We ordered similar amounts of Ramones to what we ordered for Black Moses, Joni Mitchell, and DMX.
Based on the announce reaction (people complained about 2 Ramones, milquetoast boilerplate about "Lost Sounds Found") , we assumed that'd be fine. Given how many Joni, DMX and Isaac we have on hand now, we especially thought we were fine
Swap out rate for Ramones was near historic lows for Essentials. Something like 1/4 of as many people who swapped OUT of DMX and Joni swapped out of Ramones
Swap IN rates (ie people swapping from Rock, Classics or another track into Ramones) were sky high compared to past months.
Which lead to us being oversold.
So instead of it being a lottery for who will or will not get a copy, we made a tough decision
We decided to prioritize people who were subscribed to Essentials as the priority.
So, if you swapped into Ramones, we needed to remove that. Which is what we said in the email.
It's less than ideal, but it's the only choice we needed to make: Essentials members get the priority over people who swapped into it. We also swapped anyone who was on a free promo subscription to Too Tough to Die, because we prioritized only PAYING Essentials members
Basically, it was a shit decision that we were forced to make. We want everyone to get the record they love, but it's not an infinite inventory pool.
There will be no repress (google the Ramones and see why)