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

I just think so many labels are doing their own series now that Rock was probably hard to get 12 albums out of that may actually sell.

I know that a lot of people have said VMP was gonna go out of business for years. But the past month or so is the first time I’ve truly thought it may happen sooner rather than later.
 
I have over 100 VMP records, many of which are among the favorites in my collection. 5-6 years ago, they were a huge part of my monthly buying, and I’ve still found several things I’ve wanted each year.

At this point, it’s hard to figure out where they sit in the industry. There’s just so much out there now, and it’s hard to see them standing out anywhere anymore. The record club model doesn’t really work at their prices, outside of the huge discounts they offered last year. The “jump in for 5-10 records a year” thing that I’ve been doing isn’t going to sustain them, and I’m sure there are many other doing the same as me.
 
D Jilla said:
I have over 100 VMP records, many of which are among the favorites in my collection. 5-6 years ago, they were a huge part of my monthly buying, and I’ve still found several things I’ve wanted each year.

At this point, it’s hard to figure out where they sit in the industry. There’s just so much out there now, and it’s hard to see them standing out anywhere anymore. The record club model doesn’t really work at their prices, outside of the huge discounts they offered last year. The “jump in for 5-10 records a year” thing that I’ve been doing isn’t going to sustain them, and I’m sure there are many other doing the same as me.
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Yea--they really have done some great reissues and for awhile did a good job curating and releasing some interesting stuff. But they are at the mercy of labels and what titles they can license, and they have made a lot of missteps along the way. Lots of shooting themselves in the foot. You'd never know they have been around for 10+ years at this point. Interscope putting pretty much everything off limits to do their own monthly club hurts, as does stuff like Rhino HiFi. If Sony does their own subscription or reissue series, it may be the end. Or maybe Sony buys em out at some point...

I have a feeling that the pressing plant may be a success too. Will be interesting to hear the first stuff off their presses. Think it might be that Gillian Welch but not 100% sure.
 
MikeH said:
Yea--they really have done some great reissues and for awhile did a good job curating and releasing some interesting stuff. But they are at the mercy of labels and what titles they can license, and they have made a lot of missteps along the way. Lots of shooting themselves in the foot. You'd never know they have been around for 10+ years at this point. Interscope putting pretty much everything off limits to do their own monthly club hurts, as does stuff like Rhino HiFi. If Sony does their own subscription or reissue series, it may be the end. Or maybe Sony buys em out at some point...

I have a feeling that the pressing plant may be a success too. Will be interesting to hear the first stuff off their presses. Think it might be that Gillian Welch but not 100% sure.
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Yeah, definitely looking forward to stuff from the new plant (especially Gillian Welch). I think the plant has the right people in charge, so I’m hopeful it’s good pretty much right away.

Kind of a shame ultimately, as there are several mediocre GZ pressings from VMP that I hoped would get represses at the new plant. Oh well
 
MikeH said:
Yea--they really have done some great reissues and for awhile did a good job curating and releasing some interesting stuff. But they are at the mercy of labels and what titles they can license, and they have made a lot of missteps along the way. Lots of shooting themselves in the foot. You'd never know they have been around for 10+ years at this point. Interscope putting pretty much everything off limits to do their own monthly club hurts, as does stuff like Rhino HiFi. If Sony does their own subscription or reissue series, it may be the end. Or maybe Sony buys em out at some point...

I have a feeling that the pressing plant may be a success too. Will be interesting to hear the first stuff off their presses. Think it might be that Gillian Welch but not 100% sure.
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Great summation. If VMP is paying 90 cents of every dollar to stay afloat right now, I fear their best years are behind them. I don’t think anyone would fault them for getting sold. The brand is strong enough that a Sony could make it stronger. But will it ever produce VMP Festival like we all had hoped? I’m afraid not.

With that said, any future documentaries will absolutely have VMP as a catalyst for the revival of the vinyl movement. Without them, I don’t think you have a Rhino HiFi or Interscope record club.
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Great summation. If VMP is paying 90 cents of every dollar to stay afloat right now, I fear their best years are behind them. I don’t think anyone would fault them for getting sold. The brand is strong enough that a Sony could make it stronger. But will it ever produce VMP Festival like we all had hoped? I’m afraid not.

With that said, any future documentaries will absolutely have VMP as a catalyst for the revival of the vinyl movement. Without them, I don’t think you have a Rhino HiFi or Interscope record club.
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I don't know about the second part. Even with their numbers after the huge push last year they still make up a very small percentage of vinyl sales, even if we only consider US sales. Vinyl sales have grown year in and year out for the last 17 years. While they're a part of the story, I think members greatly overestimate how important they are to the vinyl industry. It was already trending in the right direction before they came along. They pulled in some folks, but I don't think they got more than a small always online segment, which is why it seems like they were more influential than they really ever were to the industry as a whole.
 
Hemotep said:
I don't know about the second part. Even with their numbers after the huge push last year they still make up a very small percentage of vinyl sales, even if we only consider US sales. Vinyl sales have grown year in and year out for the last 17 years. While they're a part of the story, I think members greatly overestimate how important they are to the vinyl industry. It was already trending in the right direction before they came along. They pulled in some folks, but I don't think they got more than a small always online segment, which is why it seems like they were more influential than they really ever were to the industry as a whole.
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I'm going to task you to spearhead this documentary. Research is due on my desk by morning. Let's at least give them the colored vinyl catalyst award.
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
I'm going to task you to spearhead this documentary. Research is due on my desk by morning. Let's at least give them the colored vinyl catalyst award.
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I was working on a paper about the vinyl industry last year, but had to put it down to meet another project's deadline. Figured all the data I found was obsolete by the time I could go back to it so I never did. Might need to think about it again.
 
Hemotep said:
I don't know about the second part. Even with their numbers after the huge push last year they still make up a very small percentage of vinyl sales, even if we only consider US sales. Vinyl sales have grown year in and year out for the last 17 years. While they're a part of the story, I think members greatly overestimate how important they are to the vinyl industry. It was already trending in the right direction before they came along. They pulled in some folks, but I don't think they got more than a small always online segment, which is why it seems like they were more influential than they really ever were to the industry as a whole.
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I agree that from a sales perspective, they probably made a small dent, if that. But I think VMP was influential in a few ways.

It helped give viability to a monthly release/subscription model for vinyl that actually worked for 10 years. No other company really survived this long while getting multiple releases out every month. Labels definitely took notice. Interscope doesn’t do their series without VMP. Rhino may not be doing rhino HiFi without VMP.

They also showed that there was a market for “audiophile” quality of music outside the typical Chad, MoFi and Jazz releases. They were not the only company to do this but their output was probably the most varied. I don’t doubt that companies like Craft saw titles selling pretty well for stuff like Fania and decided to do their own reissues from some of those labels that were often neglected in the past. We saw them release more Chalino after VMP’s sold well too.

The pandemic seemed anecdotally to me to give a big boost to vinyl sales and also the amount of people getting into vinyl. So VMP was also a bit in the right place at the right time.

The problem I always saw with the model was that they rely on labels to license them stuff. If labels just don’t license good stuff, they have no product. And that can happen at any time. The other problem is if there too successful, it was just a matter of time before labels just said “we can do this ourselves”. It’s like Blue Note with Music Matters. MMJ showed there was a market for high quality BN reissues cut AAA with nice jackets. BN said hey let’s hire KG and Joe and do the Tone Poet series ourselves. VMP has lost the ability to do anything from Interscope. They do a lot of Sony stuff still but Sony could start their own series and not let VMP license anymore.
 
MikeH said:
I agree that from a sales perspective, they probably made a small dent, if that. But I think VMP was influential in a few ways.

It helped give viability to a monthly release/subscription model for vinyl that actually worked for 10 years. No other company really survived this long while getting multiple releases out every month. Labels definitely took notice. Interscope doesn’t do their series without VMP. Rhino may not be doing rhino HiFi without VMP.

They also showed that there was a market for “audiophile” quality of music outside the typical Chad, MoFi and Jazz releases. They were not the only company to do this but their output was probably the most varied. I don’t doubt that companies like Craft saw titles selling pretty well for stuff like Fania and decided to do their own reissues from some of those labels that were often neglected in the past. We saw them release more Chalino after VMP’s sold well too.

The pandemic seemed anecdotally to me to give a big boost to vinyl sales and also the amount of people getting into vinyl. So VMP was also a bit in the right place at the right time.

The problem I always saw with the model was that they rely on labels to license them stuff. If labels just don’t license good stuff, they have no product. And that can happen at any time. The other problem is if there too successful, it was just a matter of time before labels just said “we can do this ourselves”. It’s like Blue Note with Music Matters. MMJ showed there was a market for high quality BN reissues cut AAA with nice jackets. BN said hey let’s hire KG and Joe and do the Tone Poet series ourselves. VMP has lost the ability to do anything from Interscope. They do a lot of Sony stuff still but Sony could start their own series and not let VMP license anymore.
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The other thing is that the pandemic gave a huge boost to vinyl sales, and we now have a "flew a little too close to the sun" moment as demand is not as hot as it was and prices have skyrocketed, not just because of inflation, but because companies think they can sell for the secondary prices that in demand records were going for during the COVID years. I feel like VMP was not really prepared to pivot into the post-pandemic world in a way that would continue growth (for many of the reasons that you cite).
 
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