. By telling people that he himself wants the record and has been trying to track it down, he might be trying to signal that he (an indisputably certified, proven, time-tested music expert) personally feels that it is valuable - and I think he expects that his own feelings about a record will carry a lot of weight with casual subscribers who just want a music nerd to tell them what records would be cool to have. I wouldn’t be surprised if he thinks that advertising a record to the typical VMP customer as “an ROTM that he personally wants“ is more effective than advertising it as something that “he thinks everyone should have in their collection.” By making it sound like a release that he, even he, has been desperately hunting for and is just now, by the miracle of VMP, able to add to his collection, it may build more FOMO and lead more people to buy the record even if they don’t really think that they like it.
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That sounds plausible to me. I imagine VMP is pretty constrained in what they can actually pick and release; they're competing with many other reissue labels (several of which have much stronger reputations) and with the original labels, too. VMP's big advantage (as plenty of others have pointed out here) is its subscriber base. When a label is working with them, the label reps are probably thinking something along these lines: "Why would we give VMP our premier titles when we know those will sell? We should give them some lesser known picks: They can drum up interest in them and move large numbers to their subscribers."

For all the crap that people give VMP for its incompetence (and I agree, many of their practices would be laughable in the lack of foresight they exhibit if they weren't so appalling), the company is incredibly successful at marketing. I've been collecting for over 20 years, and VMP has convinced me that I was ignorant for not knowing about the greatness of several "essential" and "classic" artists. I've purchased some of those albums and been quite happy (Darrell Banks, Little Milton, and [this one I am a little embarrassed for not knowing] Sister Rosetta Tharpe). Others I've skipped and don't have any regrets about (Isley Brothers, Bar-Kays, Lloyd Miller). I've never signed up for more than 3 months, so with swaps, I've never been "forced" to buy something I wasn't interested in, and I've picked up a few things that weren't on my radar that I've enjoyed.

Sure, FOMO is a pretty disgusting and unfortunate part of human nature, and the fact that VMP's whole business model relies on creating more and more FOMO makes me feel uneasy at times. But they're not a public service; they're a business trying to make some money. And they do release some good and even great records--sometimes (Van Morrison and Spiritualized for me) they're even records that have been on my want list for a while. But the idea that everything they put out is going to be "essential" or "classic" (though it's an attractive one that we all want to believe), just falls apart if you think about how that could possibly work when they don't own the rights to any artist's catalog and are competing with labels that do.
 
doncornelius said:
A trustworthy curator would mostly choose from the titles that he or she knows well, but instead we have someone who takes pride in not knowing his selections that much. I think any criticism regarding his questionable curations of late should be considered seriously.
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In the age of streaming, not owning them does not necessarily mean the same as not knowing them well.

I think the argument above is far more compelling than 'Storf is just using a 30 000+ membership service to fulfill his own gaps in a record collection.'

I have issues with Storf's writing (his overt reliance of personal anecdotes, which seems more and more out of step the larger the company has grown), and I have problems with VMPs curation as of late, but don't see a direct correlation between the two personally.

The mental gymnastics on display in trying to justify the John Mayer pick, for instance, suggests far more going on behind the scenes than just simply 'here's a record we like'.
 
Ericj32 said:
I wonder if Storf makes those comments about building his own record collection to actually try to deflect from that reality (about bottom lines and agreements with labels) and build FOMO for some of these releases that people aren’t really that excited about. By telling people that he himself wants the record and has been trying to track it down, he might be trying to signal that he (an indisputably certified, proven, time-tested music expert) personally feels that it is valuable - and I think he expects that his own feelings about a record will carry a lot of weight with casual subscribers who just want a music nerd to tell them what records would be cool to have. I wouldn’t be surprised if he thinks that advertising a record to the typical VMP customer as “an ROTM that he personally wants“ is more effective than advertising it as something that “he thinks everyone should have in their collection.” By making it sound like a release that he, even he, has been desperately hunting for and is just now, by the miracle of VMP, able to add to his collection, it may build more FOMO and lead more people to buy the record even if they don’t really think that they like it.
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That may be true, but it backfires for me personally. He has made several comments that make it clear to me that he isn't really interested in weeding out the classics from the rest. He seems to honestly think that everything Stax ever did is excellent and makes comments like Eddie Floyd has all top-tier records, so I don't want him curating for me. I have absolutely no interest in owning every single Stax record, much less every single Eddie Floyd record and I don't trust him when it comes to separating his bias toward it from which albums are actually essential.

I guess the bottom line is, he comes off as more of a fanboy than a certified expert curator.
 
A Lost Highway said:
The mental gymnastics on display in trying to justify the John Mayer pick, for instance, suggests far more going on behind the scenes than just simply 'here's a record we like'.
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On John Mayer, I really wonder if that was a trade off of getting the Dead Anthology. You can have access to the Dead stuff but you have to push one of Mayer's records out too. I think the Anthologies have definitely had an effect on what's curated now. I'd imagine Freedom Rider was going to be a Blue Note Anthology selection but Blue Note wanted it to have a wider release. For Stax, Storf said in one of the unboxings that he wanted to do the David Porter album "Victim of the Joke?" but Stax wanted or had already planned a wider release for it. I would imagine he's limited in what he can get from them. Same with Aretha. We'll give you two records but one has to be released wider.
 
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dhodo said:
That may be true, but it backfires for me personally. He has made several comments that make it clear to me that he isn't really interested in weeding out the classics from the rest. He seems to honestly think that everything Stax ever did is excellent and makes comments like Eddie Floyd has all top-tier records, so I don't want him curating for me. I have absolutely no interest in owning every single Stax record, much less every single Eddie Floyd record and I don't trust him when it comes to separating his bias toward it from which albums are actually essential.

I guess the bottom line is, he comes off as more of a fanboy than a certified expert curator.
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I 100% agree - it rubs me, and many of us on here, the wrong way. Because we’ve listened to a fair share of Stax records and have made up our own minds about whether we need every last one of them.

I think part of VMP’s target audience though might be folks who don’t have a large record collection and maybe aren’t familiar with as many artists as many of us on here and, most importantly, are more open to being told what to like - what good music is. They might not know how much a “Mr Hands” record should cost. They also might be willing to buy something they don’t like if someone who seems like they know a lot about records seems to like it - they’d be buying it in hopes that they themselves will grow to like it eventually. And the FOMO factor encourages them to purchase something that they fear they might eventually want, even if they don’t really like it now. Storf seems like he’s trying to be the guy who’s listened to everything and knows what you’ll eventually enjoy once you’ve spent enough time with it. He’s giving people the opportunity to scoop those records for non-flipper prices, but you have to hurry because there’s a good chance that they’ll sell out and then you’ll be stuck paying flipper prices.

What I’m trying to say is, the more confident you are in your own music preferences, the easier it will be for you to tune out the FOMO for certain records. But part of the reason for VMP’s success is that a curation model by default will attract more customers who are looking for recommendations and may be more comfortable with a blind buy from VMP. Maybe they have a lot of empty space on their shelves to fill up, or maybe they just don’t know where to start and want their record collection to have some “street cred” with “exclusive” releases that look cool and seem like hidden gems - and, to be fair, some of the VMP releases are. Even though I’ve always been #teamverycomfortableswappingbecauseIknowIdon’twantthemall there are a lot of records that I’ve had to stream 5 or more times to talk myself out of purchasing them and realizing that, despite the FOMO, I actually don’t really care about the albums and probably wouldn’t ever regret missing out on them.
 
I'm listening to the Speakers Corner pressing of Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign and I am so impressed and am totally in love with both the record, and with how great the pressing sounds! I'm so happy VMP decided to make an Albert King record a Classics ROTM, otherwise I wouldn't have delved into his discography! Also very happy VMP popped an Albert King record in the Stax Anthology Boxset! ♥

I love Albert King so much! I love his voice and guitar playing! Just exceptional! ♥♠🃏🎸
 
Yeah, an increase to US$149 for three months is pricing me out of this too. I just paid the old rate this month, so I'm in until October. But I'm out after that. The crazy thing is that a 3-month international sub goes for US$179... I mean, that's one way to make sure I don't get tempted back in. That's basically approaching the price of a TMR Vault with nowhere near the quality.

EDIT: The $179 for 3 months I'm quoting is for a 3 month international gift sub... seems like a normal international sub is $149. Not sure why the discrepancy.
 
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I'm monthly so I would be hit with this increase at the end of the month. I wasn't that excited about Spiritualized and I really don't listen to Essentials on a regular basis to justify even the $31 I was paying before. I don't think I could justify $31 for Classics but I at least listen to those enough over and over to make it worthwhile. But not for $43. The upside is now I'm free to take the $54 I was paying and use that towards Blue Note and other records I'm more interested in.
 
Ouch...classics going from $81 to $119 on my next renewal! Have been a completionist since the get go. Guess I'm out end of October. I understand increases are needed at times but 50%...ridiculous!

"The cost of your 3 month VMP subscription will increase to $119 on your next billing cycle 10/31. Why is this the case? So we can continue to increase the quality of our vinyl packages, content & membership experience as we explore music together.

No billing changes will occur before then, and you'll continue to receive all the benefits of being a member.

If you have any questions, please contact our support team. We love being on this journey with you and look forward to continuing to serve you."
 
I wonder if there will be a different rate for 6 months. If it's something like this then I'll be out. It's a shame to go but that's the way it goes sometimes.
JohnnieO said:
Ouch...classics going from $81 to $119 on my next renewal! Have been a completionist since the get go. Guess I'm out end of October. I understand increases are needed at times but 50%...ridiculous!

"The cost of your 3 month VMP subscription will increase to $119 on your next billing cycle 10/31. Why is this the case? So we can continue to increase the quality of our vinyl packages, content & membership experience as we explore music together.

No billing changes will occur before then, and you'll continue to receive all the benefits of being a member.

If you have any questions, please contact our support team. We love being on this journey with you and look forward to continuing to serve you."
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