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

avecigrec said:
The VMP one sounds infinitely better than any of the 3 other copies I've owned.
Never had an OG, but it's better than the VBR and Jackpot pressings by miles.

By no means am I a VMP cheerleader or defender, but credit where credit's due --- they nailed that one
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Quality pressings was like the one thing VMP could consistently do, even if they were pricey. Ultimately thatā€™s why their demise is sad because it means the market has one less reissue label that for the most part gave a crap about sound quality for however terrible they were at business and keeping the customer satisfied.
 
avecigrec said:
The VMP one sounds infinitely better than any of the 3 other copies I've owned.
Never had an OG, but it's better than the VBR and Jackpot pressings by miles.

By no means am I a VMP cheerleader or defender, but credit where credit's due --- they nailed that one
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Yea--I dislike this kind of pricing comparison. If it's just a color-way but same cut with huge price difference (which lord knows VMP used to do and still does), that's one thing. But comparing the VBR to the VMP on Sun Ra is night and day difference. Many times, I would rather buy a $40 record that sounds awesome than 2 $20 albums that are meh sounding. Those VMP Spiritual Jazz records are absolutely killer.

As @wmeugene said, it's a shame if they go under because it's one less quality reissue label out there. 9/10 times on their exclusives, the records sounded awesome. Cutting corners with pressing plants and stuff probably cost them more money in the long run with returns and bad QC.

Shame that Clay go let go, but not a total shock given the fact that they aren't doing anthologies anymore, are barely doing new ROTMs and only are really doing the magazine. Probably not enough work to justify a full time employee to do it.

Fuck project willy wonka.
 
MikeH said:
Yea--I dislike this kind of pricing comparison. If it's just a color-way but same cut with huge price difference (which lord knows VMP used to do and still does), that's one thing. But comparing the VBR to the VMP on Sun Ra is night and day difference. Many times, I would rather buy a $40 record that sounds awesome than 2 $20 albums that are meh sounding. Those VMP Spiritual Jazz records are absolutely killer.

As @wmeugene said, it's a shame if they go under because it's one less quality reissue label out there. 9/10 times on their exclusives, the records sounded awesome. Cutting corners with pressing plants and stuff probably cost them more money in the long run with returns and bad QC.

Shame that Clay go let go, but not a total shock given the fact that they aren't doing anthologies anymore, are barely doing new ROTMs and only are really doing the magazine. Probably not enough work to justify a full time employee to do it.

Fuck project willy wonka.
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Are they doing anything anymore, itā€™s been twenty days, I donā€™t think theyā€™ve ever gone two weeks without a release. Maybe daylight savings time fucked up the schedule cause no way to predict that.
 
Nee Lewman said:
Are they doing anything anymore, itā€™s been twenty days, I donā€™t think theyā€™ve ever gone two weeks without a release. Maybe daylight savings time fucked yo the schedule cause no way to predict that.
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I don't know the last release they did--haven't really paid much attention and have no sense of time anymore...wouldn't be shocked if they are waiting to see how the dust settles on how many members they have with their new system + how many people asked for refunds on membership, etc before putting out any new products. Or possible they are waiting to be closer to launch date on records before putting them on presale....who knows. we'll find out soon.

I just hope I get the love supreme box + my test pressings....used credit on them but would still like to get em...
 
MikeH said:
I don't know the last release they did--haven't really paid much attention and have no sense of time anymore...wouldn't be shocked if they are waiting to see how the dust settles on how many members they have with their new system + how many people asked for refunds on membership, etc before putting out any new products. Or possible they are waiting to be closer to launch date on records before putting them on presale....who knows. we'll find out soon.

I just hope I get the love supreme box + my test pressings....used credit on them but would still like to get em...
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There are no launch dates.

I believe their cash crunch is so severe they are on COD at pressing plants. So they need to move stock to get funds to get anything pressed.

That's why release dates are a constantly shifting target.

I also noticed a lot of preorders suddenly going to 'unavailable'.

Could be one of two things. Or both. Pressing dates are pushed so far out they didn't want to take any more preorder money and have to end up refunding most. Or it could be they are having less and less confidence those titles will ever be pressed.

The Coltrane - ALS box, delayed since last summer. I was told directly by VMP in mid-Feb that it was pressed and awaiting packaging, to ship end Feb or at worst early March.

Now, it shows as 'unavailable' and being pressed mid-March. But they told me it had been pressed. What's true? It probably has been pressed, but RTI won't release until the COD is paid.

So could be April, more likely in April it will be delayed until July, then in July...who knows.

For a title like the Coltrane, with mastering and lacquers done, I would find it difficult to believe someone else wouldn't pick it up from VMP's bankruptcy trustee.
 
MikeH said:
Yea--I dislike this kind of pricing comparison. If it's just a color-way but same cut with huge price difference (which lord knows VMP used to do and still does), that's one thing. But comparing the VBR to the VMP on Sun Ra is night and day difference. Many times, I would rather buy a $40 record that sounds awesome than 2 $20 albums that are meh sounding. Those VMP Spiritual Jazz records are absolutely killer.

As @wmeugene said, it's a shame if they go under because it's one less quality reissue label out there. 9/10 times on their exclusives, the records sounded awesome. Cutting corners with pressing plants and stuff probably cost them more money in the long run with returns and bad QC.

Shame that Clay go let go, but not a total shock given the fact that they aren't doing anthologies anymore, are barely doing new ROTMs and only are really doing the magazine. Probably not enough work to justify a full time employee to do it.

Fuck project willy wonka.
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I make the comparison on price because opinions on which version sounds better than another is often subjective. (However, @avecigrec is one of our resident Sun Ra experts). Sometimes, the quality difference is very obvious, sometimes it varies.
I bought the Spiritual Jazz series from VMP and I agree, job well done, much like the Sharrock reissue. With the US economy in an evolving state, rising prices of VMP pressings could be an issue for some buyers, while maybe not for others. Can they survive on high end buyers? It's hard to ignore the $20 difference in this particular situation.
Just my 10 cents.
RHANDMJ said:
There are no launch dates.

I believe their cash crunch is so severe they are on COD at pressing plants. So they need to move stock to get funds to get anything pressed.

That's why release dates are a constantly shifting target.

I also noticed a lot of preorders suddenly going to 'unavailable'.

Could be one of two things. Or both. Pressing dates are pushed so far out they didn't want to take any more preorder money and have to end up refunding most. Or it could be they are having less and less confidence those titles will ever be pressed.

The Coltrane - ALS box, delayed since last summer. I was told directly by VMP in mid-Feb that it was pressed and awaiting packaging, to ship end Feb or at worst early March.

Now, it shows as 'unavailable' and being pressed mid-March. But they told me it had been pressed. What's true? It probably has been pressed, but RTI won't release until the COD is paid.

So could be April, more likely in April it will be delayed until July, then in July...who knows.

For a title like the Coltrane, with mastering and lacquers done, I would find it difficult to believe someone else wouldn't pick it up from VMP's bankruptcy trustee.
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If they reach a point where they don't have the cash on hand to "free" the 40 plus titles they sold prior to now--and have the risk of refund requests for those same titles hanging over them-- added to an inability to pay to press new titles, their cash flow is compromised. They in essence can't complete old business and can't go forward with new business.
That's before you even deal with whatever expenses are tied to the pressing plant legal proceedings and the salaries/benefits for employees who remain, overhead costs, operating costs, etc. It's a tough situation.
 
MikeH said:
Fuck project willy wonka.
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See I'm in the opposite side on this. I think they were stupid to let this go public and not just continue on and get the benefit of the plant. I think they'd be in a much better spot if they'd done that. They'd certainly have kept a big chunk of their subscribers and the cash flow wouldn't have been such a problem. But making this go public killed consumer confidence.
 
avecigrec said:
The VMP one sounds infinitely better than any of the 3 other copies I've owned.
Never had an OG, but it's better than the VBR and Jackpot pressings by miles.

By no means am I a VMP cheerleader or defender, but credit where credit's due --- they nailed that one
Click to expand...
I was a VMP member for going on 8 years until they chopped the international subs. Recently I've been digging through all the exclusives I have from them and I find that when they focused on a short run of a "series" they typically sound fantastic. The likes of the:
- Impulse Spiritual Jazz Series
- Oneness Of Juju series
- Prestige/Jazz Dispensary series (both of them)
- Prestige/OJC series
- Jazz Is Dead (although I did have a few issues with warps, but once I got unwarped copies, they sound great)
- MPS series (not as high quality as the Impulse, Riverside & Prestige, but decent).
- Riverside series (John Lee Hooker and Chet Bakers)
- Blue Note 45rpm series
 
Hemotep said:
See I'm in the opposite side on this. I think they were stupid to let this go public and not just continue on and get the benefit of the plant. I think they'd be in a much better spot if they'd done that. They'd certainly have kept a big chunk of their subscribers and the cash flow wouldn't have been such a problem. But making this go public killed consumer confidence.
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Not sure how they continue on when they realized millions of dollars were put into a plant that they didnā€™t own. Were they just supposed to give Cam a little slap on the wrist? The plant wasnā€™t going to be able to press all the ROTMs. They still arenā€™t really pressing much there yet.

Cam constantly doing 40% off sales to fund his plant killed customer confidence IMO. So did saying that Dolly would only be available to subscribers, then putting most of those titles in the store for 40% off. Why would you pay full price after that? Then they raised prices.
 
Selaws said:
I was a VMP member for going on 8 years until they chopped the international subs. Recently I've been digging through all the exclusives I have from them and I find that when they focused on a short run of a "series" they typically sound fantastic. The likes of the:
- Impulse Spiritual Jazz Series
- Oneness Of Juju series
- Prestige/Jazz Dispensary series (both of them)
- Prestige/OJC series
- Jazz Is Dead (although I did have a few issues with warps, but once I got unwarped copies, they sound great)
- MPS series (not as high quality as the Impulse, Riverside & Prestige, but decent).
- Riverside series (John Lee Hooker and Chet Bakers)
- Blue Note 45rpm series
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Half of these series were just color variants of existing plates right? Pretty sure Juju, Prestige, Jazz is Dead, MPS and Riverside were mostly variants. They had some solid curation though.

For me their true exclusives like spiritual jazz series, david gray - white ladder, sonny sharrock, etc were what VMP did best. They also hit a good stride when they were doing all AAA RKS titles even though they moved to GZ. Rising was rad too when they were $20ā€¦prices going up meant expectation that the product and experience would improve too, yet somehow both got worse
 
MikeH said:
Half of these series were just color variants of existing plates right? Pretty sure Juju, Prestige, Jazz is Dead, MPS and Riverside were mostly variants. They had some solid curation though.

For me their true exclusives like spiritual jazz series, david gray - white ladder, sonny sharrock, etc were what VMP did best. They also hit a good stride when they were doing all AAA RKS titles even though they moved to GZ. Rising was rad too when they were $20ā€¦prices going up meant expectation that the product and experience would improve too, yet somehow both got worse
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Maybe, I wouldn't know without looking, but they're all decent to my ears. There was a mad few years where it was cheaper for me to buy anything from VMP than it was from to get the equivalent here in the UK, so much so that I bought a decent pair of bookshelf speakers that they MUST have made a loss on through postage alone.
 
Selaws said:
Maybe, I wouldn't know without looking, but they're all decent to my ears. There was a mad few years where it was cheaper for me to buy anything from VMP than it was from to get the equivalent here in the UK, so much so that I bought a decent pair of bookshelf speakers that they MUST have made a loss on through postage alone.
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Saxophone colossus was a cool one because it used the Hoffman/KG DCC plates. VMP didnā€™t even realize it at the time hah

International for awhile was the best ā€œvalueā€ given the ā€œfreeā€ shipping for sure. Donā€™t know what they were thinking with some of that stuff.
 
MikeH said:
Not sure how they continue on when they realized millions of dollars were put into a plant that they didnā€™t own. Were they just supposed to give Cam a little slap on the wrist? The plant wasnā€™t going to be able to press all the ROTMs. They still arenā€™t really pressing much there yet.

Cam constantly doing 40% off sales to fund his plant killed customer confidence IMO. So did saying that Dolly would only be available to subscribers, then putting most of those titles in the store for 40% off. Why would you pay full price after that? Then they raised prices.
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I would have said, Cam, the plant is either ours now, or we fire you and sue the shit out of you. You'll never be a CEO again. Or we keep this quiet and you walk away.

Press what they can, small batch, audiophile. Get that revenue up. Without the knowledge of the shaky ground that got public, they could have weathered this and not spooked the customer base. It wouldn't have solved all the problems, but they'd be in a much better position today for someone to acquire them than they are now. Losing the subscribers destroyed them.
 
Hemotep said:
I would have said, Cam, the plant is either ours now, or we fire you and sue the shit out of you. You'll never be a CEO again. Or we keep this quiet and you walk away.

Press what they can, small batch, audiophile. Get that revenue up. Without the knowledge of the shaky ground that got public, they could have weathered this and not spooked the customer base. It wouldn't have solved all the problems, but they'd be in a much better position today for someone to acquire them than they are now. Losing the subscribers destroyed them.
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I never understood the publicity of it. Like theyā€™re three dudes. After fees I canā€™t imagine youā€™d gain enough in the suits to help out or warrant the press.

I say this with no inside baseball so there could very well have been good reasons to do so. From the outside though, yeah I wouldā€™ve done exactly this.
 
Hemotep said:
I would have said, Cam, the plant is either ours now, or we fire you and sue the shit out of you. You'll never be a CEO again. Or we keep this quiet and you walk away.

Press what they can, small batch, audiophile. Get that revenue up. Without the knowledge of the shaky ground that got public, they could have weathered this and not spooked the customer base. It wouldn't have solved all the problems, but they'd be in a much better position today for someone to acquire them than they are now. Losing the subscribers destroyed them.
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I mean, you donā€™t know that this didnā€™t happenā€¦
 
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