Acoustic Sounds Announces Price Increase Of All Analogue Productions LPs

It is what it is, but I am sure that we have reached the peak vinyl. It will be all downhill from here. I think opportunity has been lost. Old pressing equipment, scarcity and shortages of critical parts for record pressing/cutting. Apparently only one lacquer manufacturer left in the world. Uneven pressing quality. People paying $50-100 (and more) for records ridden with non-fill, warp and off-centre pressing issues.
I think I got most of what I wanted (with plenty of AAA jazz reissues over the last 2 years). Done with impulse buying, and will scale back to a few essential purchases per year.

 

Apparently you haven't seen the Music Direct website. There are 99 listings for Mo-Fi vinyl of which 4 listings are "TBA". 66 of the remaining listings are "out of stock" or "awaiting repress". The in-stock remainders are priced at $60-$200. In a little over 2 weeks the Allman Brothers Fillmore East album has increased from $125 to $200.

 

Looks like I’ll get back to searching for old original pressings. Much more rewarding anyway. And for the Economics 101 posts, YOU may wanna revisit the course

 

Understood that Acoustic Sounds owns AP & QRP, but for those that don't do it all in-house:
https://www.gottagrooverecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/12-180-PRICE-GRID-2021-4.pdf

 

I feel sorry for the scalpers here....did anyone consider their business model in all of this?

 

oh crap - well, I never said MD/Mofi were a paragon of virtue... all I said that I wasn't aware they applied market pricing... if above ^ correct, obviously wrong... I do hate it - I know is not illegal or that there are any rules against it... is just rubs me the wrong way that after setting an MSRP these companies ( and btw, I have only seen this in audiophile vinyl, may not be aware of it in other industries, but this is the first time I heard of it ) switch to market price... seems... wrong.. because they have control over the scarcity that pumps up the price.. all things being equal of course... if there are other factors, this last comment may not apply... I would still hate it, though!

v

 

It's happening in lots of instances. As I noted above, I'm in the unenviable position of car shopping right now and looking at market adjustments like the one below at a lot of dealerships. And the sad part is that the car will depreciate from the MSRP value - no one is going to give a crap that you had to pay $5000 over when you want to sell the thing! Sort of forces you into a lease, but they're trying to gouge you with those too. With an AP 45 rpm pressing at least it'll likely be worth more than the $60 you'll now have to pay for it if you want to sell it in a few years!

 

yikes! - well that is news to me too.. I feel for you, sorry you had to go thru that...

v

 

Thanks - but I'm holding out for now. There is no way I'm paying over MSRP for a car. My son landed a job starting in mid-october but its out of state and I'm giving him my car. So I've got a few more weeks left to find a new one. Some dealers are not gouging, but there's no stock. I'll ride my bike before I pay those prices!!! $5k's a lot of records!

 

I hope you didn't think I was being snarky.... sometimes a statement comes across in a way you never intended it to.........

 

Just checked because I was cleaning up some of my online wishlists and Mofi raised prices similar to AP.

I figured they would. Kind of glad I went ahead and put in pre-orders on all the one's I wanted that have been OOS and backordered.

 

I hope MD stands by the backordered/pre-order prices. I have several on order, as well.

 

I doubt any scalpers have a model predicated on a margin of $5 on a $40 purchase of a good with a large defect rate.

I mean, I hope no one does.

 

My own recollection is that most of the record I bought in the mid to late 1960's averaged about $3. Using an inflation calculator, that would be about $24.50
Unless it is something REALLY important to me, there is no way I'm paying $40 for a new LP. No way.

 

Back then though, part of the reason new records cost the equivalent of $24.50 was the economies of scale - $40 today is the equivalent of $6.70 in 1969 - more than double! Sure sounds like a lot - but remember how many less records are pressed now compared to then.

To be realistic, IMHO up to $60 is still within reason for a product that, vinyl revival notwithstanding, it is still a niche product, specially for a new, nice, deluxe pressing... of course that is an individual choice - my "no way" limit is actually around $100 - new or used. But, that's just me.

v

 

Yeah, I think we all need to set our own parameters for what is affordable, especially in this day and age of backlogged supply lines and distribution. I've become much more selective about things I purchase that way.
Speaking of supply lines- a friend of mine knows a guy who recently flew over the waters off the shores of southern California and near L.A. he counted something like 36 container ships lined up waiting to unload. Very likely, somewhere in that queue of ships, in one of the many cargo containers that are stacked up on them, resides the packages of inner and outer LP sleeves I ordered and paid for through Sleeve City six months ago. I will be very happy when they finally arrive!

 

I noticed they increased some LP prices pretty dramatically for example Pet Sounds went from 35 to 40 when they announced the price increase and now all of a sudden its 75...

 

Yeah, Acoustic Sounds and others have jacking up prices for some time now.

 

$35 was already too much, $40 is getting ridiculous. I doubt I will be buying very many new releases anymore. Sure, materials may have gone up somewhat, but I highly doubt that this $5 increase doesn't include a good amount of extra profit for them.