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

imajindat said:
Thanks for the link. So I take it VMP is just doing a color variant of something that is being widely released?
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Coloured vinyl is all part of their FOMO marketing strategy...

The vinyl record format use to be about the quality of the music, but a good portion of their customers will buy this just because of the colour of the vinyl. Its nuts...the world has gone mad.
 
goodoohuru said:
Coloured vinyl is all part of their FOMO marketing strategy...

The vinyl record format use to be about the quality of the music, but a good portion of their customers will buy this just because of the colour of the vinyl. Its nuts...the world has gone mad.
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And many will buy only because of the exclusivity. Other variants may have a larger pressing, but with VMP they Truly have limited edition stuff. It may just be another color of the same pressing, but at least it’s 1 out of 500 or 1000, rather than a massively released item. That’s why I still buy VMP! 🤷🏽‍♂️
Now, when all releases are small but different colors, then that’s where it gets tricky! lol
 
Memo said:
And many will buy only because of the exclusivity. Other variants may have a larger pressing, but with VMP they Truly have limited edition stuff. It may just be another color of the same pressing, but at least it’s 1 out of 500 or 1000, rather than a massively released item. That’s why I still buy VMP! 🤷🏽‍♂️
Now, when all releases are small but different colors, then that’s where it gets tricky! lol
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Like I said, the vinyl record format use to be about the quality of the music.
 
Mather said:
Pressed at one of the worst pressing plants in the world no less.
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What's so frustrating about this is that it was mastered/cut by Kevin Gray at Coherent. So they take a (likely) well done remaster and then it gets pressed at what is, in my opinion, the worst pressing plant in the world.

Thank God Rainbo shut down and we'll soon see an end to releases coming out of that plant.
 
displayname said:
They really seem to only define the size of their business by the number of direct employees they have. At the end of the day VMP is basically a contracting and marketing company. They contract a license to sell. Contract a pressing plant. Contract a shipper. All part of the venture backed mentality. Once the business slows enough, they "liquidate" stock and either sell off or layoff the few employees they have.

What they fail to see is they do big business volume. They also fail to see that having a small central staff isn't an excuse, especially for releases that are pushing MoFi prices.
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This is what I was going to say. Yes, with 25 employees they are technically a small business, but contracting out the most fundamental labor of their business--the packing and shipping--to stay technically/legally small and save money makes that defense of their fuckups really disingenuous and ugly.

And keep in mind that all of those giant corporations that appear on Forbes "best places to work" lists are also built on 40-60% contract labor, whose low pay and lack of benefits are not factored into the companies' ratings.
 
GritNGlitter said:
This is what I was going to say. Yes, with 25 employees they are technically a small business, but contracting out the most fundamental labor of their business--the packing and shipping--to stay technically/legally small and save money makes that defense of their fuckups really disingenuous and ugly.

And keep in mind that all of those giant corporations that appear on Forbes "best places to work" lists are also built on 40-60% contract labor, whose low pay and lack of benefits are not factored into the companies' ratings.
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I wish there was a standing ovation emoji... Cause this is nothing but unfiltered truth.
 
GritNGlitter said:
This is what I was going to say. Yes, with 25 employees they are technically a small business, but contracting out the most fundamental labor of their business--the packing and shipping--to stay technically/legally small and save money makes that defense of their fuckups really disingenuous and ugly.

And keep in mind that all of those giant corporations that appear on Forbes "best places to work" lists are also built on 40-60% contract labor, whose low pay and lack of benefits are not factored into the companies' ratings.
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I also want to really emphasize how much I hate that they throw their partners under the bus at almost every opportunity. How many times have they said "our shippers did this" or "the plant did that".

IDGAF who did what. I paid VMP and I want my products from VMP. The fact that they regularly use that as an excuse doesn't just show the size of the company, but the lack of experience.
 
TheThinWhiteDuke said:
The alternative is, they go get more copies printed to fill the orders and probably issue an apology credit to anyone that would have to wait on a repress. That is what any normal label or retailer would do.
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I do not think that this is an option because it was advertised as limited to 1000 copies. So just printing more is something they have never done with limited exclusives
 
displayname said:
I also want to really emphasize how much I hate that they throw their partners under the bus at almost every opportunity. How many times have they said "our shippers did this" or "the plant did that".

IDGAF who did what. I paid VMP and I want my products from VMP. The fact that they regularly use that as an excuse doesn't just show the size of the company, but the lack of experience.
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I partially agree with this... I'm more upset at the fact that VMP continues to employ their services despite the many errors.
In a business standpoint, they're doing everything 'right'... Low overhead, great CS (until recently), creating exclusivity.... Would it technically be better for VMP to have their own pressing plant and distribution... Yes, but obviously at a higher price (Mofi comes to mind). But there are also limitations within that. Labels have deals with pressing plants and would have to pay more to license the music to press it themselves....

All that to say, it's not a bad thing they are employing other businesses to help run their business... Remember VMP is not in the business of making vinyl, they are in the business of putting stickers and their label on vinyl variants.

In my opinion, they should move to a better handling facility than the one they are currently at. This site migration did not help what so ever... and yes VMP is at fault there. But also, if VMP is going to continue to employ them, they better be honest and say "Hey, we fucked up by trusting these guys with our inventory, we are looking for another distributor" rather than placing blame on their distributors.
 
radiodead said:
So since I haven’t received a shipping notice on Mobb Deep I’m assuming mine is one of the records That got shipped elsewhere.

My question is if they are trying to avoid a repress, and not everyone returns every single Mobb Deep, what do they plan to do for the customers that won’t get their record? Because it would seem odd to reward those who return it and then give the odd ones out just a refund.

Just a hypothetical. Not “mad”.
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From the beginning, my issue with asking for returns deals with what condition these albums are going to be in once this whole shipping back and forth fiasco is over. A repress seems inevitable.
 
Teeeee said:
And lol @ the anorak as an enticement.
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HA! First off, I didn't even see that and it's hilarious. Even now, they're trying to unload the anoraks and Woodstock boxes, while being acutely aware that the beanies they dropped only yesterday aren't going anywhere.

You accidentally typed "Mos Def" instead of MObb Deep though.

Also, mine showed up and I got 4 copies instead of 2, so... squared. If I had 25, I'd be dealing with another beast altogether. I also know how to ship a fucking record without it being damaged, so I know it will get back to them.

Hmm...

I guess we'll see what they have as far as test pressing requests and go from there
 
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