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

MikeH said:
VMP was selling $35 records at 40% off, gave away 10 free records to each yearly subscriber (with the referral bonus, a yearly membership in the US last year worked out to around $17 per record including shipping) and they were likely still making profit. These do not cost anywhere near $35 for VMP to produce. And stuff like Juju was even less to produce since they made them years ago before prices went up across the board with manufacturing, unless I missed a recent repress of that one.

I'd be VERY surprised if VMP is dumping these at cost to HHV for HHV to turn around and sell them for $35.
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Or they get rid of dead weight they are paying to store and write off selling the whole inventory in a batch at a loss, which helps them both with storage costs and tax wise. It is easy to cover with "we're helping our international customers" jazz. Again, many moves look like they are trying to raise money and cut costs within this fiscal year. That it all follows the Denver pressing plant debacle allows for sideline conjecture, which may be wrong or spot on. Time will tell.
 
Biscuit said:
Or they get rid of dead weight they are paying to store and write off selling the whole inventory in a batch at a loss, which helps them both with storage costs and tax wise. It is easy to cover with "we're helping our international customers" jazz. Again, many moves look like they are trying to raise money and cut costs within this fiscal year. That it all follows the Denver pressing plant debacle allows for sideline conjecture, which may be wrong or spot on. Time will tell.
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I don't think that many moves look like they are trying to raise money, but instead are trying to cut costs and fat to try to right the ship post-Cam and pressing plant. Selling these at HHV opens up a new market for them + allows them to get rid of inventory. It's not really one or the other--it's likely both. They will definitely hide behind "this is great for our international customers!" I read it more as the access to a new market tactic. Some of these titles are some of their best selling titles of all time so it's not just a dump of Lapsleys and Torres. Maybe they did just toss those onto the pallet to HHV without telling them though.

My gut tells me that they will be trying to press way less of each title moving forward for ROTMs and move toward the timed repress model they have been doing if stuff sells out to try to keep inventory leaner. Less tracks means less guessing how many copies to press of each track. I also bet that subscriber numbers are near impossible to predict after the freebies year last year. Nearly everybody I know is not reupping after their current deal runs out.
 
MikeH said:
I don't think that many moves look like they are trying to raise money, but instead are trying to cut costs and fat to try to right the ship post-Cam and pressing plant. Selling these at HHV opens up a new market for them + allows them to get rid of inventory. It's not really one or the other--it's likely both. They will definitely hide behind "this is great for our international customers!" I read it more as the access to a new market tactic. Some of these titles are some of their best selling titles of all time so it's not just a dump of Lapsleys and Torres. Maybe they did just toss those onto the pallet to HHV without telling them though.

My gut tells me that they will be trying to press way less of each title moving forward for ROTMs and move toward the timed repress model they have been doing if stuff sells out to try to keep inventory leaner. Less tracks means less guessing how many copies to press of each track. I also bet that subscriber numbers are near impossible to predict after the freebies year last year. Nearly everybody I know is not reupping after their current deal runs out.
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Matt: Look at all the warehouse space we have freed up.
Storf: Let’s get 10,000 dad hats!!
 
MikeH said:
I don't think that many moves look like they are trying to raise money, but instead are trying to cut costs and fat to try to right the ship post-Cam and pressing plant. Selling these at HHV opens up a new market for them + allows them to get rid of inventory. It's not really one or the other--it's likely both. They will definitely hide behind "this is great for our international customers!" I read it more as the access to a new market tactic. Some of these titles are some of their best selling titles of all time so it's not just a dump of Lapsleys and Torres. Maybe they did just toss those onto the pallet to HHV without telling them though.

My gut tells me that they will be trying to press way less of each title moving forward for ROTMs and move toward the timed repress model they have been doing if stuff sells out to try to keep inventory leaner. Less tracks means less guessing how many copies to press of each track. I also bet that subscriber numbers are near impossible to predict after the freebies year last year. Nearly everybody I know is not reupping after their current deal runs out.
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I hope they figure out something to offer membership (maybe part of the announcement tomorrow). Because I can’t even remotely justify re-upping. Which I’m sort of bummed about. Ha it’s been years of swaptions and all the other VMP bits and bobs.
 
ntaos said:
It seemed to be implied that the international shipping HMV thing was part of a larger update tomorrow.

(also that sentence really shows how exhausting VMP has become)
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If there is an announcement tied to hmv tomorrow probably that international subscriptions are ending effective immediately and subs will be converted to HMV credit. (This is me just being ass, there is no evidence of said move but when it happens we should blame @Selaws )
 
I just thought of something while replying to @DJSJ ’s post about why is VMP shitty… does the firing of A-B coincide with the massive fall off of their curation. (I mean there was some fall off from Sev to Storf, but I’m wondering if the last couple of years of underwhelm over all is tied to her leaving. She had pretty great picks)
 
MyWifeHatesTrain said:
I just thought of something while replying to @DJSJ ’s post about why is VMP shitty… does the firing of A-B coincide with the massive fall off of their curation. (I mean there was some fall off from Sev to Storf, but I’m wondering if the last couple of years of underwhelm over all is tied to her leaving. She had pretty great picks)
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I don't think it's helped. it also seems like they're just stuck in a spot where everyone they dealt with to get titles saw what they do, figured why not make more money on it by keeping those releases in house instead of licensing them, and they're in a sort of weird limbo where they have less places to pick from and the price of their product has gone up to a point where it's priced at a premium product but kind of isn't.

they got a ball rolling for a market space, but ultimately, i think they've just sort of aged out of it and stagnated. new tracks weren't drivers in ways they thought they'd be, the whole plant fiasco, curation isn't as strong. they're absolutely just a start up waiting to be picked apart by the highest bidder.
 
spilledleche said:
idk, this all feels like "get the books in order for a sale" more than a going out of business
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It just seems like they’re repositioning themselves as a much leaner, cleaner operation. The move to three subs from five, a pretty aggressive housekeeping operation around stock, binning off any partnerships that were a bit bloated and niche, cutting down on packaging costs by shipping replacements with subs and linking in to new external distribution partners in new markets is almost what you’d expect a real business to do. I mean… it’s kinda the bare minimum you’d expect and I’ve no idea how they’ve done 10 years without implementing that sort of fundamentals

Thats tied to a fairly uninspiring three months of essentials picks though so not all smelling of roses over there. They really need to get a handle on their curation
 
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