While physical media hasn’t been Amazon’s forte in recent years, it’s easy to forget the company started life as an online book store when the Kindle revolution was still a twinkle in Jeff Bezos’ eye.
However, it’s still somewhat of a surprise to see Amazon attempt to cash in on the vinyl revival with a new record of the month subscription service in the United States. And, in some respects, it isn’t a surprise at all.
The $25-a-month Vinyl of the Month Club, like so many of the vinyl subscription services, sounds like a service for people who want a record collection, but don’t really care enough about music to curate it themselves. Or, as Amazon puts it, “the music lover who’s just fallen for analog sound.”
Amazon is promising an album from the “Golden Era of Vinyl” each month, which it classes as the 1960s and 1970s. It’ll be ‘hand-picked by the experts at Amazon Music.’
So what can users in the US expect? Well, the likes of Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis and ABBA, for starters. Given some of the classics retail for upwards of $30 in the United States, it probably will work out quite well.
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You can expect one album a month, skip a month if you don’t fancy that offering and return anything you don’t fancy so long as it’s sealed and unused.
Trusted Take – Chris Smith
It’s somewhat surprising Amazon isn’t trying to hawk some record players with this too. It’d seem like a much more of an attractive offering if users were locked in for a couple of years and paid off a nice turntable as they go along.
However, Amazon’s going straight for selling records you can easily pick up at every single record store on the planet. Please do that instead.
Vinyl stores are thriving in towns and cities around the US and beyond, giving new life to communities where there aren’t that many physical shops anymore. You’ll find all the Led Zep, Abba and Pink Floyd records you could possibly hope to see at most of those. Plus something that’s a little less, well, basic.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
