A few weeks ago I wrote about “The Contemporary Return of Record Clubs?,” where I profiled a couple new-fangled record subscription services: VNYL and Vinyl Me Please. Well, not so SHOCKINGLY, it looks like VNYL has already failed on all fronts; I highly recommend taking a look at ALL the dirty details via Stereogum—VNYL is fucked. The problem is, as they’d hoped to rent subscribers records, it was sold on Kickstarter to be “like old school Netflix,” BUT “renting” records is actually ILLEGAL! Um, the founder of VNYL “wasn’t completely aware of the law until after the Kickstarter campaign had ended.” DERP!
In short, the service being pitched by VNYL would have violated copyright law. The old-school Netflix model worked well for DVDs because movies weren’t covered in the Record Rental Amendment — but applying that same model to vinyl records (or cassettes, or CDs) would have been illegal.
So, to avoid the legal issues the albums arrived in subscribers’ post boxes with no return instructions/envelope and without any note TELLING their subscribers they’d amended the service to “no returns.” Nice.
Also, this service was supposed to be “hand curated” based on your musical taste, but as they don’t seem to have appropriate stock, VNYL didn’t get that right, either. The subscribers were expecting records somewhat in line with their “#taste” or #mood,” but received random or way off the mark selections.
I am highly dissatisfied with what I was sent. All three were complete losers, and there was no real variety. And I’m not sure how you categorize the records — I would not call Steppenwolf a “Lazy Saturday” listen, nor would I classify Uriah Heep as “Dinner Music.”
Oh, and since they apparently haven’t made any deals with labels to acquire appropriate (new) stock, they aren’t sending out NEW copies of records! Instead, like I figured, they’re sending dodgy used, common cheapies—dollar-bin fare. Note, “vintage” is VNYL speak for used albums.
…the majority of VNYL’s current inventory consists of used goods: “It’s a mix of pre-owned and new, and at the moment skews toward vintage. Over time, it will shift to new.”
So subscribers are getting used, bottom-feeder records that they could find ANYWHERE and they can’t be returned. NICE. But wait, it gets better WORSE; last month VNYL also opened a PHYSICAL record shop in Venice Beach. That the opening of the shop coincided with the start of the subscription service has led some of the Kickstarter backers to reckon their money actually went to finance opening VNYL’s record store! God damn, so much BAIT AND SWITCH!