Are you looking to get involved in a vinyl subscription service so that you can take more of a backseat approach to discovering new music without all the hassle and work? Has the VinylBox caught your eye? Would you like to know more about it and what it’s like aside from the bloated rhetoric that so often accompanies the sale of something?
Well, look no further, for today the VinylBox will be explored alongside some apt alternatives.
Table of Contents
How does VinylBox Work?
If you have already explored other vinyl subscription services, then you will no doubt already be familiar with the format – but what exactly sets the VinylBox service apart from the rest? Indeed, far from simply being a box for storing records (pictured below), the VinylBox service is a customizable and intuitive subscription membership to some of the best vinyl out there.
The idea is that each month a theme is announced which will include six albums – of these six albums, up to three albums will be included in your personally curated box (hence the title VinylBox). The one major thing that really sets this subscription service from a lot of the others is the fact that if you are not so much a fan of the selection that has been curated for you, you can get involved yourself and make some changes.
This largely involved you swapping out up to two of the albums that they have selected for you, allowing you to choose from some of the other discs from the curation in question or from any of the previous boxes as detailed on the website.
The amazing music on offer is incredibly varied, both chronicling new music and old music, ranging from hip-hop to jazz and just about everything in the middle.
Something that will no doubt please any who might miss the touch of a local record store in their purchasing of records will be delighted about the additional liner notes provided.
In concert with the Universal Music U-Discover team, both they and VinylBox provide custom liner notes as a way to provide some back story and shed some light on the history of the month’s selected genre or theme. So, if you were a fan of hearing all about a style of music from your local store, then have no fear, for the vinyl box on your doorstep will have you covered and well-informed.
The VinylBox
So, with all these features and options for personalization combined with the much-lauded U-Discover team’s takes on the liner notes, how does the VinylBox actually hold up? Is it as good as they would have you believe with their highfalutin rhetoric?
Well, this will ultimately depend on your expectations and preferred mode of record collecting, though this service does at least have something for everybody, even if it is not everyone’s thing.
For music lovers who want to learn more about music over the course of their time record collecting but who prefer to take a more backseat approach, then this service will no doubt be incredibly appealing.
Providing a loose theme or genre each month and scratching the very surface of it with a reasonable selection of recommendations and free records is at least a good way to get started exploring a genre. And, if the month’s genre or theme is not necessarily your thing, you can just forget about it and move on to the next, either flogging it on an online vinyl store or passing it down to the needy.
Since everyone’s music taste will differ at least somewhat from others, there will be great music and hidden gems from new artists, but there will also no doubt be a whole bunch of rubbish that some people simply aren’t interested in. Such is the problem with taste and, ultimately, with having this kind of subscription service which cannot cater to the preferences of every single consumer.
Alternatives
In this day and age, there are plenty of apt alternatives for you to try instead, either if you have already tried the VinylBox to no avail or whether it simply doesn’t sound right to you.
1. 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, they gradually expanded to the subscription service their subscribers know and love.
2. Vinyl Moons
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.
3. 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 is also much more for customization between the service and the user in question here too, something that VinylBox only delivers half-heartedly.
Final Tones
So, there you have it! Hopefully, you have a better idea of what you want now!
