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

Ask someone who has worked at Vinyl Me, Please anything. I will not reveal anything that will give away my identity but I will reveal any other information

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

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?

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Graduation vinyl when?

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

idk any tripposters who are into funk records

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

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

Define stupidest records

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

oasis confirmed

Do all the employees get a free record every month?

Lol no
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?
Sup Forums is dead

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?

Why not?

I asked first

>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?

r u a qt?

No
Shhhhh. You didnt hear it from me

Yes.

ohh shit

post setup

Informing the fbi right now

when are you going to do the pod

There were no plans by the time I left

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

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.

what about government plates

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

We're pretty buddy-buddy with MoFi
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"
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?

id rather see exmilitary than GP personally

Have you ever contacted PJ Harvey to do VMP reissues

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

but that's a dollar bin item right there

copyright issues would fuck that up hard son

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?
Not that I know of
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.
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

even the Idler Wheel?

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

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


Fucking nice.

reissue of mbdtf finally?

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?

>U2
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE FUCK OFF

>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?

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

Slim chance

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

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

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)

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?

>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.

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.

>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?

>implying Nickelback and War are on the same level

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

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

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

HELLO HELLO

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

>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.

Why would I listen to U2 on purpose?

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

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

People love u2, especially on the VMP forum

No prob

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

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

>Most people I know hate them
go meet more people

'he'

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

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?

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.