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

Biscuit said:
Sundazed had an email newsletter that went out today and featured a question about what gets (re)released. In light of discussions here, I thought this part was interesting:
"A big hurdle with reissues is that the rights to an overwhelming majority of the master recordings are controlled by just a few companies (Universal, Warner, Sony). Sometimes their minimums or prices are way out of line with what's realistic for a project. We have to agree to manufacture usually 2000 or more records for a release when usually, past sales from similar projects suggest 500 or 1000 are more realistic numbers. We've had a lot of times where we won't do something we love very much because we can't figure out how to break even on the project. The margins are extremely thin on major label licenses so breaking even is tough to get to and might take a while. There are tons of projects we know the market is dying for a reissue of (as are we), but we simply get told that we can't license that title or can't reorder that title anymore (we're getting low on Dock Of The Bay (hint hint, sigh). Generally it's because they want to do a version themselves, which we understand, but it'd be easier to swallow if they did indeed do them or do them sooner."

I think this above is part of VMP's issue with maintaining 5 tracks, cost issues, and ongoing curation woes. This was the same issue that hit Rubellan too.
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Rubellan sent out a pretty big fuck you email about major labels IIRC. All these third party companies are being priced out. If your business model is multiple monthly records, you don't really have any strength in negotiations. If you don't get something in the time frame you need, you don't have a product. The majors know this. They also know that with something like IVC, they can pump out a pretty shit generic product and make $50 a pop because people are buying them.
 
MikeH said:
Rubellan sent out a pretty big fuck you email about major labels IIRC. All these third party companies are being priced out. If your business model is multiple monthly records, you don't really have any strength in negotiations. If you don't get something in the time frame you need, you don't have a product. The majors know this. They also know that with something like IVC, they can pump out a pretty shit generic product and make $50 a pop because people are buying them.
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This is definitely a negative development in the post Covid landscape. Rights holders like Craft and Rhino have treated customers right, whereas many others have not. I haven’t ventured to the IVC because it definitely seems like there’s no care whatsoever on pressing quality or other signifiers of audio quality.
 
wmeugene said:
This is definitely a negative development in the post Covid landscape. Rights holders like Craft and Rhino have treated customers right, whereas many others have not. I haven’t ventured to the IVC because it definitely seems like there’s no care whatsoever on pressing quality or other signifiers of audio quality.
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well rhino depends on who you ask. the whole limited rhino hifi thing rubbed a LOT of people the wrong way. craft isn't without missteps either but they have put out a TON of quality product for good prices. i can't help but think that since Craft is friends with a lot of the VMP folks that they help them out a little bit on licensing costs in negotiating. i really think Craft was the company that was considering buying VMP.
 
MikeH said:
well rhino depends on who you ask. the whole limited rhino hifi thing rubbed a LOT of people the wrong way. craft isn't without missteps either but they have put out a TON of quality product for good prices. i can't help but think that since Craft is friends with a lot of the VMP folks that they help them out a little bit on licensing costs in negotiating. i really think Craft was the company that was considering buying VMP.
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Yeah, I’m aware of the Rhino HiFi numbered/unnumbered, I can’t flip my Black Sabbath now backlash. From a product standpoint, I don’t see what there is to complain about, though I have my first CS issue with the series now, so we will see (my Devo has a pressing defect).

Craft buying VMP would make a lot of sense has I think they have enough labels to keep it going and probably wouldn’t have an issue contracting with the smaller ones.
 
wmeugene said:
Yeah, I’m aware of the Rhino HiFi numbered/unnumbered, I can’t flip my Black Sabbath now backlash. From a product standpoint, I don’t see what there is to complain about, though I have my first CS issue with the series now, so we will see (my Devo has a pressing defect).

Craft buying VMP would make a lot of sense has I think they have enough labels to keep it going and probably wouldn’t have an issue contracting with the smaller ones.
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I think after MoFi-gate, people are wary of labels lying to them in order to make sales, which sort of seems like it happened with the Sabbath stuff and then ZZ Top. I'm fine with them pressing more as I think more people should be able to get those pressings, but can see why people were upset.

Craft owns so much music in such a wide variety of genres that it's surprising a bit that they don't have a monthly sub already.
 
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Would someone who uses the Discord be able to ask one of the VMP lot on there why discount codes won't work with recently added items that are showing in stock. Have a feedback code that works on the other two things in my cart but Black Moses (the one I actually wanted the most) is showing at full price.

I'd send this to CS but I'm still waiting for a response on the query I sent 2 weeks back
 
Rowan said:
Would someone who uses the Discord be able to ask one of the VMP lot on there why discount codes won't work with recently added items that are showing in stock. Have a feedback code that works on the other two things in my cart but Black Moses (the one I actually wanted the most) is showing at full price.

I'd send this to CS but I'm still waiting for a response on the query I sent 2 weeks back
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What’s a feedback code?? I can ask for ya though. Assuming Paulie isn’t in today though.
 
I have to say, one of the most frustrating small things with VMP is the fact that you can’t use store credit with coupons and that there is inconsistency in how coupons apply. If you’re going to make yourselves the Kohl’s of vinyl records, at least make the user experience easier.
 
wmeugene said:
I have to say, one of the most frustrating small things with VMP is the fact that you can’t use store credit with coupons and that there is inconsistency in how coupons apply. If you’re going to make yourselves the Kohl’s of vinyl records, at least make the user experience easier.
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Kohl's seems to have their shit together pretty well though. VMP is more like the Burlington Coat Factory of records.
 
wmeugene said:
I have to say, one of the most frustrating small things with VMP is the fact that you can’t use store credit with coupons and that there is inconsistency in how coupons apply. If you’re going to make yourselves the Kohl’s of vinyl records, at least make the user experience easier.
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It seems to be a Shopify thing with now allowing stacking coupons.

At this rate they need to abandon Shopify since it doesn’t seem to do most of what they need and is causing so many headaches.

In the past, was easy to just message them to apply credit to an order that you used a coupon on. This past time i did it, was told there was an issue with the credit system but should be fixed soon….we’ll see. Paul told me that even if the order ships they will go back and apply my credit and refund me but we’ll see…
 
MikeH said:
It seems to be a Shopify thing with now allowing stacking coupons.

At this rate they need to abandon Shopify since it doesn’t seem to do most of what they need and is causing so many headaches.

In the past, was easy to just message them to apply credit to an order that you used a coupon on. This past time i did it, was told there was an issue with the credit system but should be fixed soon….we’ll see. Paul told me that even if the order ships they will go back and apply my credit and refund me but we’ll see…
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Before VMP I’d never even heard mention of Shopify, it’s a regular word on here now.
The reality is the Website functionality is just a bit shit, and it’s been constantly this way for its lifespan. Many other companies don’t have the same problem, who knows if they use Shopify or not. As a consumer I should have no fucking idea Shopify exists, I’ve no interest and nor should I care what my online retailers checkout Software product is.
The fact it’s constantly mentioned in the negative tells its own story. Stop using it and try something more suitable. End of rant.
Edit : Or not I’m indirectly banned from returning at end of sub anyhow. In fact leave it and die a slow death by many cuts. Definitely end of rant now.
 
ByersVinyl said:
Before VMP I’d never even heard mention of Shopify, it’s a regular word on here now.
The reality is the Website functionality is just a bit shit, and it’s been constantly this way for its lifespan. Many other companies don’t have the same problem, who knows if they use Shopify or not. As a consumer I should have no fucking idea Shopify exists, I’ve no interest and nor should I care what my online retailers checkout Software product is.
The fact it’s constantly mentioned in the negative tells its own story. Stop using it and try something more suitable. End of rant.
Edit : Or not I’m indirectly banned from returning at end of sub anyhow. In fact leave it and die a slow death by many cuts. Definitely end of rant now.
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Shopify is probably the most widely used online platform in the world. I’ve heard retailers bitch about fees and weird interfaces, but VMP uses it like a scapegoat for all their technical problems which probably have to do with wanting to pay their tech people below average.
 
MyWifeHatesTrain said:
Shopify is probably the most widely used online platform in the world. I’ve heard retailers bitch about fees and weird interfaces, but VMP uses it like a scapegoat for all their technical problems which probably have to do with wanting to pay their tech people below average.
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Yea I am not sure how anybody who does online shopping has never heard of Shopify before now.

The problem is Shopify works for some retailers but VMP is trying to shoehorn it into their use case and they keep just trying to throw bandaids as temporary fixes
 
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