Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)

This is our feral cat, who we’ve appropriately named Tuxedo.Not sure if m/f but my guess is f because of its meow and sweet face. I’d love to give it a home but we already have 2 cats and a dog. I give them food and water whenever they come around, which is just about every day now. My wife bought a little house that we stick outside, but the cat will not go in. I’m sure they think it’s a trap.


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Sebastian said:
This is our feral cat, who we’ve appropriately named Tuxedo.Not sure if m/f but my guess is f because of its meow and sweet face. I’d love to give it a home but we already have 2 cats and a dog. I give them food and water whenever they come around, which is just about every day now. My wife bought a little house that we stick outside, but the cat will not go in. I’m sure they think it’s a trap.


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We have a feral cat that lives around us in our backyards. Appropriately we call the cat Will Feral
 
bdrummond said:
I thought VMP was a fantastic idea when they stuck to the "Lost Sounds Found" format.
I don't even know what it is now, and that's not factoring this whole drama.

The rap track for example, isn't about "Lost Sounds" it seems. It's about getting time based exclusives and the ability to press a specific color variant. If you don't care about either of these things, there's not much benefit to subscribing to it.
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A lot of people say they loved the Lost Sounds Found stuff, but historically, all those "lost sounds" that have been records of the month have all sold poorly. People like it in theory but nobody tends to buy them.

The benefits to being a member for the most part aren't there as much as they used to be. Many times you can buy the records of the month cheaper on discogs after the fact with a few exceptions. I think the "true exclusives" (aka exclusive RKS cuts) in the store are still pretty awesome for the most part. Loved the Ninas, Fleetwood Macs, Elton John, etc. But I don't think they do enough of those to justify being a year long member. They keep talking about doing more member benefits, so it'll be interesting to see if/when that ever happens. hard to imagine i will resub for a year after my current one is up. also very curious to see how things are run after Cam. I sense an undercurrent of relief that he's gone from VMP staff on the discord...

I'd also say that with 20,000+ subscribers a month, many of whom buy more than 1 record of the month plus exclusives, is probably still a pretty profitable company. could definitely see it going by the wayside with a series of bad decisions though.
 
MikeH said:
People like it in theory but nobody tends to buy them.
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Well, I think it depends on price point too. I am not gonna pay $45 for some obscure album‘I’ve never heard of; I am willing to give it a shot for $18-$22. They’re doubling of price for an album pretty much killed willingness to take a flyer on “lost & found sound” if I am paying almost half a hundo for a single album it better be an album I love.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Well, I think it depends on price point too. I am not gonna pay $45 for some obscure album‘I’ve never heard of; I am willing to give it a shot for $18-$22. They’re doubling of price for an album pretty much killed willingness to take a flyer on “lost & found sound” if I am paying almost half a hundo for a single album it better be an album I love.
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people didn't really buy them when they were $20 either to be fair haha. A bunch of the "lost sounds found" from years ago never sold out when they were that price. Think The Books, Jim Sullivan and others are still in stock…

VMP is definitely pricey especially if you only dip in for a month. Think it’s $36/month on a yearly. I'm struggling to think of other reissue labels that do AAA with nice jackets (and don’t own the music) for under $35-40 though. Jackpot is close, but i think they are $30 for BNC quality thin jackets. Don’t think it would be remotely possible for them to make their monthly charges $18-$22 again. The quality of the mastering and jackets has gone up since those days for sure. I’d rather see them eliminate stuff like the OBI and art prints and charge less.

I think if they lowered the monthly if the plant ever got sorted out, that could bring a lot of people in. The curation is hit or miss for me too. Too much Nilsson this year. Too many represses and not enough things making membership worth it.

Even the most loyal VMP customers on discord are pretty pissed at how the Dolly track went down. They were told the only way to get the records was to subscribe, then later a bunch went into the store and ended up being included in 40% off sales.
 
MikeH said:
people didn't really buy them when they were $20 either to be fair haha. A bunch of the "lost sounds found" from years ago never sold out when they were that price. Think The Books, Jim Sullivan and others are still in stock…

VMP is definitely pricey especially if you only dip in for a month. Think it’s $36/month on a yearly. I'm struggling to think of other reissue labels that do AAA with nice jackets (and don’t own the music) for under $35-40 though. Jackpot is close, but i think they are $30 for BNC quality thin jackets. Don’t think it would be remotely possible for them to make their monthly charges $18-$22 again. The quality of the mastering and jackets has gone up since those days for sure. I’d rather see them eliminate stuff like the OBI and art prints and charge less.

I think if they lowered the monthly if the plant ever got sorted out, that could bring a lot of people in. The curation is hit or miss for me too. Too much Nilsson this year. Too many represses and not enough things making membership worth it.

Even the most loyal VMP customers on discord are pretty pissed at how the Dolly track went down. They were told the only way to get the records was to subscribe, then later a bunch went into the store and ended up being included in 40% off sales.
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VMP’s sweet spot is twofold:

1) AAA audiophile reissues, that tend to be the definitive 33 rpm release (think most Classics and a number of their older monthly titles)
2) Great sounding reissues of that haven’t been on vinyl in a long time (or ever) or have only a ho-hum standard release. A lot of the Essentials and RHH seem to mine this one.

Curation helps a lot with #1 and is absolutely vital for #2. #1 is the bread and butter of most audiophile labels these days. #2 requires a lot more work and is harder to execute well. The Lost Sounds Found think sounds great in theory, but isn’t sustainable as anything but a 3rd or worse priority.
 
Store drops over the last few years have fallen off a lot for me. Seems they fall into one of these categories:

1) A color variant of an album that is also getting a wide release to indie/other shops
2) A wildly overpriced set that doesn't actually sell well until a massive discount code is issued or they allow it into swaps
3) An open pre-order for a reasonably in demand item. Higher-than-you-want-to-pay price, no pressing limits.
4) A sought after release that gets 500-1,000 pressings that sells out in 5 minutes.
5) Something that nobody asked for that will sit in the store for months until it hits swaps


Seems like they just can't figure out the balance of price/demand/availability/exclusivity. I know striking that balance can be tricky, but they used to be pretty good at it. Seems like they either abandoned that idea or the logistics just aren't there.

For me, part of the draw to a record club is being able to purchase limited variants that are not(and essentially won't be) generally available to those who don't have a membership. Feels like the store drops have basically just turned into a pre-order factory with high prices and unlimited pressing numbers so they can churn out as much cash as possible.
 
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