Is this the ultimate old-school analog move?

Dedicated readers know that lately in this space I’ve been on something of an analog kick. Two months ago, in the October issue,¹ I wrote about refurbishing and modding my old McIntosh FM tuner. Last month’s column (November) was on the much-discussed but little-understood topic of the skating force on a phono cartridge stylus.²

- BY JIM AUSTIN

This month, I am writing about what could be the ultimate analog topic circa 2025: A prominent vinyl-only record club is going totally offline. Is it a marketing gimmick? Sure it is, but read on.

I am a former Vinyl Me, Please (VMP) member. In the spring, my membership was up for renewal. I had joined on a whim, and while I found their pressings excellent, their titles were a mixed bag. Then I heard that CEO Cameron Schaefer and CFO/Chief Strategy Officer Rich Kylberg had been fired, accused of funneling VMP profits to build a record-pressing plant. I also heard that people were not receiving records they had paid for, though I did not experience that myself. For good measure, I deleted my credit card info so that I couldn’t be charged. About a week after I canceled my membership, I heard VMP was closing.

The pressing-plant story has a happy ending. The Denver-based plant eventually opened under different ownership, as Paramount Pressing, run by musician Dave Rawlings and vinyl-tech guru Gary Salstrom. There’s no remaining connection with VMP.

In late September, VMP threw its doors open again, announcing their rebirth by sending me a record. Inside the box was a newsletter formatted like a newspaper, with the VMP tagline “The Best Damn Record Club” featured prominently. On p.3, in huge red letters, it said “VMP IS NOW OFFLINE.” Below that was a brief note led off by the words “Signing Off.”

Farther down, also in huge red characters, was the phrase “F*CK THE INTERNET” (with a U instead of an asterisk), a phone number, and the phrase “TEXT ‘VMP’ TO START.”