Are you just starting out collecting and want to quickly expand the size and reach of your collection? Are you an experienced collector looking for something new and exciting to come through your door each month? Are you wanting to find the best vinyl subscription for you?
Then join us as we explore 10 of the best vinyl subscription services throughout the world today, listing what each is best for and how it can benefit your own collecting habits.
Table of Contents
- 1. Flying Vinyl
- 2. Third Man Vaults
- 3. VinylBox
- 4. Turntable Kitchen
- 5. The Retro
- 6. Wax and Stamp
- 7. Magnolia Record Club
- 8. Black Box Record Club
- 9. Vinyl Me, Please
- 10. Vinyl Moon
- Final Tones
- FAQs Vinyl Subscription
1. Flying Vinyl
Are you the kind of record collector who prefers to support up-and-coming acts who have yet to fully establish themselves on the world stage? Then perhaps you will also be a fan of vinyl record subscriptions that do the same thing!
Well, Flying Vinyl is just that kind of service. Though based in the UK, they have an international reach, ensuring that no corner of the globe cannot receive the exclusive vinyl they produce. The service originally started as more of a record label, assembling their choice of the best independent music and pressing it to 7-inch singles, thereby giving newcomers a chance to hear their music on wax and in independent record stores.
Issues related to pressing times worldwide (further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic) have sadly made this original business model unsustainable. Since then, they have switched their focus more to releasing a monthly mixtape of their pick of the best new emerging artists in the area of indie pop and indie rock (such as the ‘post-clown’ performance outfit Gentle Stranger below).
Subscribing to the service for just $18 a month will ensure that you receive exclusively pressed vinyl (often coming in color or other special effects).
Alongside this exclusive deluxe edition vinyl you will also receive a large-scale A5 pullout magazine featuring notes on all of the artists that have been included on the particular mixtape in question. And, boy! Do they know how to ship a vinyl record?!
2. Third Man Vaults
Perhaps your bent is more towards a record label like Third Man Records? If so, then you will be pleased to know that there is an entire record subscription service for that!
While Jack White has been known to divide opinions among record collectors – especially after his more experimental effort Boarding House Reach – there should be no doubt as to his belief in the magic of vinyl. The Third Man Records shop in Central London even has a booth where you and a band can go and perform a song that is pressed straight to an exclusive record! Now that’s a record store!
This old-fashioned musical ideology really appeals to some collectors, and why wouldn’t it be? So, if you are in any way a fan of his music or the music that his record label endorses (such as the country artist Margo Price below), then you would be silly to miss out on the exclusive conveyor belt of music offered by this service.
As a platinum vault member, you can receive a package of beautiful colored vinyl four times a year, though this isn’t all. In fact, there are plenty of added extras that come from time to time, including pins, posters, patches, photo booklets, notes about the artists included, and plenty, plenty more.
Plus, if you aren’t already sold, a subscription to this exclusive service also bears the benefit of a 75% discount on a TIDAL HIFI subscription, something that, at face value, costs a heck of a lot of money. With such a discount, affording this overpriced service shouldn’t be so difficult.
3. VinylBox
For the collector who (whether new to collecting or a veteran within it) likes to find new music all the time and wants a subscription service that can show them new music on a regular basis, meet the VinylBox. This is a great way to venture outside of your comfort zone, embarking on a journey of music discovery through your record player and this online store.
The reach of this service is incredibly broad, encouraging curation from albums both classic and modern with a bent on ensuring that especially novice collectors can quickly accrue a big record collection full of varying different styles and acclaimed artists (see Lizzo pictured below).
What really separates this service from the others mentioned above is the fact that there is a level of involvement on the part of the subscriber, wherein they get to pick a whole bunch of the parameters and even the specific releases that they receive.
A nice extra touch – especially for the visual artist within us all – is the fact that VinylBox has partnered with Universal Music’s U-Discover team, providing liner notes with each individual release.
All of this is for a service that is likewise incredibly good value for money. Looking at it from above, you receive three albums a month for just £44 (or two for £34), increasing the value yourself by committing to quarterly or yearly fees.
Don’t fear! They also deliver outside the UK, albeit at slightly extra cost.
4. Turntable Kitchen
Those who are equally into their food as they are into their bouts of audiophilia addiction will no doubt rejoice at the appearance of the Turntable Kitchen, a service seemingly custom-suited to their needs. Though they started out simply providing great pairings of music and food – pairing Madvillain’s Madvillainy with coffee ice cream early on in their tenure; pictured below (and also in our best hip-hop vinyls list) – they gradually expanded to the subscription service their subscribers know and love.
Indeed, now that Turntable Kitchen is well off the ground financially, they offer their subscribers an incredibly special service that you are not likely to find anywhere else. These subscribers can anticipate receiving an exclusive monthly 7-inch single, a digital mixtape, alongside potent recipe pairings and 1 or 2 of the premium ingredients needed to bring the recipe to life.
In this way, this subscription service is amply suited to anyone who enjoys exploring good music alongside good food using unique and varying monthly recipes that are artistically suited to the music you are receiving. Who doesn’t like to chuck on, say, a tender-hearted country record while boiling some ‘taters?
If this does sound like your kind of thing, then it’s going to set you back $25 a month plus the amount it costs to ship it to your particular area of the world.
Those thus far unconvinced might be swayed by the fact that Turntable Kitchen has started a service wherein they combine a record and a specific strain of coffee. Where, after all, would we be without our morning coffee?
5. The Retro
Forget all this food and all this fancy talk – are you just a fan of good old-fashioned records? Then, perhaps The Retro will have you covered. Initially specializing in real vintage vinyl records, this service has since branched out to other realms entire. Nowadays, they work with many independent record stores throughout the Western world, collecting a vast range of records spanning many decades, nationalities7, and styles, working with tastemakers to bring you a real treat each month.
Those record collectors who, though big into crate digging, are not so big on the ache in the back and legs that such an enterprise can encourage will no doubt rejoice at such a service. Here, you will receive at least three hand-picked forgotten classics and other hidden gems each month, at least one of which is bound to entice you (see Tim Buckley’s forgotten experimental classic Starsailor below).
Of course, you can go for up to thirty-two records per month if you are really serious about your record collecting, but this introductory number of three per month starts from $30 a month. For at least three records per month, this seems incredibly reasonable, especially since each selection is hand-picked by a team of experienced staff.
It really is like having your very own vinyl shopper who is willing to do all the nasty parts of crate digging for you – and you can get as specific as you like with adjudicating your musical tastes to them.
6. Wax and Stamp
In a similar way to The Retro, Wax and Stamp seeks to take things back in time a little, to when people discovered things purely by chance on a whim instead of relentlessly scrolling through forums on the internet. As the UK’s longest-running vinyl subscription service, Wax and Stamp pride themselves on offering a service that is authentic to its modus operandi, ushering forth a style of subscription service reminiscent of asking a record store owner for recommendations.
Entering this service with an open mind, you are no doubt going to come across your favorite music before long. Sure, some of it might be a little far out for your tastes, but embracing such styles with something of a free spirit will also open you up to all sorts of different styles and cultures before long (such as Goat’s psychedelic parody of colonial powerplay in World Music, pictured below).
This service offers each of its subscribers two brand-new or otherwise obscure records each month for only £27. So far, there have been 95 issues and counting, all a complete surprise to those on the mailing list.
Most of the records are chosen by the in-house Wax and Stamp team, though there is the occasional guest curator that comes in to show them how it’s done. Over the course of a year, you will receive a whole 24 new records across an unprecedented span of different styles, all delivered within the UK for free and overseas for a small additional fee each month.
7. Magnolia Record Club
If you liked the sound of Wax and Stamp’s occasional guest curation then you are going to love this! This is precisely what the Magnolia Record Club does so well, inviting artists to guest-curate every single one so you don’t have to worry about some nameless drone doing the job for you.
Founded by Nashville singer-songwriter Drew Holcomb (pictured below on one of his own releases), the service began with a gift from his wife Ellie. She bestowed her new husband Drew with a record player as a wedding present which inspired a love for the vinyl format that he had not otherwise experienced. This inevitably led him to believe that he could do things differently from the rest, aiming to offer a music curation service led by real human beings.
Thus, those who are indebted to the artists that they love might want to check the Magnolia Record Club to see whether one of their favorite artists has guest-curated one of the months before. Taking great pride in the fact that their service is entirely ‘curated by artists, not robots’, this record club is founded on the idea that music is better when recommended by another human. I’m sure the great algorithm that breathes down the necks of all of us would have something to say about that!
Each month, subscribers can look forward to receiving limited edition colored vinyl, listening notes from the artist-curator in question, alongside new releases to look out for, all of which are only $30 per month for the first three months!
8. Black Box Record Club
If you have read everything thus far and, though generally pleased, have been left with the question ‘What about streamers?’, then you are in luck, for the Black Box Record Club is a subscription service precisely suited to your needs. Sometimes, it can be a little too much to entirely dedicate your time to audiophilia. After all, you can’t take your record player on the bus to work. In these times, you are likely to turn to a streaming platform like Spotify for help.
Enter the Black Box Record Club, an entirely different record subscription service that doesn’t turn to you for the parameters by which it finds you new records each month, but instead turns to your Spotify account. Taking this information, it then sends two records to your door per month. This really could be anything from, say, the Meridian Brothers (above) to the Residents (below), all dependent on the music you listen to and the tastes that your Spotify account exhibits of you.
Starting at just $46 a month, you too can receive two records each month in the mail based entirely on your real listening habits. If this sounds like a steep asking price then fear not, for each box will also contain some sweet bonus items, such as stickers, art prints, and note cards.
9. Vinyl Me, Please
Where many of the other services listed above have been primarily based in one specific country, Vinyl Me, Please extends its rich throughout the world, acting as the self-proclaimed world’s leading premium vinyl record subscription. While others listed above have sought to be more specific in their reach, Vinyl Me, Please is intentionally wide-reaching in its scope of music too, offering services for just about anything you can imagine.
There are plenty of different sales packages to choose from too. If, for example, you are a newer collector who is still trying to flesh out their record collection and fill in the gaps where classics (like Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band’s Safe as Milk, see below) are missing, then there is the ‘Essentials’ package. Contained within this package will be a deluxe edition record each month, alongside a corresponding art print and exclusive liner notes purposely written for this purpose.
Alternatively, there are more specific ‘classics’ packages for those of you who want to dial into a particular area or style of music and expand your record collection likewise. Indeed, starting from just $33 per month, you can deep dive into the world of Jazz, Blues, Soul, Rap & Hip Hop, and plenty more.
What’s best is that the monthly releases are announced before the record ships, giving you a chance to inspect it and see whether you want it or not, either because it doesn’t good or you already have a copy. And they ship internationally (albeit at an extra cost)!
10. Vinyl Moon
Last but by no means least we have the deluxe vinyl subscription service Vinyl Moon. If the idea of receiving hot new music alongside bold and beautiful art sounds in any way appealing to you, then Vinyl Moon has most certainly got you covered.
The service has been described by many reviewers as essentially a vinyl mixtape, offering forth a curated selection of new music from mostly emerging artists. This musical element is then coupled with the visual element, pressing the music onto colored vinyl and embracing the unique artwork of an independent visual artist as a part of the larger package.
Each package is completely different from the last and all-in-all presents itself as a great way to celebrate the vinyl format and take it to new heights, encouraging the collaboration of otherwise separate realms of culture and art. Some issues might, say, champion the music of a band like Women (above) and then go on to work by representing the music of Black Country, New Road (below) in the next.
At only $34 a month, this is a subscription service that can scarcely be ignored, inviting the delivery of a deluxe vinyl to your door each month, alongside a lyrics booklet, info on the bands, and the visual art aforementioned!
Final Tones
So, there you have it! Hopefully, you are now feeling ready and able to embrace one of these vinyl subscription services for yourself!
FAQs Vinyl Subscription
How do I cancel my vinyl subscription?
How you go about canceling your personal vinyl subscription will depend on the subscription service you are using, though there will likely be plenty of similarities between the various processes of each individual service. For example, though the particulars of each service might differ, you can be more or less certain that each will be primarily canceled online via the subscription service’s website unless it is more of a postal service. You can find the most precise guidance on the website or by calling whoever you are receiving your subscription service from.
Why has vinyl become so expensive?
Besides the fact that just about everything has become more expensive in the past couple of years, there is also one thing that underlies the increasing expense of vinyl records. As well as having to compete with the steady rate of inflation throughout much of the world, there is also the fact to consider that vinyl production isn’t what it once was This means that, though there is a vinyl revival happening at the moment and vinyl is reaching levels of popularity it hasn’t reached in decades, the production and record presses are yet to catch up to this demand.
What is a vinyl subscription?
A vinyl subscription is a service whereby each subscriber receives a certain amount of vinyl within a certain timeframe for a certain fee. The most common metric for subscription services tends to be offering two or so records a month chosen by the service’s staff and sometimes guest curators for however many dollars per month.
How much does 1,000 vinyl records cost?
Such a question is likely more concerned with vinyl pressing prices than purchasing such a large amount of records in one go, though if you are the owner of a record store, then perhaps you better seek guidance elsewhere. There are a number of different costs to consider when pressing records – such as the cutting of lacquer, the electroplating process, the printing of the center labels, the inner sleeves, the jackets, establishing the pressing in the first place, pressing the test run – before you even get to the cost of the materials themselves and the cost of labor. On average, a pressing of 1000 is going to cost upwards of $10,000.
Is there a vinyl record club?
Indeed, there are several, companies that have seized the opportunities presented by the new vinyl revival to offer forth services that enable collectors to keep up to date with trends in new and old records without all of the leg work involved in visiting old and dusty record stores and rummaging in the bargain bins and crates.
Is vinyl better than Spotify?
Neither analog nor digital is inherently better than the other, though there are plenty of outlets and audiophiles who would have you believe differently. Rather, each has specific strengths and weaknesses that mean that neither can best the other in every respect. For example, though vinyl is arguably better at delivering a more complete feel for a record, it cannot ever represent a full spectrum of sound like digital reproductions can, because any more immediate jumps in the frequency spectrum will cause the needle to jump freakishly. Similarly, just as digital means can provide the user with a more complete frequency spectrum, many would argue that this extended frequency spectrum is a little colder and more clinical in comparison with vinyl and other analog reproductions, both of which prize highly the lower end of the frequency spectrum. Instead of ideological hatred, we should instead vary our position on this spectrum depending on our feelings at any given moment.
Is vinyl really worth it?
Whether or not investing in a vinyl collection and a listening setup is worth it will depend on your own circumstances and biases. If, for example, you are fairly enthusiastic about music but otherwise not so well-endowed with cash to really invest in a proper listening setup and a full record collection over time, then perhaps this is not the hobby for you – after all, records aren’t getting any cheaper. If, though, music is one of your main passions and you have enough cash to throw at such an enterprise, then perhaps collecting records in this way will be worth it for you.
What’s the point of listening to vinyl?
Vinyl records are just another musical format, much like CDs and MP3s, both of which are produced with the intention that people will listen to them, either for business or pleasure (or even both simultaneously). Thus, the point of listening to vinyl at root is the point of listening to vinyl – i.e. that you should simply listen because you enjoy it. Anything else is surplus to requirements and, though valid in its own way, cannot dethrone the utmost priority, that listening to vinyl is for the enjoyment of music as an art form.
Do people still DJ with vinyl?
Indeed they do. DJing with vinyl never really died, though it certainly fell out of fashion with a large number of people as they saw the endless possibilities that digital technology could offer. Since the vinyl revival, there has come a new respect for those who have persisted in using this antiquated technology, many opting for digital technology simply because of the ease and inexpense of using such a setup.
