Their entire business model is based on FOMO so it hurts them to do it. It's not even speculation- the numbers are there showing that subscriptions spike in anticipation of a hot record because people don't want to miss it- pretty much all of the "deep dive" records linger in swaps and go for less than retail until they go out of print. If they kept their best stuff in print, the multi-month subscription would be worthless. They repress them in small batches just to keep hopes up and resale values high
That’s simply not a realistic ask in 2021. As we see over and over again with other threads asking, for example, “Why has the Beatles Mono box been allowed to go out of print?” Even compact disc sets such as the Velvet Underground’s Live at the Matrix four CD set increasingly go out of print, causing used copies to command hundreds of dollars on eBay and Discogs. It would be great if every catalog vinyl title stayed in print forever, but, to achieve that right now, today, new releases would have to stop. And talking to my friend who is actively participating in the vinyl world, and actually dealing with the logistics of pressing new records, he believes that one consequence of the current pressing plant backlog that we will begin to see in the very near future is active, contemporary indie artists opting out of releasing vinyl, and focusing on downloads, CDs, and cassettes. Because, unlike George Harrison’s estate, who can plan for the 50th anniversary 8-LP set of All Things Must Pass years in advance, and who has the clout to get a spot in line at the pressing plant, your local indie band can’t wait eleven months or fifteen months to press their new album on vinyl. They’re going on tour next month, and they need LPs to sell at the merch table. They need their new record out on vinyl now, and they increasingly can’t make that happen.
And this is true. If I knew that the Dorothy Ashby record was guaranteed to stay in print for the next five years, would I have added the Classics track that month to ensure I got a copy? Probably not.
I don't mean stay in print forever, but stay in print for an indefinite amount of time like normal reissues, instead of printing them one limited time like they have been doing.
But that’s what they do. And many Records of the Month do stay in print for a minute. I got the Doors album in swaps two? months after it was Record of the Month. I was surprised it was still around. People who think VMP’s business model is flawed ought to start their own record of month club and keep every title in print forever, which, as someone noted above, pretty much destroys any incentive to subscribe to the club in the first place. And, in the real world, whatever company owns the Elektra catalog today simply isn’t going to allow VMP to keep the Doors’ debut album in print as a VMP exclusive forever.
They basically just press it once, and once they sell out then it is gone unless they do a repress — which they don't typically do.
The problem with it being so limited is that some less titles like the Loretta Lynn are in stock for years, while others like De La Soul sell out instantly and the only people who get it are those who happened to sign up for Essentials in March 2019. The Doors is such a widely pressed title that the VMP variant is still in stock, so they don't have to worry about repressing that one, but some really need to be restocked eventually. It's not just a 2021 problem, they wouldn't bother even if the plants weren't backed up.
Right. Because they can’t, because they have to press 7,500 copies of Emmylou Harris and 15,000 copies of Wu-Tang Clan and 10,000 copies of something else this month. And they put in the orders for those records 9 months ago. And also because just because they sell 7,500 copies of Willie Nelson the first time around doesn’t mean they can sell 7,500 more if they repress it. So how many copies do they repress?
And I would guess that it’s next to impossible to predict which titles will sell out instantly and which will sit in the warehouse for two years. I would have guessed that the Loretta Lynn album would have sold out long ago, but that perception pretty clearly reflects my particular tastes and biases. If record companies had a crystal ball to forecast the future 100% accurately, Decca wouldn’t have passed on the Beatles.
Good thing some of y’all aren’t White Stripes fans. The Third Man Vault would give you a heart attack.
It's not about that though, it's about repressing the super popular ones instead of making them a fixed limited number that are sold out forever after being in stock for only one day.
That's one hell of an oversimplification! Can't say I agree with that at all. People are creating their individual FOMO effect.
nobody, just throw em in the shop and let the lucky people searching the store find them. Over the past couple week Elusive Disc located some OOP MMJ titles in their inventory. They priced them accordingly and didnt send out any email saying MMJ back in stock! When they only had 5 copies of each. A few of us lucky ones found em and ordered and got lucky that day.
Yes, but these are not standard reissues for the general public. They’re limited, reissues exclusively pressed for the members of a subscription club.
They are member exclusives yes, but they should keep the back catalog in print for future subscribers instead of just pressing it all once. I get if it's a licensing impossibility or long shot, but keeping it limited for the sake of being rare is a bad practice IMO
This argument makes no sense. What record company in history has kept their entire back catalogue in print in perpetuity?
There are plenty of reissue labels that keep titles in print. Besides record labels themselves like Universal, Sony, Warner, etc., Speakers Corner, Analogue Productions, Impex keep most pressings from being limited, even MoFI is starting to stop limiting their pressings (Kind of Blue for instance has no numbered limit). Not to mention Blue Note with their tone poets and BN80/Classic series, and the Acoustic Sounds Series. Those are in print indefinitely as well. I don't think Bandbox limits their pressings either in their subscription based model. There are two kinds of pressings: limited editions and the titles that aren't limited to any set number. VMP doesn't technically limit their ROTMs to a number, but they basically do so far with the exception of when they do a special repress (like with Tidal, It Serve You Right to Suffer, and recently their very limited VMP100 represses). Represses should be more common part of their ROTM series and not such a rare thing.
I assume they've found this strategy wouldn't work well with their primarily subscription-based business model. Is there a particular VMP record you missed out on that triggers your opinion?
No, I just think it's silly that they have some that sell the day swaps open and then they don't get a repress. If you want to join the club and their back catalog wasn't all sold out like it always is then would be a much better. Basically they should repress every hot title if they can, which they only do with certain titles. Of course I'm assuming that licensing makes this all possible. That's probably why some titles like 3 ft high and rising only had the one press.
I asked for a replacement copy due to the right channel noise on sides A and B and they shipped it promptly. I'll report back after I receive it.
But looking at their website, it looks like probably at least almost half of the albums that they've released recently are still in stock... They don't exist as a record shop. VMP's goal is to be a subscription service. I understand your point about the swaps that are allowed, but that would be difficult for them to gauge. As another poster here said, how can they anticipate how much of a particular title to repress? And additionally, what happens if not enough people swap for that album? They would be left with a bunch of extra stock on their hands to figure out how to sell. That doesn't seem very ideal to me. In conclusion, I think that considering VMP's business model (a subscription service) it makes little sense for them to repress past records and keep them in print. After all, they are all about releasing new titles each month to their subscribers!
