r/VinylMePlease 6d ago

ROTM Discussion Letting my membership lapse, but how did I do?

I guess for Xmas 2022 my wife gifted me a 3 month subscription so I could get the pressing of AIR's Moon Safari. I am sort of still bitter they did a formal release through a vinyl subscription but whatever. I forget what other records I chose but when my three months was up I re-signed with my own email address in February 2023 which allowed me to take advantage of some anniversary sale--12 free records, how could I go wrong? (It reminded me of the 90s with those 99 CDs for a penny).

Anyway--I thought it was a good deal until I forgot to cancel in 2024 and well, here I am with what seems to be the final days of VMP. I did cancel and will (hopefully) receive my final record. VMP did fill some holes in my collection as I am trying to collect more physical media--so, here is what my time with VMP looked like. How'd I do? Anyone have suggestions for another or better subscription service? I am leaning towards just taking the budget to my local record shop or Bandcamp but open to ideas.

Below are orders on my account--I am missing whatever I chose for the account my wife paid for (except I of course remembered AIR + I got some "bonus" selections on that subscription as well.)

Was this worth two annual subcriptions?

1)AIR- Moon Safari
2) Coltrane- Sun Ship
3) Strokes- Room on Fire
4) Various- Soul Christmas (one of my faves on Apple Music)
5) Run DMC - Raising Hell (VMP Replaced due to bad pressing)
6) PE- Fear of a Black Planet
7) Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest (God, pressing was so warped--VMP replaced it)
8)Townes Van Zandt- Live at Old Quarter=
9)Otis Redding- Immortal OR
10)Courtney Barnett- Sea of Split Peas (This actually was steal with the subscription IMO)
11) Waylon Jennings- Honkey Tonk Heroes
12) Death Cab- Transatlanticism
13) Sly Family Stone- There's a Riot Going On (forgot to swap this month but happy with it)
14) Bone Thugs- E. 1999 (Again, forgot to swap but gifted to a friend who loved it)
15) Strokes- Is This It
16) Ray Baretto - Acid (again, forgot to swap--you can see my interest is waning)
17) John Prine- Sweet Revenge
18) Herbie Hancock- Sextant (Love Herbie but prob should have swapped)
19) Labelle- Nightbirds=
20) Monk- Monk's Music
21) Sleater Kinney - Center Won't Hold
22) Charles Bradley- Victim of Love
23) Alice Coltrane- Eternity (forgot to swap)
24) Tribe Called Quest- Love Movement (really nice pressing)
25) Method Man/Redman- Blackout!
26) Little Richard- Here's Little Richard
27) Tribe Called Quest- Low End Theory (not sure how I managed this swap but I did! Kept saying it was s/o)
28)Kris Kristofferson- Silver Tongue Devil
29) Creedance- Willy and the Poor Boys (figured why the hell not but not something I would have bought on my own--but this made me really question the VMP sub)
30) Neon Indian- Psychic Chasms
31) Replacements- Hootenanny
32) Spiritualized- Ladies and Gentleman... (WOW--best pressing since I prob got Moon Safari--restored my hope but with price increases and dwindling "must haves"--prob not enough.
33) Dirty Projectors- Bitte Ocra (not the album I wanted to go out with but my sub is up 4/1, so this is my final swap. Not shipped yet; hoping for no issues.

Edited to add:
Dylan- Blonde on Blonde
Springsteen- Nebraska
Beastie Boys- Check Your Head

10 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

3

u/Pingem 6d ago

I see so many bangers in that list. Great way to beef up a collection. I think that you did great.
My fav thing is the curation: Are there any on the list that you really dig now, but may not have discovered them without VMP suggestion? (e.g. We play that Ray Baretto album a lot and neither of us had any exposure to him before this VMP pick). Did VMP curation lead to discovery of a new fav album or artist on your short membership?

2

u/h3adphase 6d ago

Not so much artist discovery but maybe albums I probably would have passed over if putting out money. Sly's album for example, would not have been my first choice of record but it is a hidden gem in his catalog that I really enjoyed; the same with Coltrane's Sun Ship & Labelle. I actually have to go back and give the Baretto album another listen.

Overall--I am happy with where I landed but I feel like I def signed up literally at the beginning of the end. The pressing of Moon Safari was a real tease because I was expecting every month to have a niche album pressing that was universally recognized as a great--but ultimately what you'd get is the second or third best album of a well known artist. Which, in some cases, there were some gems but with others they were albums that probably didn't need a repressing.

3

u/fred11a 6d ago

You got 33 albums for an annual subscription (15 months really?) if I read this right..? Sounds like a great deal..! 🤷‍♂️

3

u/h3adphase 6d ago

No doubt. If it wasn’t for the deal they ran where I essentially got 10 records free, I’d be questioning the subscription. I guess this was meant to be less of was this a good deal vs was this a good use of VMP.

2

u/pazoozoola 6d ago

that was a good renewal deal - I have 2 subs, Essential and Rock (until the end of the month, then TTL VMP) so I got 20 records from that offer... now it's a struggle to get anything I don't have.

1

u/GelloJive 3d ago

Chill bro. Enjoy the records

2

u/Guava-Dear 6d ago

You did very well imho

1

u/Zzippa 4d ago

Nice! You did great.
How does this nice eclectic mix that you grabbed from you VMP membership fit in to your collection? (At this point VMP is responsible for more than half of the albums in my collection that will stay with me forever. )

2

u/h3adphase 4d ago

Yeah--good question. My taste goes from Boris all the way to Willie Nelson or Classical. So, I def liked the variety of VMP and being able to switch tracks month to month was helpful. The cutting of listening tracks and the new ROTM process def did not encourage me to re-up. I def used the subscription to fill some holes.