Radio Ramblings: Where does exclusivity fit in the age of on demand?

By Medicine Hat News on November 8, 2018.

Just this past week legendary indie record label Sub Pop announced it’s bringing back its once well-loved Sub Pop Singles Club. The service is probably not overly familiar for the millennials in the crowd, but for those Gen Xers out there who used this service from 1988 until 1993 to discover tracks such as Nirvana’s “Love Buzz,” The Flaming Lips’ “Drug Machine,” 1.7’s “Shove,” or Fugazi’s “Song #1,” it was a big deal. Not only was it used as a discovery service, but it was an exclusive club: Pay the (kind-of hefty) price, and they’d send you the vinyl first.

That said, a lot has changed since 1993 — a year when “Jurassic Park” was the coolest new thing in movies, people were rockin’ out to tunes on their Walkmans, and Jay Leno was still on the tube. Today, we have the entire world’s discography of the planet at our fingertips. We like our celebrities without mystery and available to us, and the biggest rock ‘n’ roller appealing to the younger demo isÉ who? Dave Grohl? Jack White? Does Harry Styles count?

What I’m getting at here is that in a time where we have all the entertainment we could ever want and more at our disposal, where does a service like this fit? Of course, the new, revamped Singles Club won’t be a stand-alone vinyl service. Fans in the know (more than likely those in the demo who subscribed the first time) will already have been clued into Third Man Records’ Vault, or Vinyl Me, Please. The niche audience already knows about it, and with a name like Sub Pop, they’ve probably already signed on.

While I can’t see the service being a big hit with the younger crowd, I can’t help but think that there is something magical in a subscription service like this, especially in 2018. Being among the first to get the vinyl, to spin it, to be connected to a scene you love no matter where you live, no matter if you can get your butt out to the concert. Streaming services lack that feeling, maybe with the exception of music podcasts, but it’s something that radio has been on to since the advent of FM. Everybody listening to the same song at once, grooving together, even if they’re alone in their cars. It’s the feeling of being a part of a music scene you love.

Will Sub Pop’s Singles Club last more than five years this time? The chances are slim in the current climate, especially with the high price tag. For those with the gumption to pay for that magical feeling, power to you; as for me, I’ll be listening to the radio.

Taylor Herperger is promotions director at 105.3 ROCK and resident world traveller. Watch for her out and about at events around the Hat.