Vinyl Me Please Classics

theres probably gonna be a survey for this and rap for "what would you want as a ROTM 100"... and they'll try to do whichever one is most popular but also convenient.. because that's apparently how they did VMP 100 (specifically they did it and the answers were frank ocean, Kendrick, kanye, and M.I.A, and the top 3 were impossible to get so they did kala)
 
zdkaiser said:
It seems like VMP has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for most of their monthly releases nowadays. I havent been a member in years, but do they really even need to exist anymore? Obviously just my opinion based on my music tastes. Eventually this "curated release" business model is bound to fail, no?
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I’m feeling this way. I’ve swapped for credit 3-4 months straight and will do so again for July (and would continue Aug and Sept). My next payment is in July, and I don’t think I’m renewing. I’m probably going to gather credit and use a 20% off coupon they sent for signing up for texts, buy one of the box sets that should be easy to sell at a discount from retail that will get me my membership $ back. Unfortunately, i can’t do that for the July credit bc it won’t hit my account until August, after my membership expires. So i guess I’ll pick something for July.
 
zdkaiser said:
It seems like VMP has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for most of their monthly releases nowadays. I havent been a member in years, but do they really even need to exist anymore? Obviously just my opinion based on my music tastes. Eventually this "curated release" business model is bound to fail, no?
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It’s a fair question and thinking about it right now, I would say they are over extended in the number of ROTM Tracks. This next quarter is relatively weak overall. But had VMP instead just released a single track for approximately $30 a month a you woul get just the Essentials (Joni, DMX, and The Ramones) and the other 12 ROTM were instead limited exclusive pressings that dropped weekly over the next quarter. The whole thing makes a lot more sense. The way things are now they have to jack up the prices on all their memberships to cover cost of the stuff that likely won’t sell at all.

The Country releases for the next quarter are going to lose money. Maybe people will want to fork over $40 for a lesser Ghostface and Ramones album. Maybe a Junior Wells song will be feature in a viral TikTok video and thus sell like hotcakes but my guess is they would have sold better and with less of a potential liability had they been limited to 200 or 500 exclusive pressings.

I think the additional tracks probably does inflate their overall subscriber numbers which is good for investors but I think it would be better and healthier as a business had they not gone hog wild with their multiple subscription tracks and just focused on releasing a single quality release each month at an affordable price, supplemented by weekly exclusive drops.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
It’s a fair question and thinking about it right now, I would say they are over extended in the number of ROTM Tracks. This next quarter is relatively weak overall. But had VMP instead just released a single track for approximately $30 a month a you woul get just the Essentials (Joni, DMX, and The Ramones) and the other 12 ROTM were instead limited exclusive pressings that dropped weekly over the next quarter. The whole thing makes a lot more sense. The way things are now they have to jack up the prices on all their memberships to cover cost of the stuff that likely won’t sell at all.

The Country releases for the next quarter are going to lose money. Maybe people will want to fork over $40 for a lesser Ghostface and Ramones album. Maybe a Junior Wells song will be feature in a viral TikTok video and thus sell like hotcakes but my guess is they would have sold better and with less of a potential liability had they been limited to 200 or 500 exclusive pressings.

I think the additional tracks probably does inflate their overall subscriber numbers which is good for investors but I think it would be better and healthier as a business had they not gone hog wild with their multiple subscription tracks and just focused on releasing a single quality release each month at an affordable price, supplemented by weekly exclusive drops.
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I partially agree on the tracks thing. I think they would be much better off with 3 tracks tops and more store drops that are true exclusive cuts. If there was only one track again, I think they would fail pretty quickly. Their subscriber base is too big and varied in what they are looking for each month. If it was just essentials, I wouldn't have wanted anything from the past 11 or 12 months. I never listen to hiphop anymore. The country picks are extremely hit or miss (have loved a few, but skipped most).

A bigger issue they face is purely that they are at the mercy of the big labels in what they can license and afford and still make money on. Bigger "gets" need to be subsidized by lesser known albums. It's why you get Coltrane one month, then Teo another month. If it wasn't $40 a month or whatever, I'd go back to trying more albums but at the price point, it needs to be something I really enjoy these days. Just taking a quick look, there have been 6 classics I've grabbed since Jan 2023. I used to grab most of them. I ended up getting a few more in freebies when I resubbed.

More labels are starting their own clubs (like IVC, which likely means most interscope titles are off limits moving forward unless VMP overpays). I'd bet that VMP gets told "no" on a huge percentage of titles they actually wanna put out. I also think that VMP thinks more people care about the story behind albums than they actually do. Or maybe it's just PR spin to try to get people to buy the 4th best studio album from a band because that's all they could get the rights to...Lose the listening notes, cut prices a few bucks a month. Write up a little blurb on the site if you want about why the album was chosen or some history behind it. But don't CHOOSE the titles because of the story behind it. They also do too many store drops in numbers that are too high that sit for months and months and months.

I wonder at what point do they change their curation team? Hardly anything sells out anymore from ROTM and like you said many title have to be losing them money. It'll be interesting to see what happens this year as peoples' renewals come up after the deal with the freebies. I know it's anecdotal, but the very large majority of people I've seen who are current members from the deal do not plan to resub. And I don't see VMP doing a huge promotion again.

Not feeling that hopeful about the future of VMP unless they pretty drastically change a lot of stuff.
 
MikeH said:
I partially agree on the tracks thing. I think they would be much better off with 3 tracks tops and more store drops that are true exclusive cuts. If there was only one track again, I think they would fail pretty quickly. Their subscriber base is too big and varied in what they are looking for each month. If it was just essentials, I wouldn't have wanted anything from the past 11 or 12 months. I never listen to hiphop anymore. The country picks are extremely hit or miss (have loved a few, but skipped most).

A bigger issue they face is purely that they are at the mercy of the big labels in what they can license and afford and still make money on. Bigger "gets" need to be subsidized by lesser known albums. It's why you get Coltrane one month, then Teo another month. If it wasn't $40 a month or whatever, I'd go back to trying more albums but at the price point, it needs to be something I really enjoy these days. Just taking a quick look, there have been 6 classics I've grabbed since Jan 2023. I used to grab most of them. I ended up getting a few more in freebies when I resubbed.

More labels are starting their own clubs (like IVC, which likely means most interscope titles are off limits moving forward unless VMP overpays). I'd bet that VMP gets told "no" on a huge percentage of titles they actually wanna put out. I also think that VMP thinks more people care about the story behind albums than they actually do. Or maybe it's just PR spin to try to get people to buy the 4th best studio album from a band because that's all they could get the rights to...Lose the listening notes, cut prices a few bucks a month. Write up a little blurb on the site if you want about why the album was chosen or some history behind it. But don't CHOOSE the titles because of the story behind it. They also do too many store drops in numbers that are too high that sit for months and months and months.

I wonder at what point do they change their curation team? Hardly anything sells out anymore from ROTM and like you said many title have to be losing them money. It'll be interesting to see what happens this year as peoples' renewals come up after the deal with the freebies. I know it's anecdotal, but the very large majority of people I've seen who are current members from the deal do not plan to resub. And I don't see VMP doing a huge promotion again.

Not feeling that hopeful about the future of VMP unless they pretty drastically change a lot of stuff.
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I’m not interested in a single album over the next three months when I’ve always had interest in at least one or two. I’m done after this year - it’s not worth it.
 
Colonel4Bin said:
I’m not interested in a single album over the next three months when I’ve always had interest in at least one or two. I’m done after this year - it’s not worth it.
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My sub is up in November. I'm likely out too and will dip in and out or ask a member to buy an album for me if it's something I really want. I definitely got my money's worth from the promotion last year but curation is too miss for me too.
 
MikeH said:
My sub is up in November. I'm likely out too and will dip in and out or ask a member to buy an album for me if it's something I really want. I definitely got my money's worth from the promotion last year but curation is too miss for me too.
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I’ve been curious about something. Let’s say they drop something like a true exclusive cut of Shabaka. What prevents you from joining the day before it goes live, buying it and then cancelling the day after you bought it?
 
MyWifeHatesTrain said:
I’ve been curious about something. Let’s say they drop something like a true exclusive cut of Shabaka. What prevents you from joining the day before it goes live, buying it and then cancelling the day after you bought it?
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I believe they charge you immediately when you join as a new member but could be wrong. And they won’t refund a membership.

Speaking of which, I’ll probably use my impulse 40 on that when it goes in stock…last i heard, Shabaka finally approved the test pressing so it’s on the presses…
 
MikeH said:
I believe they charge you immediately when you join as a new member but could be wrong. And they won’t refund a membership.

Speaking of which, I’ll probably use my impulse 40 on that when it goes in stock…last i heard, Shabaka finally approved the test pressing so it’s on the presses…
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That wasn’t the case when I rejoined. 🤷‍♀️
 
MikeH said:
Well people also complained there was too much jazz and nobody seems to buy the blues albums hah. I liked the curation much better for classics earlier on though for sure
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Sure. Everyone’s taste is different, and I guess a 7/10 Nilsson record (especially one that’s interpretations of standards backed by an orchestra) is no better or worse than a 7/10 Alice Coltrane record or a 7/10 Teo Macero record. Just seemed like a weird artist to cram into Classics.
 
TCell said:
Sure. Everyone’s taste is different, and I guess a 7/10 Nilsson record (especially one that’s interpretations of standards backed by an orchestra) is no better or worse than a 7/10 Alice Coltrane record or a 7/10 Teo Macero record. Just seemed like a weird artist to cram into Classics.
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There are no 7/10 Alice Coltrane records!

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