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

Has anyone heard of http://vnyl.org/?

I think it was mentioned in a "terrible ideas" thread but it turns out that it is actually a great idea if you want to find a way to trick people into buying $1.50 worth of records for $25.00 (which I believe is the subscription cost).

http://www.stereogum.com/1801049/vnyl-sliding-why-the-netflix-for-vinyl-service-is-such-a-mess/franchises/essay/

Apparently no matter who you indicate as your favorite artists, they'll just send you a random three common 70s thrift shop records and then play dumb if that upsets you.
They don't accept returns.

http://www.recordstoreday.com/

https://twitter.com/themattbates/status/594284588257579008/photo/1

good lord

http://www.shugarecords.com/

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

http://www.artvinyl.com/

the second hand rack in the one Urban Outfitters store I've browsed was 98% dogshit and sold everything for £6 but I was happy enough with the Heavy Metal Kids LP I got for that price

http://www.artvinyl.com/

― anthony braxton diamond geezer (anagram), Thursday, May 14, 2015 2:56 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the branch of (UK odds'n'ends austerity store) Home Bargains near my house sells 12" frames for £1.99 if anyone fancies displaying some LPs on their wall but isn't a profligate moron who thinks that £39 is good value for such a thing

Seriously, how is this a thing?

Which one?

On my twittefeed I keep getting a "Get xx number of indie singles from new acts each month, pre-chosen for youx" subscription service.

I mean, why would I?

(I'd post the link, but it's not there at the mo)

I dare-say a bunch of you music writers would pay a monthly fee to not receive etc, but.

the second hand rack in the one Urban Outfitters store I've browsed was 98% dogshit and sold everything for £6 but I was happy enough with the Heavy Metal Kids LP I got for that price

― pull blart, maul cops (DJ Mencap), Thursday, May 14, 2015 2:57 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If that's the one at Marble Arch, all the second-hand stuff has gone, leaving only the 180g represses..

nah it was in Cardiff and yeah it's just moderately overpriced new stuff now so presumably such is the case with all their stores

This is more silly than scam, I guess, but ...

http://vinylmeplease.com/how-it-works/

"Custom cocktail pairing recipes"

It's...pretty exclusive. Request your invite today.

Wow. This is so depressing.

need that custom youth lagoon record for $27

lol these are all pretty great

the VNYL scam is amazing, the robotic 500 days of summer tone of their con artistry is brilliant

http://www.homebargains.co.uk/products/10407-rock-it-records-12-album-sleeve-frame-case-of-12.aspx

"Our price: £23.88"

(for 12!)

we have those expensive frames in the office, filled with U2 and Bob Marley sleeves.

That girl on the front page of VNYL. So excited! So naive! Such a perfectly sad thing! Ugh

Not to mention the really poorly executed record-face meme thing with the fka twigs. Just.. no.

https://twitter.com/ajakober/status/598701455080431616

wasn't there a thread on ILM started by someone looking into setting up something like this a few months ago ?

had a revival a little after, but to little avail.

yes, there was

What are your thoughts on a new project I'm working on: Wax & Stamp - a vinyl subscription club (UK)

WTF

https://twitter.com/gotvnyl/status/598911277952557057

That is NOT Doug Martsch...

Am I crazy here? Are they trying to trick people into thinking that's Doug Martsch, or did this dude trick them?

maybe that guy's name is also doug martsch

Parody account.

Real one's GETvinyl not got. Still sux.

any evidence that VNYL is actually a successful rip-off, or just a would-be rip-off?

it seems sort of tone-deaf to me.

Maybe it will inadvertently lead to a lounge/easy listening revival in a couple years.

Is there any evidence that anyone's gotten something besides thrift store garbage from VYNL?

Nope. Even with the happy customers.

Which one?

I was replying quickly on my phone earlier, so my initial response was to the first one, but it truly is disheartening to see so many.

What happened to vinyl fans being diggers? I remember when I first got into vinyl, it was just instinctual to hit second hand stores. Has common sense gone out the window in order to make room for this renewed interest in vinyl?

lol crut

Hey, jefferson airplane is not garbage u dummies

What happened to vinyl fans being diggers? I remember when I first got into vinyl, it was just instinctual to hit second hand stores. Has common sense gone out the window in order to make room for this renewed interest in vinyl?

as a new vinyl buyer i will say that i have been to many second-hand shops over the last 5 years and the selections - esp re what i'm looking for - tend to be really really bad. otoh if yr in the market for a jefferson airplane album this is a golden time to be alive.

most of the good vinyl i've gotten have been donations from relatives, finding stuff on ebay, and -- eek - paying full price for some new reissue

Airplane may not suck, but it is an easy, 25¢ thrift store find.

And yeah, genuinely *GREAT* stuff is not going to be found in thrift stores. But when everything's a quarter, you have to expect Cat Stevens, not Velvet Underground.

I guess burning n00bs will never get old.

dying at the stereogum VNYL story, had not heard of this amazing scam. i'm imagining someone having some kind of account difficulty, they can't turn it off, lost password, and every month three more England Dan & John Ford Coley LPs show up, with "#LazySunday" stickers on the front, because of their interest in Sleater-Kinney, Meat Beat Manifesto and Sun Ra. they run out of places to put them, local stores have them on the blacklist, city sanitation crews rip them out of the trash and hurl them back under their doors. and yet they keep coming. endless England Dan & John Ford Coley. eventually a fire starts and they die of poisonous vinyl fumes. all for only $25 a month --- thanks, kickstarter and #VYNL!

i've always wanted to buy a dog eared copies of Sesame Street's The Muppet Musicians of Bremen and a Perry Como compilation for 25 bucks

the best part of the kickstarter economy part of the story is that nobody bothered to see if pay-for-records is legal, so it's now technically pay-for-whatever

the fact that they have no actual curation and it's just backstock and secondhand garbage is icing

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."

If this was mine I'd just buy the contents of a record store that is going out of business with the kickstarter money and pay someone to put four random records that aren't too beat up in an envelope monthly

that'd be like a half-dozen kids working minimum wage for a couple days per month maximum right?

https://media.wnyc.org/media/photologue/images/a7/yourfavoritexmas3_firestone722.jpg

My #XmasVibes arrived! Nice clean copy. No flood damage!

^
Might be U.S.-centric

also the format is all wonky when linked to Discogs, it should be square

I had that picture sleeve too, lol didn’t know it was rare!

well not really, but uncommon let's say

on a similar note, I do like 3" CDs

me too. did they ever make 3” cd-rs?

hm good question

Yes, I burnt a few during the eMusic heyday.

ty!

I have render by damien gooley on 3" cd-r. Its the 2nd release on cassia fisula but its not on discogs. Also have a lovely little 3" fennesz/ rosey parlane on 3" cd.
Thats my complete tiny collection.
Oh, and an unused box of 3" cd-rs. I dunno why.

the only one i own is kid606's why i love life, i keep it tucked in the soccergirl EP jewel case, makes sense to play them back to back anyways.

poll my 3" mini-CD collection

More VMP Follies: https://www.reddit.com/r/VinylMePlease/s/6SGvOvr1xM

Users are getting screwed out of their saved credits and/or last orders from the old regime, as the new team is attempting to collect new $$$ to deliver these items. Someone from a distributor also chimes in to share how they got fucked on an order supplied to VMP right before the bankruptcy.

Imgur thread of the Reddit OP's text chain with VMP customer service: https://imgur.com/a/myrWhoa

I loved those 3" CDs so much, I bought a dedicated 3" CD Walkman type player. It was suspiciously cheap, but in perfect condition.

Basically, if you walk around with it, it jogs like f.

Minidisc ftw.

this indiepop label specialised in 3" CD-R releases, I have (or had as I've been selling off my CDs slowly) a load of them https://www.discogs.com/label/123923-WeePOP!-Records

I do still have the Ex - 1936 The Spanish Revolution which came as a book with 2 3" CD singles

Oh damn, neat! I’ll have to check those out.

R.E.M. put out all four of the singles from Up as (limited edition?) 3" CDs; Garbage did the same thing with Version 2.0 iirc.

man i wonder what happened to my wycleaf jean the carnival minidisc. only other official release i had on md was fiona apple's first album, but it was defective.

minidisc was a strange format. i liked it.

I fucking LOVED minidisc.

I still do

I think the only 3" CD I had when they were current was Robyn Hitchcock's Balloon Man.

I remember Sony selling a 3" CD discman that would play 3" cds but also could play 5" CDs but 3/4 of the CD would stick out of the unit and spin around like a circular saw.

Oh shit I had Balloon Man too! And I also think it was the only 3" CD I had. I'm all for it. What do we have to fuckin buy 12" and 7" for the rest of our lives? They should have the size based on the length of the music release. A short album can be 11". A long album can be 14". I'm 100% on board with the Target 4"es.

I believe my only two 3 inch CDs are (1) Skinny Puppy, (2) The Blue Nile

My only 3" is Henry Kaiser's Alternative Versions on SST.

oh god I remember when SST went whole hog on those 3" discs, total gimmick

Black Flag single - but on 3" CD!!

I had a Grant Hart one

Ha, I have the Balloon Man 3” too. I have it clipped inside of this standard CD-sized adapter that 3” CDs could be popped into for CD players that couldn’t accommodate them otherwise; sort of a reverse 45 adapter.

Anyone remember that series of unauthorized lyric/bio books put out by Stampa Alternativa from Italy? They were just over 7” square and used to be packaged with a 7” with like four bootleg live tracks or demos, but by the time I picked up a couple in the early ‘90s (Joy Divison and J&M Chain) they had switched to 3” CDs.

yeah I had the VU book and 7", I didn't realize they had done mini CDs as well

It's being reported over on on the VMP subreddit that today the new owners charged subscribers (including ones who've already opted out of the new program) upwards of $507 for new subscriptions.

Considering the new owners, this was the most predictable outcome.

This is like the Fyre Festival as a record club.

lol

Let's Press It And Be Legends!

Santana Abraxas

These MFs are smoking uncut 180 gram: https://vinylmeplease.com/

2025 OCT 02 — VMP IS NOW “OFFLINE”

In an era where music has been reduced to pixels and playlists, where algorithms dictate your desires and AI whispers what you "should" love next, Vinyl Me, Please stands defiant. We are not just relaunching—we are revolting. Under new ownership, VMP is tearing down the digital facade that has suffocated the soul of music. We're going offline, not as a gimmick, but as a declaration of war against the soulless machine that consumer music tech has become. No more endless scrolling, no more data-harvesting apps, no more AI curators shoving "personalized" noise down your throat. We're returning to the physical world, where music is felt, not fed to you by code.

Why offline? Because the internet has betrayed us. It promised connection but delivered isolation—streams of forgettable tracks, dopamine hits from viral hits, and an endless churn of content that leaves you empty. The giants of music tech force-feed AI into every corner: smart speakers that spy on your tastes, recommendation engines that homogenize discovery, virtual assistants that pretend to know your heart better than you do. It's a dystopia disguised as convenience, where human curation is obsolete, and your passion for music is just another dataset to monetize. We're done with it. VMP is the counter-movement—the analog uprising against this forced march into a future where machines mediate every melody.

We're stripping back to what vinyl was always meant to be: tangible, deliberate, human. No web store, no apps, no screens stealing your attention. Instead, we're embracing the rituals that made music magical—the anticipation of mail arriving at your door, the rustle of a catalog in your hands, the simple act of picking up the phone. Each month, our members receive a beautifully printed catalog, a newspaper of sorts, packed with stories, artist insights, and exclusive offerings. Flip through it over coffee, mark your choices with a pen, feel the paper.

To join or order? Text "VMP" to (314) 300-9979—SMS only, no apps required. Hit us to chat about swaps from our vault of classics. It's mail-order reborn, direct and unmediated, shipping the best damn records straight to you.

This isn't nostalgia; it's necessity. In a world where AI composes symphonies and tech overlords curate your culture, VMP is the refuge for real humans who crave real grooves. We're returning to our roots: remastering and pressing exclusive, Japanese-inspired vinyl copies of albums that demand to be heard, not skimmed. Our first Record of the Month under this banner? Switcheroo by Gelli Haha—remastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk, with gatefold artwork by Gelli herself. It's not just a record; it's a statement. Available to all members, or swap for something from our vault that speaks to you, not some algorithm.

Join us in this offline revolution. Reject the digital overlords. Reclaim your music, your time, your humanity. Text "VMP" to (314) 300-9979 today. Let's drop the needle on a better world—one free from the hum of servers and the grip of AI.

For the love of vinyl,

Nick & Emily

“We are revolting”

JOIN US IN THE OFFLINE REVOLUTION!

...but, first things first: go pick up your smartphone and interact with it to get started.

At least half of that written by AI and it’s obvious

Feel the paper, fetishize all aspects of “authentic” tactile novelty. Do it in a coffee shop so everyone can see how interesting you are. Stroke your chin. Assume others are aware and gesture to your catalog “it’s the rituals that make music magical” you can say out loud with a smirk and a nod. “I am revolting”. Yes, yes you are.

I realize I should be clowning on this (and what they’ve written is indeed terrible), but the idea - in its broadest possible sense - is making me nostalgic for the pre-full-on Internet days where I’d get the latest catalogue in the mail from some micro-indie 7” label promoting their newest singles and maybe a page or two of 7” and CD releases from other small labels they carry, and my broke teenage ass wished I had the $3.50 plus postage to get the new Sentridoh single being offered. It’s a feeling I normally only get these days when I put on an old 7” and find a folded piece of paper telling you what else was available from this label likely partially funded by money meant for tuition.

feeling that post, yeah

I ordered two singles from this micro US label in the 90s, they sent me one of the singles and a credit note for the other one which had sold out. I remember being sooooo maaaaad about this at the time, I'm in the UK this credit note won't even cover the postage cost of another single! I put the credit note in the single sleeve that I did get and forgot about it until I found it again this week

I still have all my old RRRecords catalogs, the coolest was when you'd order and get a one-sheet listing the new arrivals since the latest larger catalog

Someone on Reddit otm —

LOLOL. While patting themselves on the back and trying to be big shots to Variety Nick and Emily bragged about having a “proprietary tech stack” and buying data from the likes of Apple and Spotify:

What does VNYL Inc. have that previous operators didn’t that can make the ship stay afloat this time? Proprietary technology, for one thing, they say, that predicts what users will truly want based on their online habits, which they believe will put a halt to what was seen as the habit of overpressing records that turned out not to be reasonable sellers for VMP.

“Muhoberac says, “Forgive me if it’s erroneous, but I think we’re the only one of these services that was venture-backed originally, from my background being in technology and in the mobile space. And we’re the only one that has a proprietary tech stack. We have built out really strong IP and a really strong tech stack to be able to predict demand on records that are coming out and what is most likely to be well-received by the market. We have data from Spotify and from Apple Music that helps us curate.

Alternative Tentacles catalogs were like a window into a different world.

Things may have changed from the dot.com era, but when I hear "proprietary tech stack", and I apologise if I've said this before, my first thought is "room full of interns".

In this case it's "room full of interns browsing Reddit 24/7" or "typing prompts into OpenAI".

I just think "wankers". Speak clearly or be seen as the charlatan you are.

"because we don't know dick about music, we pay Spotify to tell us how popular different artists are."

Another Stereogum VMP Expose, this time covering employees & project contractors they stiffed, plus an update on how bad things have gotten since the last expose: https://stereogum.com/2476164/who-got-screwed-when-vinyl-me-please-went-bust/columns/sounding-board

Instead, VMP’s new owners seem to be offering store credits to jilted customers. Mike Bonanno, the toy designer, was mystified when he recently received an automated email telling him he had “32 Member Credits available.” But there was no way to redeem those credits unless he signed up for a VMP membership, which starts at $39 a month. In other words: He has to pay for a membership to receive records that were previously offered to him as compensation for work that he never got paid for. That’s the music business in 2025.

https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/12/vinyl-collector-exposes-labels-premium-pressings/

So much for getting off the internets: https://www.discogs.com/user/vmpofficial