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VNYL — Hand-curated vinyl record subscription service
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@paulgambill Thanks for the feedback, Paul. So much of our curation/customization relies on having an account with us. Sorry for the roadblock, but it's an intentional product decision.
@nickalt Totally get that. But you could do it differently that would capture me and users like me. Let us go through the customization flow where we set our preferences and then ask for account creation at the end before placing an order. I would bet your conversions increase with a flow like that.
@nickalt Great to see VNYL on PH :) Everyone in the LA area should go to their store on Abbot Kinney, it's pretty magical!
VNYL delivery day has easily become one of my favorite days of the month! I completely love love love VNYL.
This hasn't always been the case though. I've been a subscriber since early this year, and the bad stuff written about them was unfortunately true. After my first shipment in April (or May?) I was less than enthused and the second shipment was taking fooooooorever. I wrote them a couple of angry emails about it, but decided to wait until the shipment came before I was going to kill the subscription or not. (I had already paid for it anyways.)
To my surprise, every record in the 2nd shipment was brand new and totally felt like someone actually read through my music profiles and picked these out for just for me. The hand written note even had a couple of suggestions for some Jazz I had mentioned in my music preferences.
Every shipment since has been a real treat. I'm part of a couple of other clubs, but this is the only one that really feels like a good friend passing along some records you'd dig. Make sure you fill out your profile in detail and keep your Discogs up-to-date to avoid dupes.
Keep it up guys! <3
Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!
Can I upvote more then one time?!
This service is c-r-a-z-y!!
Do you ship outside of the US as well?
How do I get an invite??
@nickalt hope u get here fast 😄
Maybe u should create a website where we can sign for the service with our country and get notified when you spread towards us..
Hey PH fam! We are stoked to be here. Thanks to @rrhoover and @bentossell for hunting us. We made a special PRODUCTHUNT coupon code that gets you $20 off your first month of VNYL.
VNYL personally curates between 1 and 3 new vinyl records for you every month based on your music tastes. You select a #vibe each month — i.e. #netflixandchill #funkouttahere #friendsgiving — and new vinyl arrives straight to your doorstep. We also deliver your curated vinyl in Los Angeles (and coming soon in other cities) in an hour via @postmates.
The maker team and I have been working really hard to make this an amazing music service. There's something incredibly magical about music on vinyl, and we hope you love it.
Let us know if you guys have any questions about how we created the product or how it works as we'd love to help you learn about us and new music, especially on vinyl. You can also request an invite to join our VNYL music community channel. https://rcrdco.slack.com. Just send an email to slack@vnyl.org.
Unless VNYL has drastically changed the records sent out, then this is something to be EXTREMELY cautious of. When VNYL finally began shipping earlier this year, the selections were... suspect. Many people (links below) showed their records being old movie soundtracks and even "bargain bin" finds with $1 stickers still on the sleeves.
The idea of hand-curated selections is a great one but (again unless this has changed recently) there is no way for them to know your tastes outside the "vibe". It's not like Pandora or Apple Music that asks you to rate music before starting in order to gauge what you like. The received records were poor selections, especially given the $24 monthly cost.
A big issue is VNYL had to change their business model from a Netflix-like service to a "keep 'em" model due to an obscure law preventing the renting of records. It's strange and the StereoGum article (linked below) explains it further, but I think that left VNYL in a precarious position.
Perhaps things are better at VNYL and the selections are great. The idea is fantastic but there are others out there doing it better (Feedbands and Vinyl Me Please).
LINKS:
VNYL YouTube review:
VNYL YouTube review from Off The Record:
StereoGum's review (quite damning): http://www.stereogum.com/1801049...
@aaroncrocco Hey Aaron! Well, VNYL has drastically changed the records sent out — we switched to 100% new, unplayed, shrink-wrapped inventory way back in May :)
When we first brought the idea of VNYL to record labels and distributors, there was no precedent for a physical music discovery service that sent members 3 surprise records per month. They asked for a proof of concept, so for our first 30 days, we hand picked and packed new and vintage albums from our personal collections. Since that time, we’ve solidified great partnerships with some of the world’s coolest indies & majors — Fat Possum, Glassnote, Carpark, Interscope, etc. — and sent out nearly 20,000 new albums to date.
Now, after 6 months of successful shipments in the books, we’ve been working hard to bolster up our *brand* new inventory. Our October shipments featured several titles released only days prior, and we have some huge new vinyl releases in the pipeline over the next couple months!
To determine tastes, our members fill out a pretty extensive taste profile which details their favorite artists, albums, genres, likes, dislikes, what they’re looking for, what they already have in their collections, etc. As someone who worked at both Beats Music and iTunes on what turned into Apple Music, I can assure you that our taste and preference analysis processes are very similar.
You can check out several recent shipments below or via twitter/instagram — I think you’ll see that we’re only getting better and better every month. I see that you have an account put never placed an order -- would love to set you up with a trial month so you can test it out for yourself! Feel free to shoot me a note at caitlin@vnyl.org and I’ll get you set up :)
https://instagram.com/p/9pJ1XWvaps/
https://twitter.com/nativedanji/...
https://instagram.com/p/9fSmN9soQx/
https://instagram.com/p/9fArrMjcQr/
https://twitter.com/hughesdavida...
@chigglypuff Thanks for the reply and the link to the video. It's funny how that girl brings up all the issues I mentioned! I'm happy that the selection being sent has improved and this could be a benefit to the vinyl community.
As for an account, I had initially signed up but then saw all the stuff you guys were sending out. So I canceled before anything went through. So while I may be in your system I never actually bought anything. I appreciate the offer on the trial month and I may take you up on that. Thanks!
@melissajoykong - sorry for the delayed response!
VNYL (@getvnyl) curates records specific to each member, each month. Each month, Vinyl Me, Please selects one record and sends that same album to every member in their service. While I'm an annual member of @vinylmeplease (I'm all about supporting the cause), I am often not well represented in what they are selecting as their monthly "record of the month" choices. I'd say it's about 1 in 4. Obviously, everyone has very different music preferences, and I would much rather help our members create record collections that are unique to them and well representative of their listening preferences.
VNYL uses a variety of info including a user's Spotify account as well as everything they tell us about their music tastes in their member profile to personally select 3 records per month (vs 1). We employ a team of curators who spend time with every person's profile to help match the best music on vinyl for them. We also use a members-only Slack to have one-on-one conversations about music with our curators and other VNYL members.
Our most popular plan is called Trio and includes 3 records (curated per member, per month) for $39. We also have a 1 record per month plan for $22, whereas Vinyl Me, Please is $27 per month for 1 record.
We view ourselves much more like the music version of Stitch Fix vs. a wine of the month club.
Here's a trial code for a free month you want to give it a spin — SUF2XQZZ7T -> https://my.vnyl.org
Honestly, I couldn't be more excited and happy to be a VNYL Member. I subscribe to other vinyl clubs/deliveries and definitely enjoy them, but VNYL has become my favorite. There's just something about the element of surprise that really feels like you are getting a gift every month. The #vibes are always fun, and I've never been disappointed by a single shipment. The added bonus is how cool and interactive their staff has been with me, always there to help or to just to generally be amazing. Every month I get choices based off of my preferences (you are able to provide a ton of info on your music preferences and they base the choices around them) and a note from one of their awesome curators explaining the choices. I know there are people out there who have heard some overblown things about VNYL, but I can tell you from personal experience the records are brand new, worth MORE than what I pay a month, and always awesome. You'd be hard pressed to find a better vinyl curating club out there and this is well worth the purchase.
Nori