I LOVE 'Vinyl Me, Please'... But I'm Still Gonna Cancel
I listened to Menomena's 2007 record at least a half dozen times in a row when it came in the mail.
When Black Sabbath's Paranoid arrived I couldn't wait to pull the camera out.
Now that 'The Score' by The Fugees is in my record collection, I get to introduce the 90ies to my 1-year-old son to one of the greatest musical memories in recent American history.
But, I'm still going to cancel my subscription to 'Vinyl Me, Please.'
Three of Vinyl Me, Please (VMP)'s records have given me the BEST purchasing experience since high-school. This involved driving 2 hours round trip from Aurora, NE to Lincoln's infamous and now defunct 'Homer's Music' just to find something new (and grab some D'Leons). With a bit of an extra cost than say, buying an album at your mom and pop record shop, VMP comes with a great added service and an awesome customer experience. Now, usually I would only advocate mom and pop shops, but if you're like me in a town of just over 2-thousand, you don't get the luxury of having a neighborhood record shop.
To their credit, VMP helped turn me onto bands like Father John Misty & The Ben Webster Quintet. I feel this extra cost is easily added value as it comes with the careful packaging, related art and is crafted with a loving yet snarky voice. Whoever hand-packages the record signs it, which is a great touch. It's almost as if it was an older sister making an indie rock care-package for a punk-ass younger sibling who was away at military school or something. Maybe that's a stretch. Still, these VMP copywriters usually get me giggling every time I read a passage or an eBlast.
Still, there are 5 reasons I'm going to cancel my VMP subscription. I'm not saying you should skip this service, but a great online shopping "club" experience doesn't eclipse a couple of factors for this old, lovable, vinyl-hipster (a.k.a me).
$27-ish - The fee, while worth it, does exceed my monthly "entertainment" budget by roughly... $27.
Roll the Dice - I have loved the idea of every record that has come in the mail, but I'm usually not in the mood to listen to half, or more, of the records when they come. I was into J-Dilla in college, but I haven't been as excited to open it like other records. At times, in a music "mood" sense... I find busting out the record needle and having to stop whatever I'm doing to flip a record over just isn't worth the effort a lot of the time. But now with a little one maybe he'll want to explore on his own.
On Episode 04 of my old podcast We Eat Pixels, Jamie King pointed out that most records today are just the MP3 file dumped onto vinyl without any care of what goes into the engineering of the vinyl. Now, I'm not going to speak for him, but someone like me is probably just deaf enough (from years of loud music) that I probably don't notice the big picture stuff like he does... but I don't have great speakers in the first place. I know, my first mistake. The info is out there and I feel it's worth mentioning (and let's not forget about the episode plug)!
The Whole "Mix-Drink" Thing - In theory, this is totally awesome. If I was 15 years younger and had my bandmates (& Eric) as roommates again, VMP cocktail night would be an easy sell at the Rent Money Big House Castle. Now that I'm just a thirty-something working stiff, I'm really not throwing listening parties on a monthly basis for Youth Lagoon. I'm not sure that most in Bandon have even heard of Youth Lagoon, but hey, maybe that's VMP's mission. Though, someone could probably twist my arm into a listening party night pretty easily if you wanted to have it at your house. Side note for anyone interested in a cocktail night, I'm a Scotch guy.
Five Reasons - Five reasons is easily a better blog post number than four. Sadly, I have nothing else for you. If you got the scratch and aren't a die-hard audiophile that demands the utmost perfect audio mix for the price... then 'Vinyl Me, Please' is something you should check out.
Enjoy! Or... don't. :)
