Shady scams and other silly business ideas to take advantage of earnest new vinyl collectors

LOOOOOOOL

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CE7XG6LWgAAjWAn.jpg

Ugh. They're not even trying.

Too funny.

When you click on #danceparty on the site, it takes you to a Spotify playlist that contains no Glenn Miller, no Henry Mancini and no Peter Paul and Mary.

Nor anything even remotely similar.

I mentioned this elsewhere but I am not surprised that these people start a special vinyl curation service and the only woman they can find to curate, based on the article, is linda ronstadt (maybe jefferson airplane counts, plus whatever that 70s comp was perhaps)

I guess it all goes back to: if it sounds too good to be true, then it is.

"let alone handwrite a note about how I much I hope you, valued subscriber and fellow Beach House fan, appreciate these Lionel Richie and Michael Quatro albums."

i don't really know beach house music, but i really do like that michael quatro album! i even wrote about it for the Pitchfork Review. but, yeah, it's a total dollar album. which is why i wrote about it for my dollar bin column.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Iu6xDUvCY

That's awesome that you dig it, scott.

But come on. Can you imagine any band described as 'dream pop' having anything remotely in common with Michael Quatro?

just the site itself is so dumb. beware of the whole "minimal" web design thing with minimal info. they don't want to have to explain anything to anyone. half-baked kickstarter dumbness.

if they were gonna be cool or hip they would have genres or moods or VIBEZ you could click on and they could have rotating stock of good records and you could just choose 3 albums based on covers or clips or whatever. and pay 20 bucks for three records actually worth 20 bucks. and 40 bucks for some better stuff and so on. people do like to browse online. but a site like that would have to be curated by people who knew what they were doing. and then the guest curator thing would actually make sense. (some hip DJ or band-person could pick 20 or 30 albums that they like from the site's stock and they could highlight those once a week. first come first served. could be a mess, but at least it would be some sorta interesting use of the web. and if they had the money they could highlight indie labels, etc.)

the "surprise" thing is totally dumb unless you are some sort of genius.

I'M certainly no genius either, but there are fun ways to sell things to people that aren't totally obnoxious.

the big problem is even if they were honest, what can they possibly get someone after they've taken their profit cut and paid for shipping and handling? they really should charge $75-$100 per month and send out more expensive records and honestly it should be limited to new releases or reissues. "oh you like these bands, well here are four new releases from June that you'll dig." of course that would require them knowing something about music and beyond the dollar bin scam part they obviously aren't even trying, as Austin said.

now thanks to clicking on their dumb site my facebook is wall to wall vnyl ads.

at least now they are wasting a little bit of their ill gotten gains advertising to a bunch of people who will never buy the product.

Howard the Duck soundtrack fucking rules.

― turlte party (how's life), Thursday, May 14, 2015 5:15 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes it does! I listened to it twice tonight!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekofx7dR4AY

I somehow appreciate the boldness of not even giving their charter subscribers at least one good record to get them to come back the next month.

fell down a rabbit hole last night researching vnyl and looking up irate customers. it's all very entertaining. apparently this nick alt guy doesn't even half-heartedly apologize to misled customers anymore, blocks anyone who voices polite criticism, and has 4x the fake followers ott does.

also amusing that he chooses the "we decided we don't give a fuck" defense over something like "we didn't know about that law and therefore can't deliver our originally planned service now." can't someone complain to the kickstarter cops?

They're prob p under-resourced

if that's possible after they raised almost 4x their kickstarter goal to provide a service less than half as involved/cost-intensive as the one customers thought they were buying...well...

I meant the Kickstarter cops

oh true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCnouXJ2rl4

"This Glenn Miller album should kick off the mood and we think Peter, Paul and Mary will go great in your stash!"

Love the curator notes.

I mentioned this elsewhere but I am not surprised that these people start a special vinyl curation service and the only woman they can find to curate, based on the article, is linda ronstadt (maybe jefferson airplane counts, plus whatever that 70s comp was perhaps)

― katherine, Thursday, May 14, 2015 9:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, not to worry. I'm sure that as long as it's a dollar record (at most) they don't discriminate. In fact, there appears to be no logic at all in their "curation" beyond that one rule.

Not vinyl, but got twitter spam this morning on the "lifestyle products for guys" version of this silliness. Bespoke Post will send you, each month, a "Box of Awesome." A curated box of crap. Hell, maybe there will be vinyl in it one month. Never know! Sign up!

https://www.bespokepost.com/land/sem-bespoke/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=brand&utm_content=bespoke-post&utm_term=bespoke%20post&gclid=CJjt3dyDxMUCFc4kgQodKDAAPA

And, xp, gotta thank WFMU's Fabio for driving "Mr. Giant Man" into my brain and inspiring me to find that record.

think it was said but I love that these guys think that 'curate' means 'tell you what vinyl we included in your package and vaguely tell you we love some album'.

"Just dug through your Discogs, saw you like many of the same musical performance acts as I currently like! Hope you enjoy the Peter Frampton, Santana, and Ambrosia records! That Ambrosia albums is one of my personal favorites!"

Bespoke Post will send you, each month, a "Box of Awesome."

At least you can skip a box if you don't like the contents.

fell down a rabbit hole last night researching vnyl and looking up irate customers. it's all very entertaining. apparently this nick alt guy doesn't even half-heartedly apologize to misled customers anymore, blocks anyone who voices polite criticism, and has 4x the fake followers ott does.

― soyrev, Friday, 15 May 2015 05:58 (10 hours ago) Permalink

Dude has a brick & mortar store on Abbot Kinney now what does he care

wow, i signed up for VYNL's sister service, FUD, and here was my first shipment!:

http://downtrend.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ctofis2.jpg

amazing! they really nailed my taste.

@a-lo have a feeling he will speak up about exactly how much he cares (and how sorry he feels) sometime early next week. but i might be wrong: live recordings

Quoting the owner:

“It fucking sucks when we disappoint our members. We honestly feel incredibly sad when a member doesn’t like what we sent. That sucks for them and also for us. It’s like you just spent all this time planning out what you think is an awesome surprise gift idea for someone and then they can’t mask the look of disappointment when they open it up right in front of you. It’s completely deflating. Unfortunately, this comes with the territory of being a human curated service."

I imagine in the back of his mind he's thinking: "Nailed it! Just got to stay in character, then nobody can call us out! It's all subjective, I'll say. As long as enough r/vinyl or Urban Outfitters type kids keep subscribing we should be just fine."

― Evan, Thursday, May 14, 2015 4:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah read that, though that was before the article hit and social media blowback really picked up -

https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=vnyl&src=typd

if it continues i think he's gonna crack under all the jeering. or at least when he realizes having a brick and mortar vinyl shop with a name that's mud is maybe not the best life preserver in 2015

of the competing parody accounts, this one shows the most promise imo

https://twitter.com/Vnylz

"Like Amazon Prime for Vinyls!"

I await the next move from VNYL with high expectations.

PRYMLS

TPES

still no mention of the hot stamper dude on here...maybe we've talked about him enough already.

http://www.better-records.com/dept.asp?dept_id=14-015-034

― sleeve, Thursday, May 14, 2015 7:45 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oops, okay!

i have less of a problem with the hot stamper dude though. the people who buy his 400 dollar eagles records seem to be really happy with what he gives them. so, he is providing some sort of crazy service to crazy people. the vnyl people on the other hand, man, i don't even know what's going through their heads.

agreed

https://twitter.com/Vnylz

Just had a look here. Golden.

I think all companies should answer their consumer complaints with a form letter that begins with "It fucking sucks when we disappoint our customers"

"...and that's why i'm going to ritually disembowel myself right now."

Like Fripp & Eno? We think you'll LOVE Loggins & Messina!

It just occurred to me, after reading this satirical tweet, that VNYL is an elaborate operation in IRL trolling.

Twitter Vnylz some good zingers going on. That's one of you, right? C'mon speak up.

I think all companies should answer their consumer complaints with a form letter that begins with "It fucking sucks when we disappoint our customers"

Imagining the letter McDonald's would write about the infamous too-hot coffee.

saw a pro-VNYL dude getting aggro on instagram, saying they were great and fuck the hipsters and he'd never seen foghat in a dollar bin.