Gift Idea: Vinyl Subscription Services
As vinyl holds tight to its resurgence in popularity, some very business-savvy people have figured out a way to make money off of the medium. A popular way to do this seems to be through vinyl subscription services. In-house curators choose the tunes to highlight and paying customers receive new music on a monthly basis. Plenty of these businesses have popped up recently and plenty more will likely follow suit.
If there’s a vinyl lover you need to buy a holiday gift for this year, why not consider one of these vinyl subscription services?
Cost: $4/month for digital-only, $254/year for everything
Feedbands manages to combine the two biggest growing sources of music consumption: vinyl and streaming. Every day on their website, the company highlights a new song by an unsigned artist and listeners tuning in can vote for the song if they like it, similar to Pandora.
Forbes explains the difference between the two companies: “Unlike the internet radio service, once all the votes are tabulated, the company presses the top artist every month to vinyl, and that is served to subscribers before it’s sold anywhere else”.
Cost: £20/month
Focusing on breaking new artists with singles only, this UK-based start-up doesn’t bother with full-length releases. According to Forbes:
“Every month, the company sends out at least five 7-inch records, each with two songs from a different new musical act”.
This is a great idea for someone who enjoys discovering new music.
Cost: Starts at £22/month
Does your vinyl-lover really like dance music? Then perhaps Trax & Wax is the subscription service for them. This service focuses on all types of dance, like disco, old school, nu school, and techno, to name a few. The subscriber also has the option to receive up to four 12-inch records each month.
Cost: $23/month (when signing up for a year) and up
This service focuses on some of the biggest names in the indie world. They re-release beloved titles as collector’s editions only available through their service. Forbes explains:
“Every choice comes with a specially-made vinyl, unique piece of art that accompanies the music, and a cocktail recipe that fits with the tunes”
Cost: starts at $22/month for one record
Aimed at a younger audience, specifically millennials, the first step of letting the curators know what type of music you enjoy is connecting your profiles from services such as Spotify, Soundcloud, and Instagram. Even the categories of music sound like they’re aimed at the millennial generation with titles such as #DREAMPOP, #SOULMATES, and #NOVEMBRRR.
Cost: around $30/month
Branding themselves as “The Mixtape Vinyl Club”, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out what Vinyl Moon does. They create one-of-a-kind vinyl compilation each month that features at least 10 songs from up-and-coming acts. Every month’s vinyl is a different colour and has its own specially-designed cover. Vinyl Moon even has album release parties in various cities for VIP members.
Sort of sounds like Colombia House 2.0…..