Vinyl Me Please Essentials

Cheesefry said:
So I took some of the advice from forum buds and shot CS a note about my 4 records that have been hanging out “In Stock” 4eva, and sure enough...no answer to my email, but 3 rapid fire shipping confirmations today. It’s been a strange day, I work in a niche apparel industry, and several friends of mine lost their jobs today because one of the Top 3 companies in our small industry had to shut their doors. They were a competent company with leadership that I liked and respected. Which leads me to VMP.....IF I do decide to take this “sweet” $89.75 deal for the next 3 months, what are the chances my gamble pays off with getting “Stankonia” in Oct or Nov?? I had the RSD version, but gave it to my daughter who had missed out on it that RSD morning....Have wanted a good pressing since then. So, a quick poll:

1. Odds of VMP delivering Stankonia before Christmas
2. Odds of VMP(company leadership I no longer like or respect) still being in business by Christmas

And I truly wish all of the VMP team I’ve met along the way, the very best through all of this....I mean I’ve been rubbed wrong by pretty much everything they’ve done since shutting down the forum, but it’s ONLY records. It’s been extremely tough watching friends lose their jobs today, I don’t wish that on anyone, but I just don’t see how this business can continue to operate like this, and have any customer base left.
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I'm not sure on Stankonia, but my condolences on the jobs lost across your friends and in the industry. It's stressful to watch and go through both personally and generally.

As for VMP: While I've no direct knowledge, my guess is that the pricing changes, etc. do reflect risk in their model. Their churn has to have increased across the percentage of people that experienced job insecurity, or just aren't happy with the service, and that has to have combined with lower new sign-ups as it is a non-essential good (well, for the folks outside this forum...). Depending on their board meeting schedule/ cycle they've had pressure to provide an answer on costs, yield per customers, efficiency, and importantly some level of net recurring revenue relative to (or in excess) of their churn. Their costs have risen with mastering, pressing. They also clearly have a mountain of operational inefficiency and costs. They needed to present a plan in this last meeting (or just prior to the next) because execs like to be seen as people that take action, have confidence in their decisions -- and hey, if you are right, why haven't you out it into implementation? (and that's a lot better than explaining that you've been actually managing the business poorly) -- which explains the sudden poor rollout of the announcements and changes.

They are in trouble or at least underperforming the key metrics their investors care about...

Will they stay in business? Subscription calendars can be powerful and give you time to recover.

Will it be valuable for the subscriber? It would take a lot of courage and management strength to drive quality as a strategy vs tricks on margins. (You can determine if the leadership has shown that courage) Also, fixing fundamental problems often has to do with culture, management -- real change can take time.

Flip side: The valuable exits for this business are largely dependent on acquisition -- which is tough and narrow for their investors because the range of potential buyers is really small. That's tough because investors aren't super excited about carry costs, but also provides some protection as long as they can get the metrics in line -- no one likes to believe that they be thrown away (or gotten wrong) a call and the tendency is to push the business to find a path. The original founders get heavily diluted, maybe replaced, but the business sticks around for a while.

I expire in May. Id have to see a lot of change and improvement in the service, the economy, etc to renew -- but I would like to renew. I love the idea and moments of the execution have been great -- they scream for a need of stronger management fundamentals and a stronger view of accountability, pride in excellence, and integrity in the leadership -- which seems to be squandering great promise.

Wow. That was long.
 
duke86fan said:
what will happen to the staff afterwards... storf will probably try to do something like a stax records tone poets series like he clearly wants to do or write for p4k. cameron, matt, and tyler are probably completely out of a job, and i hope clay conder finds some good graphic work somewhere else
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Tyler has another job already. He founded another company.

Also you’re discrediting how hard it is to build a company from scratch is in the first place, no matter how bad things are now. They’ll all be fine.
 
I just wanted to add my 2 cents on the White Stripes De Stijl comparisons that have been taking place. Other people have put it better than me but I completely agree that the 2010 version sounds significantly better than the VMP version.

I listened to the VMP all the way through first and thought it sounded pretty good, though the first song in particular sounded muffled right of the bat.
Then I started to A-B with the 2010 song by song and it’s no contest. 2010 sounds better every time.

My suggestion to anyone that is still waiting on the VMP, unless pretty colors are your thing over sound quality, cancel that order and pick up the 2010. You can find colors elsewhere. Just look around! I can see so many even just right now. Head turn: so
many more!
 
Urbs_hott said:
I just wanted to add my 2 cents on the White Stripes De Stijl comparisons that have been taking place. Other people have put it better than me but I completely agree that the 2010 version sounds significantly better than the VMP version.

I listened to the VMP all the way through first and thought it sounded pretty good, though the first song in particular sounded muffled right of the bat.
Then I started to A-B with the 2010 song by song and it’s no contest. 2010 sounds better every time.

My suggestion to anyone that is still waiting on the VMP, unless pretty colors are your thing over sound quality, cancel that order and pick up the 2010. You can find colors elsewhere. Just look around! I can see so many even just right now. Head turn: so
many more!
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Wow, even the 2010 is better? I thought it was just the 2017 special TMR press. That blows man.
 
Mather said:
Wow, even the 2010 is better? I thought it was just the 2017 special TMR press. That blows man.
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Yeah man, no doubt about it. I forget the user that reported this before I, but I can confirm. Sound stage is way better and the VMP just sounds muffled in comparison. Not that it’s terrible, and it’s probably good enough for most casual fans, but when you compare the two the difference is significant.
 
dhodo said:
Same cut isn't it?
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I don't think so? I thought the 2017 was different plates. I could be wrong but that's the one I've heard talked about as the definitive version...

EDIT: Actually the runouts look similar. Could just be that the 2010 is United Record Pressing who... are not good. And the 2017 is RTI.
 
Mather said:
I don't think so? I thought the 2017 was different plates. I could be wrong but that's the one I've heard talked about as the definitive version...

EDIT: Actually the runouts look similar. Could just be that the 2010 is United Record Pressing who... are not good. And the 2017 is RTI.
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They look about the same to me, except 2010 is pressed at United and 2017 was supposedly pressed at TMR but has what looks a lot like like RTI codes, unlike other TMR presses. So maybe WG recut them? Same engineer at least I guess, so I'd be surprised if he cut them totally different.

Edit: ha, didn't see your edit until after I replied. I personally find that plant makes much less of a difference than cut, unless they really screw it up, which United can do, but sometimes they get out of the way sufficiently as well.
 
dhodo said:
They look about the same to me, except 2010 is pressed at United and 2017 was supposedly pressed at TMR but has what looks a lot like like RTI codes, unlike other TMR presses. So maybe WG recut them? Same engineer at least I guess, so I'd be surprised if he cut them totally different.

Edit: ha, didn't see your edit until after I replied. I personally find that plant makes much less of a difference than cut, unless they really screw it up, which United can do, but sometimes they get out of the way sufficiently as well.
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Yeah I just find that lesser plants cause much more popping and noise even if the master is good. It's why I generally try to avoid United and MRP and whatnot.
 
Mather said:
Yeah I just find that lesser plants cause much more popping and noise even if the master is good. It's why I generally try to avoid United and MRP and whatnot.
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Yeah, I do as well if there is a reasonable alternative, but in this case I would take my chances with the 2010 on Amazon and return a couple before I considered forking over $150 for the 2017.

Edit: I've had better luck with MRP than GZ in my relatively limited experienced so maybe I'm lucky.
 
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