Record subscription services are becoming big business. Here we talk to Matt Fieldler of Vinyl Me, Please, who hand pick wax goodness, deliver them to your door every month and even offer cocktail recipes to go with your chosen tunes…
What is Vinyl Me, Please?
We’re a ‘record of the month’ club that helps people explore, experience and enjoy music on a deeper level. Tyler Barstow and I co-founded the company – I’m the CEO.
You must be big vinyl lovers…
I was first introduced to it by my Dad, he had a huge collection. I grew up wanting and desiring that physical, tangible connection with music.
When we started Vinyl Me, Please, Tyler and myself didn’t have any records. I wanted to start a collection of my own but didn’t really know where to start. We figured there were more people like us, who wanted to discover new music and build their record collection, so we thought it’d be cool to create a record club for the new generation of collectors.
So how does it work?
Each month we feature a record that we think is essential to the modern vinyl collection, which comes packaged with at 12×12” art print and a custom cocktail pairing recipe.
Each record we feature is pressed exclusively for us and includes features you can’t get anywhere else (diaries, handwritten notes from the artists, bonus tracks, inserts, etc). The records we feature range from soul and 1950s jazz to hip-hop classics from the early noughties and new releases.
Members also get access to exclusive releases in our online store, including more limited-edition pressings
and a curated set of new releases and reissues plus the VMP Archive.
These can be purchased by members and are included in your next monthly delivery.
We also host monthly events, The Spins, throughout the US and Canada to bring vinyl lovers together. Additionally, our site acts as a music blog, featuring interviews, podcasts, playlists, and tips and tricks.
What makes you different from other subscription services?
I think it’s the fact that we’re incredibly passionate about what we do.
The curation element is key as most of the industry has moved into a space where they look at your tastes and try to give you recommendations based on data, but we’re different.
It isn’t that we ignore those things, but we recognise that lots of music discovery happens through serendipity and a bit of randomness. We’ve found that, when people look back at their favourite albums, if they really think about when they first connected with it, then it often isn’t the one they would’ve picked.
We believe great artists deserve to be celebrated, and that music is one of the most powerful and important forces we have to connect with one another.
Is vinyl back or did it never actually go away?
Ha! The reality is that vinyl was pretty much dead in the water in the late-90s and early 2000s. There weren’t many vinyl records released in that time period because there wasn’t much demand for it. In 2006 the medium started to see some semblance of a resurgence.
I think it’s a natural reaction to digitisation – people are longing for some physical connection. Everything being behind a screen and offering a new level of convenience is great but we’re humans and we appreciate real connections to things.
I think that’s what’s spawned a lot of the generation of new record collectors. I don’t see it going away anytime soon.
Where do you see the future of vinyl?
I think there will always be a physical component to music and, over time, it’ll continue to be vinyl. CDs are in steady decline while vinyl continues to grow.
Although vinyl accounts for a very small portion of total revenue, I do like to believe in a world where there is a turntable in every home.
What do you have planned for the future?
We’re always looking for new ways to make good music accessible, and to expand our services. We’re expanding our monthly event program to more cities, giving as many people as possible a community to share and enjoy vinyl.
We’re building as much value as we can into our membership, continuing to curate and iterate on the things in our store, and doing more cool shit!
Find out more at vinylmeplease.com and we review their new book here