I’ve seen many record subscription services come and go over the years; it’s a very competitive space where, to survive, you have to be the best of the best or at least bring something new to the table.
Vinyl Post caught my attention as a little different from most. Their service is a monthly record club where subscribers receive indie music pressed on a postcard. Subscriptions start at $5.99/mo. + Postage.
The music is curated by indie music blog, Birp, and alongside the postcard-sized record, you also receive a postcard with a hand-written message from the artist, a lyric sheet, and an MP3 digital download.
Music genres span a broad range, including indie rock, pop, dreampop, surf rock, alternative, and chillwave.
Once signed up, you can also gain 20% off any past releases, allowing you to explore a growing library of indie music releases.
My subscription sample was a previous release by Swedish artist, deepaak, also known as Martin Forsell.
I’m used to receiving records in the post, but to receive a “record” in letter form is certainly novel.
Inside the envelope is the said postcard with a short message from deepaak, the postcard record in question, and the included lyric sheet and artist bio.
Those old enough to remember the old Flexidisc singles often included in magazines years ago will see a strong parallel here, as these postcard records certainly bear a lot of resemblance.
The disc itself is a little tricky to place on the turntable as the center hole is quite tight. With a little pressure, however, it does eventually fit.
When lining up the stylus ready to play, it’s important to make sure the stylus makes contact with the grooves, and if you happen to miss (it can be a little tricky to see due to the printed design) be ready to quickly raise the tonearm before it slips off the postcard! You don’t want to damage your stylus.
deepaak’s music is described as “a seamless meld of dreamy indie-pop filled with 80’s synthesizers and driving rhythms”. It’s a catchy number, and if you like indie pop with a modern 80s throwback twist, you’ll certainly like this.
With a focus on indie music, Vinyl Post feels like a bite-sized version of Vinyl Moon. It’s an interesting concept.
Summing Up:
Vinyl Post is a fun, creative way to discover new indie music. The pressings aren’t exactly audiophile in quality; just like picture discs, there’s a fair amount of added surface noise.
But then again, that’s not really the point here. The name of the game is music discovery, the sense of serendipity, and fun way to experience music on a physical medium.
For the price of what many people pay for a single coffee each and every day, you get a fun music experience each month while broadening your musical horizon. Go with the flow, keep an open mind, and there’s much to be gained here.
I talk all the time at Sound Matters about how younger music fans, in particular, are seeking an antidote to what we’ve lost by moving from a music culture of ownership to merely renting through a streaming service.
Streaming offers so much choice and convenience, but it simply can’t deliver an experience in quite the same way as anything physical.
Vinyl Post shows how collecting and owning music can be fun—all while supporting independent artists in the process. What’s not to like?
The original postcards shot to popularity in the late 19th century as a means of cheap, quick communication. In audible form, their brevity offers an intriguing gateway to record-collecting for a generation where perhaps the concept of an entire album as the go-to release format might be (for now) an alien concept.
If we want recording collecting to survive, record clubs like Vinyl Post have a part to play in recruiting the younger generation. Love collecting records? Love independent music? Check it out.
