Ask someone who has worked at Vinyl Me, Please anything. I will

Why your records are so poorly made? Seriously, a bootleg sounds a looks better.

>>72623795
Not OP but what the shit are you on about? VMP may be gimmicky as fuck but they sound high-quality.

How did they manage to get Demon Days?

>>72624064
Essentially, we would come back with an offer every six months or so until they finally said yes. We also did about 95% of the work to make it happen, with Damon/Parlophone and co. just providing the masters and telling us they'd prefer red vinyl. They were all so caught up in Humanz production that they basically said "you can do it as long as you don't need further help from us besides getting the masters", which is what we usually do anyways, so they were pretty impressed with how little involvement they really needed in it.

Was the culture there as cringeworthy and hipstery as it seems from the outside

What is Fantano's phone number?

>>72624317
Depends on how you define those two words.

Honestly, it is a god damn miracle to end all miracles that Vinyl Me, Please is still not only alive, but alive and well, and growing. Don't get me wrong, everyone I worked with were really nice and cool people, but aside from a couple of people at the top (Tyler and Matt specfically), it was not business-y at all. Which may give a nice impression for the social media and the PR, but when you are running a business, you need just that - a business. In many ways VMP operated and is still operating at the inefficiency and short-term level of a half-assed pet project between college friends. Sure, we have great professional relationships with a wide variety of labels, and we have some of the best pressing mechanisms in the game, but the site is coded horribly, and there are so many last-minute emergencies when it comes to stock, pressing, ROTM plans, etc. that I wonder how labels like XL and Parlophone take us seriously.

So I can't say for sure if it is cringeworthy or hipstery, because those words have been meme'd so hard that they've lost practically all meaning. But they're not incredibly professional or business-savvy at all, so I guess if you picture a stereotypical hipster millennial side-business that doesn't fully have its shit together, VMP fits that image quite well

>>72624451
Lol our business relationship with Fantano was minimal at best and has been downhill since then

whats the status on the floral shoppe vinyl

After Person Pitch/Demon Days/Tidal, the rest of the year is going to be shit isn't it

>>72624801
Lol, the sample rights alone would make the process an absolute nightmare. Maybe if copyright laws completely dissolve in the next five years it'll happen

>>72624925
why hasn't vek tried to clear the rights for it? hes loaded just from bandcamp donations and merch

>>72624915
lol
If you think that the next seven months of releases are all going to be on that level you're gonna be in for disappointment. But unless something went south in the finalization process (I left before they were 100% confirmed and on the calendar) there will be a ROTM that'll be around Fiona-level hype and a ROTM that will blow Demon Days out of the fucking water.

>>72625030
i think you're significantly underestimating how much rights cost, especially someone like diana ross

>>72625030
Fuck if I know, Vek was never even on our professional radar. Hell he might have cleared the samples already. I don't know a thing about Vek/Floral Shoppe that you guys don't know

how do you get artwork for albums you reissue? like in what format etc; is it all digital and hi-res, or is there a bunch of tedious work to be done there as well?

also how much freestyling is allowed when creating all new sleeves for old records (like tidal)?

Any tips on getting that Fleet Foxes signed LP? If there's only going to be like 350 of them IDK if it's even worth thinking about

>>72625109
Most of the time the label and/or artist has high-resolution artwork immediately available. But there were times we came across pictures that REALLY stood out to us but weren't readily available (IE, a picture the label would license out to a magazine or a blog at 150x150). Sometimes we just learned to live without it, other times we had to do some digging in the label's archives to find what we needed.

And it all depends on the artist/label, really. I left right around the time Tidal was being worked on, but for that album in specific, we didn't have much play room. Essentially, since it's the first time the album is getting an official vinyl release, the label wants it to be as true to "classic vinyl releases" as possible (Black vinyl, no download code/CD, etc.), so we weren't given a whole lot of freedom for the artistic design. For the most part, stuff like sleeves are generally pretty lenient as long as we stay true to the album's aesthetic.

>>72625165
Fuck if I know lol. I left before the deal with Fleet Foxes

Graduation vinyl when?

>>72625438
Hell if I know. I thought it would never happen because Def Jam is a bitch to cooperate with it. But the August ROTM will most likely be a Def Jam release so I don't know anymore what the status is

How do you guys even manage to secure huge exclusives like Demon Days or Tidal? Wouldn't the labels just want to mass produce them so they could make as much money as possible? I suppose they will mass produce them after you guys give them a bunch of money for your timed exclusive, anyway.

>>72625540
Depends on the album. Clean Slate was convinced that there was very little demand for Fiona Apple (or any 90s album, really) on vinyl. Damon and co. are way too busy with Humanz and other shit that you don't even know about to put any work into a Demon Days reissue. That's the main thing people don't understand: releasing an album on vinyl is a LOT of work. Even IF it has a high demand, and even IF the label knows this, it still takes a lot of time, money, and effort, and not every label has that. That's especially true for older labels, who may have once had the means to easily do a wide-spread repress but have since shrunken in size and now can't do that, or may even be defunct. So when you have a business that comes in and says "hey, give us the masters, some artwork, a cut of the profit, and a reasonable exclusivity period, and we will do all the work in releasing your album on vinyl", it'd be silly to say no, especially now that the club has grown so much. Who wouldn't want their album being sent out to tens of thousands of people?

>>72625540
Also worth noting that having a big album makes it easier to get even bigger albums, and getting even bigger albums makes it easier to get even BIGGER albums, and so on and so forth. So, yeah, maybe a year from now Demon Days will get repressed, but not only has VMP already made their money off of Demon Days (by selling out in less than 12 hours no less), they also now have tens of thousands of more members than they once did. That's a lot of leverage that we previously didn't have: leverage that could be used to VMP's advantage when walking into the office of, say, Def Jam or Warner Music

do you even like music

>>72625954
Yeah music is neat. One of the things I miss about working there is getting new music hella early

what's the next two months of albums

>>72625070
Yeah this, and it's also not an instant thing either. Doesn't matter if you have the money, you could still be waiting months for a response for each individual sample. It's cumbersome

>>72626276
Don't wanna spoil that quite yet. But for July, let's just say a certain active trip poster on /mu/ would like it a LOT...

>>72626409
idk any tripposters who are into funk records

>>72626452
funk is only the second genre I'd use to describe it...

>>72623646
why do you guys do the stupidest records with spots of half-decent records thrown throughout

>>72626672
Define stupidest records

At least post some ((proof)) you work at VMP

>>72626409
oasis confirmed

Do all the employees get a free record every month?

>>72626985
Lol no
>>72627023
Yes we get a free subscription to the service, along with a small stipend of store credit we can use every month.

Why arent you doing this on reddit?
/mu/ is dead

>>72627570
Because reddit isn't anonymous and it's easier for me to jump in here and post about it without giving too much away

why do you use "lol" so much?

are you a cute girl?

>>72627914
Why not?

>>72628012
I asked first

>>72625526
>>72625053
>Will blow Demon Days out of the fucking water
>August ROTM will most likely be a Def Jam release
Channel Orange confirmed?

I have 10 minutes until I have to go, any last questions?

>>72628966
No
>>72628392
Shhhhh. You didnt hear it from me

>>72627984
Yes.

>>72629041
ohh shit

post setup

>>72629041
Informing the fbi right now

>>72628924
when are you going to do the pod

>>72629136
There were no plans by the time I left

How'd you guys manage to get the MOFI plates for Pinkerton

>>72629248
dagnabit

What's the deal with certain records of the month being albums that haven't been released yet until that month? I'm assuming that you guys are being paid to send those out.

>>72629248
what about government plates

Why did you feel the need to make this thread? Not a very prestigious job to brag about

>>72629309
We're pretty buddy-buddy with MoFi
>>72629324
Not really, at least not paid any more than for regular albums. The thing is, we get albums WAY in advance. Not just ROTMs or store exclusives, any album coming out from a label we have a business relationship with. If we all really, really, really like an album, we talk about making it a ROTM, and that goes for any album from any time frame. But since we get albums sometimes 6 months early, we decide to do a new release as ROTM because we like the album. It's not so much a promotional thing as it is a "we really like this album and we got it early enough to put it out as ROTM when it gets publicly released"
>>72629325
I was one of the VERY few people at VMP who fucked with DG at all, so unless some important people who still work there get noided soon, it won't happen

I have to head out for a little bit, maybe a half hour or so. If you guys keep this thread alive until then I will come back and drop some details about store exclusives, ROTMs, and side-subscriptions that were being worked on when I left

Any ROTM stuff that fell through at the last minute?

>>72629469
id rather see exmilitary than GP personally

Have you ever contacted PJ Harvey to do VMP reissues

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>>72629469
Was anyone there anticipating the the scramble for memberships immediately after the announcement of Demon Days? One got the sense that you guys got caught way off guard with the sudden demand

also requesting this for a ROTM, please put in a good word with your friends

>>72630503
but that's a dollar bin item right there

>>72630045
copyright issues would fuck that up hard son

>>72630019
ROTMs dont necessarily FALL THROUGH, just get delayed. Tidal was supposed to be in November then got delayed. Demon Days was supposed to be... I believe January?
>>72630062
Not that I know of
>>72630503
Of course we knew there'd be a demand, we just didn't know how much. We accounted for a 15% increase in size. That may not sound like much, but it is actually HUGE. Even our previous biggest releases didn't net anywhere near that number. So, yeah, we were caught off guard, but we prepared for a substantial increase.
>>72630045
That's a mixtape with uncleared samples. Even more unlikely lol

>Most of Fiona's discography is getting an exclusive pressing for the member store

>Fever To Tell is tentatively planned for ROTM

>Lateralus is tentatively planned for ROTM

>Aenima is getting an exclusive pressing for the member store

>U2's War is getting an exclusive member store pressing

>The National's upcoming album will either be a store exclusive or ROTM

>>72631011
even the Idler Wheel?

>>72631095
When I left, When The Pawn and Idler Wheel were both being planned for the June store. I think there were some delays that ended up pushing them to the July or August store, but I think they're both still on the table. (At least, they better be - Idler Wheel is by far my favorite)

yall should do the death of pablo, or life of pablo seeing as its not physically released

>>72631011
>U2's War is getting an exclusive member store pressing


Fucking nice.

reissue of mbdtf finally?

>>72631011
When's the new National album?

Also who the fuck is going to buy a U2 album. Fucking come on man, do the people working there even know their userbase.

what's your aoty so far?

>>72631011
>U2
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE FUCK OFF

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>>72631011

>Fever To Tell is tentatively planned for ROTM

hype mode activate

also pic related seems like something VMP would definitely press, am i wrong in thinking that?

>>72631011
> Lateralus
> Fever to Tell
Damn, if these are legit non-picture disc pressings, it'll be huge news.

>>72631151
>>72631296
Slim chance

>>72631350

September/October probably. And I think War is gonna sell well

>>72631652
One that hasn't been officially announced yet. Other than that, Kendrick and Ulver

>>72631717
I knew some people there who loved that album. I don't know if it'd ever be a ROTM but it's an album that was well-liked and on the radar so maybe?? I could easily see Change being a store exclusive (NOT saying there are any plans for it, just that it wouldn't be too far-fetched)

>>72631805
I can't imagine there ever being a picture disc pressing from VMP. Say what you want about them, but they care a LOT about sound quality. I mean, when I was there, we canceled deals for potentially GIGANTIC ROTM's because we wouldn't have been allowed to remaster them for vinyl

Any rap coming up?

>>72631965
>And I think War is gonna sell well
Why dude? People fucking hate U2. Even the people who have really shitty taste don't like them.

>>72631965
knowing its on the radar is enough for me, and i'm not opposed to 2 copies of Change.

big ups for the AMA thanks man.

>>72631011
>U2's War is getting an exclusive member store pressing
Ew.

What's next? Nickelback Silver Side Up is ROTM? Y'all selling out and pressing some real buttrock garbage.

any plans for Mars Volta stuff?

>>72632046
>implying Nickelback and War are on the same level

there's memeing, and there's just being wrong

>>72631965
Does this mean Songs for the Deaf is still a possibility?

>>72632109
Doesn't change the fact that U2 is godawful shit.

HELLO HELLO

>>72632012
U2 is one of the most popular bands in the god damn world bro, /mu/ is warping your perspective. Hell I don't even like much of U2 but I'd pick up War in a heartbeat
>>72632046
Have you listened to War??

>>72632256
>U2 is one of the most popular bands in the god damn world bro
Popular to who exactly? I've never met a single U2 fan in my life. I've never heard a U2 song besides Vertigo. To be honest, I rarely hear anyone ever even mention them outside of that fucking iTunes bullshit, but it's always been negative. Most people I know hate them.

>>72632256
Why would I listen to U2 on purpose?

On the topic of Tool, any chance for an official 10000 Days press?

>>72631981
Yeah I think the second side-sub is gonna be hip-hop unless plans changed. Depends on how well the first one does I would guess

>>72632012
People love u2, especially on the VMP forum

>>72632013
No prob

>>72632079
Not that I know of. But some ATDI stuff was on the table when I left

>>72632183
We've tried to make that happen multiple times now and it's never worked out. I think any QOTSA exclusive is one of the least likely possibilities ever desu

>>72632303
>Most people I know hate them
go meet more people

>>72625030
>>72625100
'he'

>>72632314
Yeah there's a chance. I think if we wanted to we could've easily gotten 10,000 Days alongside Aenima and Lateralus if we REALLY wanted to, but VMP is for some reason hesitant on repressing an artist's entire discography (hence why Extraordinary Machine isn't getting released alongside Fiona's others). Depends on the demand for the other two albums, but if VMP wants to do 10,000 Days, they can do it

>>72632369
well if you neglect Undertow, it's 3/4 of the discography so it's still fine

How'd you license Ghetto Music? Did you have to yank it away from 4MWB?

>>72632419
Yeah that's true but even then they're hesitant for some reason. The only reason we got 3/4s of Fiona's discog is because Andrew insisted on it. He's the main reason we got Tidal in the first place. Also how's the availability of Undertow on vinyl? I feel like I see it a lot when I go to record stores but maybe Im thinking of something else and/or am completely crazy

>>72632355
If I'm being honest I barely give a shit about Vek, Floral Shoppe, and vaporwave in general, so if he/him/etc isn't correct, my bad, I honestly have no idea

>>72632510
Undertow is the one that's everywhere for some reason. Usually at a store, there'd be Undertow, Opiate, pic-disc version of Lateralus, and maybe some bootlegs.

>>72632328
>People love u2, especially on the VMP forum
They have internet access in retirement homes now?

>>72632461
We're super tight with Blue Note, who still have the rights to it. If 4MWB had an exclusivity period on Ghetto Music, it was long gone by the time we came around.

>>72632337
I know a ton of people around my own age (19 - 24) and about 20 younger family members. I distinctly remember them bitching about the U2 iTunes thing and one time when Vertigo came on the radio my cousin had a bitch fit. Also one of my best friends refuses to listen to that new Kendrick Lamar song because U2 is on it.

>>72632674
U2 have sold 170 million albums and have 22 Grammy's. They constantly sell out arenas and have some absolute MASSIVE hits. It doesn't matter how many young cousins you have who don't like them, you need to accept that you're factually wrong on this one

Any connections with Merge records?

>>72632674
go make some older friends

U2 is an 80-90s band, average fan age would be at least 30

What caused the change in packaging this year with loosing the paper jacket and do you have a second pressing facility in north carolina or is that only used as a warehouse

>>72632674

current U2 hurts to listen to, but in their heyday they put out some fantastic music. sucks that hating them is the cool thing to do.

>U2's War

I was once in a record store shortly after the reissue of that album came out so it was near the front and some 20-something hipsters came in, picked it up and started loudly shittalking U2 and Bono and then took a picture on their phones of themselves doing the finger to the record.

It was... autistic to say the least.

>>72632723
Hardly

>>72632674
I think you underestimate the average age of VMP subscribers

>>72632735
Paper jackets weren't worth the time and money, were messed up too often, and weren't exactly LOVED by everyone. I think it was maybe 50/50 as far as keeping them vs. tossing them. We also changed the boxes we use since black boxes heat up faster and can lead to a higher chance of warping. Only one pressing facility.

>>72632747
That's ridiculous lmao, I wonder how many of them actually have heard War

>>72632708
>dude it's popular so it must be good
Limp Bizkit sold a lot of records too.

>>72632734
>U2 is an 80-90s band, average fan age would be at least 30
so dadrock? no thanks

>>72632739
they're hated for a reason numbnuts and it's justified. Even if they were "good" back in the day, I'll never listen to it. You know why? Because it's fucking U2.

>>72632807
>That's ridiculous lmao, I wonder how many of them actually have heard War
I wonder how many of them have actually heard anything outside of Elevation and Vertigo. A lot of people still associate the band with that south park episode too.

Kids these days...

what are the chances of another stones throw release

>>72632826
Motherfucker you were the one who brought popularity into this. You didn't say "I don't like U2", you said NOBODY likes U2 and that EVERYBODY hates them.

>>72632870
Very very good

>>72632826

dadrock? this is obvious b8 so i'm not sure why i'm replying to it, but cmon if you define bands popular in the 80s and 90s as dadrock you're either stupid or 12. 90% of /mu/core is from 95 and before.

What was the most time consuming ROTM the company worked on

Why does this board get so worked up over U2. They were good back in the day and remained consistently popular in the mainstream even up into the 2000s (though their relevancy has faded since). They're also one of the highest grossing live acts of all time. Deal with it.

>>72633021
Probably Tidal. Working on the ROTM is usually the easy part, it's getting the rights to do it that's a bitch. Like, it took a long time to get a yes from Gorillaz, but once we did, it was smooth sailing from there as far as production on the product went. But with Tidal we kept having to press it different ways to get the best sound, had to change some stuff in our mock-ups to please the label, had to deal with delays and errors at the pressing plant, etc. Tidal was supposed to be a Q4 2016 release actually, but we had to keep pushing it back

>>72633105
I'm guessing the average age of the board is about 16-18

>>72633107
what if you miss a deadline? do you have backup ROTMs that would be ready to go?

In your opinion what would you consider VMP's flagship ROTM

>>72633105
This u2 shit started with the kendrick feature.
Before that nobody was talking about them.

can ITAOTS get an exclusive?

>>72633144
Yeah, we have backups and also just rearrangements in the schedule. The deadlines are so far in advance that it's not something we worry too much about, but if we do realize that we can't get an album out by that month we'll just move things around. The blessing in disguise with Tidal is that we had to put it off until at least May, because the March ROTM was a new release that had to coincide with the release date and Demon Days was locked in for April already, so we had months to perfect it.

>>72623646
Real talk with me for a minute.

Why the FUCK did you make the Pinkerton vinyl Blue??

I mean for fuck sakes it's called PINKerton.

F-, buddy.

what was working on the person pitch reissue like? personally that was the rotm that got me to finally become a member, i imagine you all were pretty excited about that

>>72633232

when i first heard about it i thought it was a dumb choice too, but the more i spin it the more i'm warming up to it. i feel like it fits the album more thematically and less aesthetically.

Dunno if you answered this already, but do you usually get high-rez art from the labels? I've noticed that some reissue labels get kinda lazy with the artwork so the sleeves look really grainy.

Also, how do exclusive color pressings work? Do you plan those with the pressing plants or the labels? Do you get some sort of an exclusive access to what the plants have in their queues, or do you basically 'pitch in' a certain number of variants?

Thanks again for the in-depth AMA!

>>72633184
That's very hard to say. Demon Days netted by far the largest userbase growth, and VMP has been using that leverage to get bigger and better and rarer releases, so you could make the argument that it's that. But we couldn't have gotten DD if it weren't for the leverage we got with the growth from, say, Pinkerton or The Score. And you can trace that growth and leverage back to the very beginning if you tried hard enough. But to give a simple answer - Demon Days

>>72633223
Not incredibly likely but also not impossible. Though if I'm being honest, On Avery Island would be more likely

>>72633232
Blue works better with the artwork, man

>>72633294
Yeah we knew Person Pitch was gonna be a biiig pull-in for a lot of people, so we were definitely looking forward to that and banking on a big increase. Working on the release itself was pretty uneventful - Panda Bear and Paw Tracks were cooperative, no big hang-ups in the production process, everything went according to plan. Which is what you want in a business, but also is a boring story haha. But yeah, seeing the hype over Person Pitch, and just how far across the internet that news reached, was a really exciting moment for us as a company, and it was when we knew for sure that bigger gets like Demon Days were gonna be MASSIVE. Optimism was permeating from the entire crew for months

>>72631011
>>U2's War is getting an exclusive member store pressing
Should have done The Joshua Tree. It's turning 30 years old this year.

>>72633354
Answered the first question earlier, but basically, the labels provide us with a lot of high-resolution artwork. Occasionally we'll want a higher resolution version of a picture we really like if that picture is only initially readily available at low quality, so we'll go digging for that if it's worth it

As far as colored goes, it's usually the artist's/label's choice. Sometimes the artists will let us have free reign, sometimes they'll have suggestions that we work off of, sometimes they'll say "Make it this color specifically" and we oblige. Like, Damon wanted red for DD, and even though that wouldn't have been our personal first choices, we happily went with red. There isn't much we can't do as far as color goes

>>72633376
War was much more universally loved around the office and much cheaper to do lol

>>72633545
No love for Achtung Baby?

Who's in charge of the cocktail pairing with each ROTM

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Spirit They've Vanished, Spirit They're Gone when??

>>72633574
Nah

>>72633720
Whoever wants to

>>72633834
I pulled for that so fucking hard lol, you have no idea. Now that I'm not there I think any chance of it happening has disappeared

>>72633720
On that tangent, why is it still relevant? A lot of those cocktail recipes ask for specific liquors that are overpriced, esp if you're only making a few servings before losing interest. You'd be getting a larger profit margin if you didn't have to commission those cocktail recipes.

You guys reissued hounds of love right? How was that?

>>72633914
I have no idea, I'd guess it's for nostalgia and quirkiness

>>72633924
Huh?

>>72633924
When did they do that?

Any chance for a The Microphones/Mount Eerie ROTM?

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give me this one vinyl me man

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>>72634318
i will settle for this one

>>72634309
Possible, I guess

>>72634318
Not around anymore, can't help ya out

I know you said you're gone now but do you have any insight as to what the next "big" thing for VMP will be?

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>>72623646
How does the situation with acquiring rights, color pressings, general level of interest, etc. change when you are pressing jazz stuff, especially by deceased artists. Monk, Nina Simone, Ben Webster stuff. Also, was there any interest or talk of pressing something by an artist like Matthew Shipp, David S. Ware, or Chris Potter ever happened?

>please tell someone to press this.

>>72626985
>>72626409
>>72626490
>>72626452
Guys its herbie

>>72634503
Well, side-subs have already been announced, that's pretty big in and of itself. Faster shipping options should be available soon, which is gonna be a biiiig draw for west coasters and international customers.

There were also preliminary talks when I left about having official meet-ups at record stores that'll sponsor VMP where they'll sell records that are exclusive specifically to those events (IE, you can't buy them in the online store, you'd have to go to one of the meet-ups and get them). There were some people, myself included, who spoke out against it, but if it ends up happening, don't be surprised

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Why did you do an exclusive pressing of an Earl album? Did he get in touch with you himself or is there just an Earl Sweatshirt fanboy somewhere in the offices or something

did you quit, or get fired?

>>72632369
So you have to pay for a subscription to buy Aenima repressed, because I would rather not pay $400 for a used copy.

>>72634527
Doesn't change it that much desu, since someone still owns the rights. It's easier to gauge the interest in those older artists since their fanbase is solidified so to speak, but that's the only notable difference. AFAIK, no plans for the guys you mentioned

>>72634540
HMMMMMM...

>>72634606
We reached out to them for it

>>72634627
Quit, I didn't like the direction the company was going in (Or rather, the fact that the company was going in one direction but all the employees were still not treating it professionally)

>>72634657
Yeah it'll be a member store exclusive, meaning you gotta be a member to buy it. You can get a $10 credit that can be used towards buying the record though if you use someone's referral link. Which shouldn't be hard with how many people whore theirs out

>>72634734
whore here: http://fbuy.me/fg3fx

>>72634550
VMP popup stores pls

>>72634830
Point proven lmao

>>72634832
Yeah it's a possibility. Has happened before, but just one-offs with no exclusive shit. Could change

>>72634869
No but seriously, Numero Group did a pop-up tour and it was fantastic. VMP should do a similar thing and just sell exclusives as a part of a road tour.

>>72634952
Yeah that's what they're considering doing

Why did you want to work there in the 1st place

>>72635026
It was a good opportunity to get some experience under my belt, and I really liked the service. Still do, in fact - My free membership I got for being an employee expires soon, and I'm going to pay to renew it. It's just some behind-the-scenes stuff that soured my mood as far as working there

>>72635086
>It's just some behind-the-scenes stuff that soured my mood as far as working there
do tell anon

>>72635177
I talked about it a lot at the beginning of the thread. Basically, they weren't handling shit professionally. Website coding, shipping, payment, etc. was all horribly unoptimized, and they didn't seem to care at all that so much of their business was figuratively held together by gum and tape. It basically seemed like they were still treating it like a college side-project instead of a business. They were more interested in the fun parts of putting together vinyl and talking to labels than getting down and dirty in the boring work. But at the same time the focus started shifting away from "what albums do we want to curate for our subscribers to broaden their taste" to "what are some big albums we can get on vinyl that will be a big pull for us". Like, Person Pitch was a COMPLETE power play - if it weren't for how much attention it brought to us, I doubt we'd have ever done it. Which, if that's how you want to run shit, then fine, but not only is it completely different from how the club originally was intended to be, you also need to put in the work to justify it. If you're going to be less personalized and more focused on growing your business and getting white whales to attract more people, you need to either put more work into the actual business end of things or find some people who will do that work. They didn't do that, and I consistently warned them "we need to either slow down our growth or put some serious work into making this BUSINESS stable and efficient enough to grow quickly". They did neither, so I left

>>72635258
sounds like their broadening their business model from targeting a hobbyist niche market to targeting the mainstream consumer market

In 5 years they'll either collapse under their own weight or make an empire selling vinyl, CDs, and downloads of Ed Sheeran's latest to their subscribers

>>72635375
Yeah if they want to broaden to a more mainstream market they have to know how to do that effectively. They already get so much shit for their website issues, payment issues, cumbersome shipping methods, and slow customer service. I don't think that they realize that, as their membership grows, the amount of shit they get will grow as well. And new subscribers will be WAY less forgiving than older ones, that's just a fact. So they either gotta reel back on their growth or put more effort into strengthening their service

>>72623646
How many people have you paid to shill on /mu/?

>>72635463
/mu/ literally was not even ever on our radar lol. But why do you think we started the referral system? It's free advertising. People don't come here and spout off about VMP because we instruct them to, they do it to whore their referral code out because they want $10 store credit

It's getting late and I did not expect to spend so much time here. Unless anyone has any last comments or lingering questions, I'm out

>>72635648

how do you guys choose what record becomes the AOTM?

>>72635659
There's a certain group of core people in the company who decide. Basically, someone will propose an album, and after having some time to listen to it more and sit with it, the group of people will come together and decide if it's ROTM-worthy. There needs to be more than just a majority who say yes (IE, it has to be more than just, like, 51%), but it doesn't need to be unanimous. They then look into how possible it would be, what they'd need to do it, how it'd fit in the schedule, etc. That's a VERY basic rundown of it

>>72635688

do they take any community input into the AOTM, or do they try to keep it secretive until its announced?

>>72635698
I mean they definitely keep in mind what people want, ESPECIALLY more recently. Like, I'm sure Person Pitch wouldn't have been done if there wasn't such a high demand for it. They still often do releases that they curate off of personal taste more than off of what they think people already know and like and want, but it's balanced out with crowd-pleasers

>>72635742

nice, i guess that's a good way to keep up subscriptions. thanks for the AMA and keep in mind everyone who suggested albums is going to pissed when their albums aren't next months pick.

>>72635773
Dude trust me I know lol. I don't have to deal with that shit anymore but people think that they can get anything in their wildest dreams when they post on the forums wishlist or tweet us

>>72635742
>>72635773
second, thanks for the AMA, really interesting to hear some of the backdoor stuff

It's Herbie Hancock right?

>>72636129
Yeah but it's gonna be something that already has a million pressings like Headhunters, i wish Maiden Voyage got remastered

>>72636249
How's the relationship with Fantano as far as you know.

>>72636293
I'm not the OP, I'm just a Herbie nigga

>>72636303
Shit meant to reply to >>72635790

>>72636310
Shit fuck meant >>72635742
I just want OP my dudes