Experience Vinyl, a new vinyl record subscription service, today announced its April launch and the initial slate of artist-curators, including Elton John, George Clinton, Quincy Jones, Talib Kweli and Sean Lennon. Subscribers to the new service will receive one of the artist’s favorite albums (not their own album) along with personalized commentary, the artist’s top ten albums list, access to the Experience Vinyl store and various rewards.
Subscribers will pay under $30 a month, depending on the term of subscription which can run annual, trimonthly, or month-to- month. A portion of the sales wil go to the artist’s charity of choice. The service’s first curator, Elton John, has directed a portion of his sales be donated to The Elton John AIDS Foundation.
The genesis of Experience Vinyl came from founder Brad Hammonds’ 2014 blog Desert Albums where musicians such as guitarist Vernon Reid (Living Color) and Regina Carter answered one question: If you you could only listen to 10 albums for the rest of your life, which ones would you pick? Experience Vinyl, which also includes Hammonds’ business partner Jake Fishbein, takes the artists’ answers and delivers it to the subscriber’s door.
“Growing up a vinyl fanatic, I’ve had the desire to create a record club for the better part of my adult life,” Hammonds tells Billboard. “Experience Vinyl is a different kind of subscription service and a dream for any vinyl lover. It’s a record club where artists handpick not only the records they love, but the ones they couldn’t live without. Who better to send you great music each month than artists themselves? It’s an honor to work with some of the greatest musicians of all time, and we’re excited to share their personal and meaningful picks with all of you.”
Experience Vinyl memberships also include invitations to quarterly concerts and eligibility for giveaways and trips.
While Experience Vinyl declined to discuss the financials of the new venture when asked it they expect to make a profit after releasing or possibly re-releaesing these albums in vinyl, paying royalties to artists, labels and/or publishers and a charitable donation, the company only said that “the business model is designed to make a profit.”