[palmat]

Soooo... 70 dollars for Looper vinyl... A bit steep for my taste. There is a version without the 7 which is 60 dollars. Still too steep for me. Saving my hard earned cash for SOTD instead.

[ghostfires]

Was it ever determined as to why they're asking that insane price tag? Maybe I missed whatever detail it is that makes it so different from all other soundtracks on vinyl...

[PaulZaza]

i think the willsay that the bag will make it that expensive...
and for Christ sake why is the song "powerful love" not on it...it Expresses everything looper stands for and is used prominently in the movie

[toosoonjunior]

@ghostfires, I believe it has to do with the packaging.

[toosoonjunior]

And maybe there are REAL gold bars in it.

[zachbehm91]

Up until recently I have loved Mondo and everything they do.

Heck! even when I felt the Jurassic Park release was too much money I still supported them from afar.. I can’t do that with this one. I honestly have no idea what they are thinking.

I get that the release is super neat, and it has a lot going on that is making it that expensive. I mean the bag that is included is hand made, and there for is most likely unique to each to release, but there comes a time when it gets out of hand, and when you need to go back to square one and go “Okay we have this great score – how do we put the music first and make it at least somewhat affordable to fans.” If that meant having completely different packaging then so be it.

The problem is that people will buy it, and it will sell out. Rich fans and flippers are the only ones who have a real shot at this release. I am just a 22 year old college student – the group this movie was targeted for to start with - and as much as I love vinyl I cannot justify paying 70 bucks (half a paycheck) for this release, especially in are still horrible economy. It makes me sad because I love Looper, and if it were 30 to 35 bucks – I probably would have bought it. I would not justify paying that much Jurassic Park, and I regret that, but at least here there were all the cool art features, But 60-70 dollars is INSANE.

Do us fans a favor that are not rich, and create a non-super deluxe version when you are putting out something as elaborate as this. You can still do something neat like you have in the past – that is much more affordable. Give me a gatefold with the poster art from a few years back, do something.

Unfortunately are complaints about prices and availability will keep falling on deaf ears.

I hate being a complainer. I am sure Justin (if he checks) and now Spencer hate seeing this kinda backlash when their hope was to put out a great release that pushed boundaries, but they really need to get more in touch with their fans. If that means slowing down the release of things in order to have a deluxe and a not so deluxe version (and im not talking about a 10$ difference because one does not have a silly 7 inch), but this is insane. Mondo seemed like such a step in the right direction for vinyl, but honestly think they are marketing to only rich people and flippers at this point instead of fans across the board.

It is sad.

These are not limited edition screen printed posters. These are not elaborate 34 points of movement toys, these are vinyl records, and it feels like the music is taking 4 steps behind everything else. Anyone buying this for this price should go and watch that banksy movie “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, this screams the entire point of that film.

[zachbehm91]

I really hope Iron Giant is actually affordable, but there are multiple versions of that - one with a shiny cover! ooo...ahh - so i am sure one will be really pricy, lets hope the other is affordable.

[DISCOSUCKS...]

hey @zach, i totally feel you here.

Have mentioned this elsewhere, but just to say (and I may be completely off base here)that until the Looper LP drops on the Mondo webshop (tomorrow?), we don't actually know what the price will be. My hope, which is how I understand it, is that the editions sold at MondoCon are "Con Exclusives", and the prices kinda reflect that - especially in the case of Looper. But that there will be less prohibitive/deluxe versions for sale online. All pure conjecture on my part!

Here's hoping! I'm definitely passing on Looper otherwise.

[reddye6]

Mondo sent an email earlier today with the prices for tomorrow's drop, and they were $70 (2LP plus 7") and $60 (2LP).

[static14]

They're asking silly money for Looper. Too much if you ask me.

[ghostfires]

I'm not rich, nor a flipper - but I could honestly afford $76 for a record...I'm just not that stupid to spend it on a silly bag. I've said this several times, I buy vinyl first and foremost for the music. If the label releasing the album does not care about sharing & distributing the music they're releasing...I just don't know what to say. Spencer has a very long way to go to convince myself and I'm sure at least a handful of vinyl lovers that Mondo cares about the music first. They are obviously in all of this ONLY for the money, currently at least. I don't care what any friend of Mondo says, they are treating music lovers like total shit in favor of pleasing the obsessive collector. I find that to be sad, and I do hope Spencer can create some sense out of that bullshit company - for the sake of the actual music. Go right ahead with all the crazy deluxe special editions you want, just please remember this is all about the music and don't hold these soundtracks for ransom money. You're no longer a fan yourself when you purposely deprive vinyl music fans of experiencing the music when you favor charging premium prices for something as stupid, worthless and unreleated to the actual music as a pathetic handmade bag.

In other words, make a non premium edition!

[DISCOSUCKS...]

Damn. All I can say is...bad news. Deal me out.

Fortunately there's plenty of other great music out there, film-related and otherwise, which isn't a hyped "art object", with the inflated, exclusive price tag associated with such.

[texasvinyl]

OK, Mr. Devil's Advocate here. Vinyl is a premium, physical format. Vinyl isn't just "for the sake of the actual music" - you can get a digital file for that and fit your entire library on a micro SD card the size of a couple grains of rice.

Vinyl is about the overall experience of holding something in your hand-- it's about the artwork, the package design, the liner notes, the physicality of dropping a needle, flipping the record between sides, and generally having to listen through the entire thing as opposed to just your favorite tracks.

The Looper package is quite nice in that regard. It's a really special release, everything done by hand, and it took them a year to put together. I think it's a really phenomenal physical release. Yeah, it was pretty expensive, but this isn't a very low-budget hobby either, is it?

As far as Mondo being "in it for the money," well, yeah, to a point. It's a business, not a charity for record enthusiasts. Being able to make a profit enables them to support a variety of great artwork and vinyl. If they don't stay in the black, much of this ceases to exist in its current form. Would you rather this stuff be run by Warner or Sony? Come on.

[deafmetal]

I think both ghostfires and texasvinyl make fair points. It does seem a bit obvious though to release a no-frills standard edition along with your deluxe editions. If anything, it helps to reach a wider audience and those on tighter budgets.

[lazyben]

Pretty sure both Warner and Sony have put out hundreds of records at least equal to anything mondo has put out and without all the pretentious douchebaggery mondo indulges in to justify their horseshit.

I want the music. On vinyl. Whilst premium packaging is nice I never look at it after the first play. I don't even like most of Mondo's artwork and if you're going to do premium then liner notes are more interesting than some non-contemporary to the music artwork.

I hate mondo. I'm glad that I'm not interested in half their releases. I hope Spencer will be making lots of changes but time will tell.

[zachbehm91]

Yes. Vinyl is a "premium, physical format." but 35$ for a 2 lp release is already pretty darn premium, and here we go going up and up. You are missing the point entirely. 75 dollars is okay for a deluxe release. I mean i could argue all day about how i still feel it is price gouging as i have a very hard time beveling that each record cost 57 dollars to make (assuming they applied a 25% mark up). but it is as a deluxe version - whatever. All i am saying is give fans a basic 2 lp release with some simpler artwork.

[zachbehm91]

I will say this again, to further point out this ridiculousness. Go and watch "Exit Through The Gift Shop" if you are actually justifying this release. Mondo knows this will sell out because there are people who must have it because it is "limited" and "deluxe" when the truth is its a canvas sack warped over a card stock piece of packaging with some plastic discs inside, that they are trying to charge 75 dollars for!

[zachbehm91]

A few months back we got Godzilla on vinyl from Death Waltz. The "deluxe" version was like 40 bucks in USD if i remember correctly. Hard, hard, hard material was used for the gate fold jacket., they had a really cool a$$ canvas texture on it, the "atomic breath" vinyl looked amazing, the entire thing sounded great unless you had a faulty press which was replaced for free regardless of your source for the purchase, there were two essays included. Even if you had to add another record to it, you are looking at what? 50$ for an actual sturdy release. It SCREAMED premium, as did all the lesser versions of the album.

Something is not adding up when that release goes for 40$, and this for 60-75. I really hope Spencer can make me feel like Mondo is doing this for the fans again.

I actually really think they are, i think the art direction is really in the right place, i just think they need to take more time into making it affordable is all.

[lazyben]

Just tell your wife/girlfriend/sister/mother/whatever that there's a "premium" bag (with free record) going on sale for $75 tomorrow and she'll do all the F5-ing and buying for you.

But 40 bucks over normal pricing to have a bit of manky old cloth wrapped around your record is ridiculous.

[scentofdeath]

Agreed with all the complaints here and I want to add that the lack of transparency regarding the Looper pressing is also frustrating.

Quantities and pressing limitation and/or further pressings should be mentioned with every release announcement, at once.

Why? Well, because it's fair to your customers.
What Mondo is doing only encourages flippers and puts everyone interested in that release in a paranoid state.

This is a label with flipper behavior, and it's not the first time they do this.

If pressing and variant information were clearly disclosed, at least everyone would be able to asses their chance and choice at getting the said product and if they were going to purchase a fancier variant or not.

So yeah Mondo, Fuck Off and do the right thing.

[ghostfires]

[quote=32173]OK, Mr. Devil’s Advocate here. Vinyl is a premium, physical format. Vinyl isn’t just “for the sake of the actual music” – you can get a digital file for that and fit your entire library on a micro SD card the size of a couple grains of rice.

Vinyl is about the overall experience of holding something in your hand– it’s about the artwork, the package design, the liner notes, the physicality of dropping a needle, flipping the record between sides, and generally having to listen through the entire thing as opposed to just your favorite tracks.

The Looper package is quite nice in that regard. It’s a really special release, everything done by hand, and it took them a year to put together. I think it’s a really phenomenal physical release. Yeah, it was pretty expensive, but this isn’t a very low-budget hobby either, is it?

As far as Mondo being “in it for the money,” well, yeah, to a point. It’s a business, not a charity for record enthusiasts. Being able to make a profit enables them to support a variety of great artwork and vinyl. If they don’t stay in the black, much of this ceases to exist in its current form. Would you rather this stuff be run by Warner or Sony? Come on.
[/quote]

Vinyl is actually for the sake of music. You honestly believe that listening to an MP3 or even a WAV/FLAC is the same as putting on a vinyl record? I do NOT buy vinyl for the packaging, that is a fun bonus sure...but I buy vinyl for the LISTENING EXPERIENCE.

I didn't ever say that Mondo can't make money. Make all the cash they want on crazy premium toys, records, posters - I couldn't care less. My point was that they should not hoard the actual music and release it only to those that are willing to pay an extreme price.

I think the point was perfectly made with the comparison to the Godzilla premium release. $40 versus $76...no way Looper is nicer than the more recent textured jackets from DW. Speaking of records in handmade bags - I actually own a few that are stoner metal or psych rock...even more limited pressing quantities, handmade packaging...and they cost less than $40. There is no way anyone could convince me that a silly handmade bag would make a $40 record worth $76.

Again, my point is - make the crazy expensive shit and let whomever wants to waste their money on cheap additions/accessories, but also make a $20-30 basic edition without all the bullshit added in.

[Vector]

Just joined to have my say on this as well. I was initially interested in this release as well by Mondo until I heard about the price. It's really hard to swallow something that if it was any other artist or label that did this package, it wouldn't be $70 and would end up being a $40 item. I have to side with my fellow college student and say no to this. Definitely glad that other Mondo releases have not gone down this route yet.

[texasvinyl]

I think quality CD or digital files on a good setup sound as good or better than vinyl. I greatly prefer the overall experience of vinyl and do most of my listening that way, and I think there is more joy in analog. CDs and FLAC sound great but aren't much fun.

As for price, I am a Death Waltz subber, and they are also pretty darn expensive (though admittedly some of that is shipping cost...they are ~$47 USD before shipping cost). I think it comes to around $60 a pop for the DW subber copies in the US-- same as Looper w/o the 7". Pricey? Sure. And totally worth it. And Spencer already did the basic subscription thing and is obviously open to the idea.

Most of Mondo's stuff is $20-25 with occasional releases going up to $30. Looper and Iron Giant B are the first two to go (quite a bit) above that. I agree, those two are expensive, and hopefully that price point is the rare exception since we'll all go broke (to be fair, Iron Giant 'A' is $30 not $100 like 'B').

I am going to make an effort to be more positive on the board. Seems to have taken a bit of a negative turn of late. Let's all try to vent our frustrations privately and keep this place a positive zone to share our love of the niche.

[dumaisaudio]

I can understand the higher price tag for the custom packaging; a handmade bag with the detailing is worth a little more, maybe $50. But why not just release the vinyl for $30? I might have jumped on it for $30, but not for $60 or $70. Sad thing is that it will sell out fast and end up selling for more on eBay. If I really wanted this release, I'd probably spring for it, but there's so many other releases that are more interesting to me for the music to buy this one at this price point.

[scentofdeath]

I think everyone would like to be positive about the "niche", but the niche is being stepped on all over with dirty feet sometimes.

Criticism is good when it's due, hopefully the people in question take some notes.

Personally, I would like to know if there's a "standard" more affordable issue of Looper OST to come.