displayname
Well-Known Member
TL;DR - VMP needs to stop blaming their partners and take responsibility for their products. They also should invest in their company for the long term in my opinion, but they don't thanks to being venture capital backed.
I don't blame GZ or Saddle Creek for any of the issues with VMP. I blame VMP for all of those. Why? Because my contract is with VMP. My communication is with VMP. I have no choice in who presses it, or who ships it. The fact that we even know their shipper is a little crazy and lazy on their part. I don't know where any of my other stuff goes through a 3rd party shipping warehouse. It's VMP's product. They should be doing final QC and they are responsible for resolving any issues. The fact that they publicly throw pressing plants and shippers under the bus is bad business. They do have some weight to throw around due to the high volume ROTM. But if I was GZ I'd stop pressing their smaller run exclusives in exchange for how often VMP throws them under the bus. Same with SC. Plus, if we ever want these suppliers to change, we need to send every single little complaint to VMP. Let's say SC really is the cause of every single issue at hand. If we all actually took the time to email in a complaint, the cost of managing those would become high enough that VMP might start looking at another contact. Contractors can be fired, even when they are long term partners. If things get bad enough, VMP will look elsewhere.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that VMP/Offbeat Ventures, LLC clearly still sees vinyl as a fad and they do not have a long term strategy in the game. Why do I think this? Because never once have they talked about investing in their own inventory and shipping team. I get not getting into printing and pressing plants. That's a massive initial investment. I know a distribution facility is as well, but I don't think it's as high as commercial vinyl pressing or printing. Loads of companies bigger and smaller than VMP still manage their own packing and distribution. Look at Flightless/King Gizzard. Not only are they managing the packing and international shipping for the whole label, they are also actually making the fucking music. And for the stuff they can't handle, they pass it on. When I buy an ATO variant, I buy it from ATO or my local shop. Flightless is out of the equation. It's no longer an issue for them because they have someone taking the actual contract with the customer. That's what dealers and distributors are for (people forget this in the internet age). The only thing they don't do is print the jackets and press the records. And they even show pictures of the head honchos working... stuffing boxes. If VMP really had faith in the business, they could easily be doing it. But they don't. They want all of the glory and none of the blame. Which is why their records aren't worth more than $25 to me 99.99% of the time. That's about the average I'd expect to pay at my local shop, so if VMP can get it to my door for that price in the same condition as I can get it from a shop, all the merrier. But I hate when they toss partners under the bus because they over promised (over charged) and under delivered. It's all the result of this venture capital backed BS. Profits over all. Profits over investments. Profits over talented and experienced people. Profits over customers.
