Vinyl! Yay! Not only is it the medium that just won’t die, it continues to hog the limelight beyond 2014, and continues to beat up on CDs. Well, after then announcement that the Official Chart Company is launching a new(er) weekly vinyl record chart, it seems that people are really starting to take notice: Here’s an upcoming UK-based vinyl record pool.
Enter Wax & Stamp, a concept thought up by a couple of vinyl loving friends, with a lot of potential. Details are still scarce, but a post up on medium.com tells the story:
“We haven’t finalised the pricing yet, but for about £15 you will get a couple of records sent to you each month. One of those will be chosen by Luke and myself. The other we will open up to a guest selector each month.”
I reached out to Josh and Luke as I got curious about the whole concept of getting a guest selector every month alongside their own picks. This is what Josh had to say:
“I always love it when you see you a DJ something you’ve never heard but fall in love with right away. That’s great for being in the club, but we really wanted to translate that to the home listening experience as well.
“We’re currently in talks with guest selectors at the moment but I can’t reveal any at the moment. But we’re looking to DJs, band members, critics, and other people who are known for their loves of music. As long as there is a shared love for music that’s mostly what we’re looking for: something to excite us and surprise us.”
Wax & Stamp — my take
Story time! I’ve been paying £8 a month, or whatever, for Fabric London’s guest membership, Fabric First for around seven years now. On top of the benefits you got for club entry and discounts on tickets, you get a top-notch CD compilation every month, in a unique metal case. It’s a bargain and basically takes up the bulk of my CD collection these days.
With that in mind, I love this idea. It harkens back to the days where you’d walk into your regular record shop and the guy behind the counter would give you a wave, turn around and start picking out the latest releases he thinks you’d like. Even with all the convenience the digital world gives you, I miss those moments, and anything that can give a little bit of that back is A-OK with me.
Great concept! I wonder though will they be able to keep up with the expensive shipping cost. Will this be opened up world-wide or just UK-based for now?
I would guess It’ll be UK only for now, at least. If there’s demand, I’m sure they’d consider wider release.
On that note, I demand wider release!
Nice idea. Another one that looks Europe focused, as well curated by artists, djs and “experts” : http://klekt.eu
Hmmm, small world… hello! We’ve spoken on Twitter about PG before.
EDIT: and Oddworld.
I like!
I miss the old record store experience.
Technology makes something’s better and something’s worse! :)
True! I was explaining to some young whipper snapper yesterday how when I went to my record store, the guy behind the counter would start choosing some new tunes for me as soon as he saw me step in the door…
I think the way I feel about vinyl is summed up by the fact that I spent a good minute with my head tilted trying to read the spines of all the records in the banner pic before I read any of the actual post.
As a means to discover completely new music that you might never discover
yourself, this has great potential.
However, I can’t imagine it would work for a fussy bugger like me. I tend to agonise over my own (vinyl) selections so wouldn’t like the job of selecting for me, or someone like me.
That said, I used to buy a lot of crap so being careful ensures I buy fewer, better records.
Anything like this for us westerners out there?
Hello,
I just wanted to let you know, we’ve launched international shipping at waxandstamp.com. It does cost a bit extra but we’re hoping it’s a fair price. Where abouts are you based? Take a look at our shipping options to see what you think.
josh@waxandstamp.com
Nice, more vinyl needed :)
Other good ones are http://www.thatspecialrecord.com (electronic oriented) and http://www.klekt.eu (to be launched soon)