Anyone else receive their 1st VNYL subscription LPs package?

Not to cast aspersions on folks who crowdsource via Kickstarter, etc. for their endeavors, but it occurred to me at the very beginning of the phenomenon - and I don't think I've seen this covered in the media either - that one could take the funds once the successful campaign concluded and bank them temporarily and earn interest. Like, I dunno, a 6-month CD with a decent yield. If you had raised enough dough, say on an Amanda Palmer level, even a nominal interest-bearing savings account would turn out to be a nice icing-on-the-cake. Of course, as we all know, VNYL went out and bought themselves a little rekkird store!

 

yeah, big business is way ahead of the curve this one. Years ago I always thought my ISP/telecoms provider was up to something when they overcharged me couple of times, not by much - just a few £'s but just think how that translates out to the 1000's of customers they pick up. By the time folk have managed to complain and request a refund (if they ever realized there was a mistake at all) it could be 2 or even 3 months of all that money sitting in a bank account. These days companies are much more blatant about it - here in the UK energy corporates persuade customers to pay by DD with cheaper deals and then set a monthly payment rate that leaves their account constantly in credit, often over £100. Your money making them interest indefinitely - nice work if you can get it.

 

Can't wait to see your next shipment. Maybe this time the Pablo Cruise or Lionel Ritchie albums will be sealed! Huh-rah!

 

As promised/threatened: my second VNYL report. Just posted it at Blurt: http://blurtonline.com/2015/08/fred...-round-the-subscription-service-ups-its-game/ Spoiler alert! VNYL really did a 180 turn this time around - nary any bargain bin '70s drek like Pablo Cruise, Toto or Leon & Mary Russell for my second shipment. Yesterday I got albums from 2006 (a delightfully eclectic funk/soul/downtempo compilation called Rewind! 5 from the Ubiquity label), 2013 (Jackson Scott's Melbourne album) and, get this, June of 2015 (the new Son Lux album Bones). This is so impressive I'm nearly speechless.

A part of me wants to be suspicious that Nick Alt told my "curator," Teal, that she better find that Blurt dude some hot swag this time so he won't be able to rip us a new one in print again, but I suspect I am giving myself wayyyyy too much credit. A more likely scenario is that the public condemnation was so thorough and so brutal that Alt and his team realized that they would have to go above and beyond second time around or they would be buried a second time. I haven't seen the scores of testimonials for shipment #2 that #1 generated, but I have seen a handful that were generally positive, or at least "cautiously impressed," although I can't say I recall seeing comments from people who received LPs of such contemporary vintage.

One caveat might be, however, that since I have periodically gotten product pitch emails from VNYL listing new or recently released titles available in the VNYL store to members, it's simply a case of them having decent platters on hand compared to early on, which I think everyone here agreed had to be the result of Alt obtaining used overstock from a store or stores or possibly even hitting thrift shops and yard sales. So the whole thing continues to be a source of fascination for me, and I shall faithfully report back on shipment #3 one day in the not-too-distant future...

 

It's good they are getting better. However, when I order vinyl I want to know what I am getting. I don't want someone selecting records for me (unless they are free of course). If I am going to spend money on records I want what *I* want, not what someone else think's I would want.

 

I don't think this service is really aimed at 44 year old classic rock fans. It's more for people getting into vinyl for the first time, and younger people not really exposed to much of a variety.

 

Good point Jim, I never thought of that. While someone my age who listens to mostly Classic Rock the only thing I would be interested in that they randomly send out would be a Triumph album. I guess I just miss the Columbia House days while patiently waiting for the record I ordered to come in the mail.

 

Sigh...This thread was good for a morning chuckle each day. But it's gone dead...

 

Or younger people who like variety as opposed to 44 year old classic rock fans who don't.

 

Or the service is dying out, which is the hopeful case.

 

Did VNYL finally run out of Pablo Cruise LPs?

 

we'll know when someone takes the time to cruise back by the "store" and see if it's closed or not.

 

Forget it Jake, it's Kickstarter.

 

FYI, next month's Vinyl Me Please release is Black Sabbath's Paranoid



Exclusive VMP-edition features:
- 140g, purple + white marbled vinyl, gatefold jacket
- Sourced from the original analog tapes
- Mastered by Kevin Grey
- 12” x 12” art print by Pacific Northwest artist Tim Manthey

Sign up by 11/2 using THIS LINK and you'll get a bonus record for free!

 

joining with that link did NOT get me a bonus record...still happy to get the Sabbath though

 

Yep, this was the month I broke down and joined VMP. As I had a fairly good original, Paranoid was the only one of the Rhino reissues I hadn't yet purchased. But this hit me right in my sweet spot and I buckled.

 

Strange that the link didn't work for you. It's worked for others. You could try to email them ([email protected]) and tell them my referral link didn't work for you. They'll probably rectify the situation and add the bonus record to the order. Their customer service has been pretty good for me in the past.

 

well I wrote them, all I can do is wait...still psyched about that Sabbath though....

 

This thread dwindled down to nothing...

I wondered if these jokers were still around. They appear to be. They suggest that they are now shipping "new" vinyl. On the Web someone listed what they got earlier this year from Vinyl, and it was three no-name new vinyl albums. But at least it was new vinyl, and not something from the Pablo Cruise discography...

 

This thread brings back great memories

It was the audacity of the whole operation that impressed me.

 

They're definitely still a store in LA.

 

I had a look around last month when I was passing. They seem to sell a handful (literally!) of the latest indie-cool stuff and a bunch of beat-up used things.

I can't fathom how they make any money (from the store, anyway) - and on Abbot Kinney too, which has got to be high rent.

 

From selling tat to gullible hipsters at an inflated price, would be my guess.

 

Suckers deserve what they get.

 

I had such an amazing laugh at this thread.

Although honestly, I am surprised how much it pissed the hipster crowd off... Many hipsters I know totally appreciate irony and actually really enjoy stuff like Lionel Richie and Huey Lewis And The News. I know one guy who has made a point of collecting 50 cent copies of Can't Slow Down and Sports simply because they are such clearance bin staples that he finds it to be a cute hobby.... and not only that, he genuinely loves both albums and he's a total hipster.

Some of the stuff I'm not surprised people are angry about... but the alternative lover who got a Jefferson Airplane album for example? I knew people in the 90s who loved alt who could appreciate them.