Vinyl Me, Please Finds a New Owner in VNYL — Execs Say They’ll ‘Do Right by the Customers’

Less than one month after entering liquidation, Vinyl Me, Please (VMP) has officially found a new owner and relaunched with a “remastered mission.”

The Denver-based vinyl-subscription club formally revealed the change of hands today. Now, Vinyl Me, Please is poised to keep on operating – albeit as a subsidiary of VNYL Inc., which operates a namesake vinyl subscription of its own.

Headquartered in Saint Louis and founded in 2014, VNYL curates records for its subscribers on a monthly basis. And while one vinyl-subscription service buying another seems like a solid fit, it’s also worth noting that VNYL counts Someday Capital partner Nick Alt as its founder.

Alt has signed on as CEO of VMP, with VNYL president Emily Muhoberac beginning as president and COO. As to where the just-purchased company goes from here, both execs underscored plans to start “rebuilding trust with longtime subscribers,” many of whom remain vocal about their unfulfilled orders.

“This isn’t about reinventing Vinyl Me, Please,” spelled out Alt, previously a Vimeo and Stem exec. “It’s about restoring its true form as the ‘Best Damn Record Club.’”

“Vinyl customers deserve a white glove experience and that’s far from what they’ve gotten recently,” added Muhoberac, who doubles as a partner at vinyl-focused lender Vinyl Capital Partners. “We intend to do that by getting back to the fundamentals of VMP with a great customer experience.”

Longer term, the higher-ups touched on plans to integrate VMP into their broader vinyl portfolio – with various subsidiaries zeroing in on particular consumer segments.

VMP will cater to collectors “seeking premium audio experiences,” for instance, with the VinylBox unit selling to “millennials balancing aesthetic and specific collection needs.” VNYL proper, for its part, will dial in on “Gen Z / Alpha seeking affordable curated vinyl for new turntables.”

“Our philosophy is simple: not every collector is the same,” Alt summarized of the approach. “Some customers want a Blue Note Anthology box set. Others are counting the days until the new Reneé Rapp LP drops. We’re building different clubs to serve different types of listeners—with pricing and curation that actually match their needs.”

Time will tell how the more carefully tailored model performs. Overall, despite vinyl’s years-running commercial resurgence, recent data has pointed to a possible growth slowdown.

Though it probably goes without saying, this potential slowdown is having a comparatively significant impact on smaller players like VMP and Qrates, to name a couple. The latter is still out of commission “due to unforeseen financial difficulties,” the relevant website shows.