.canceling vinyl me please

I first started my 1-year membership with Vinyl Me Please back in September 2015. For those of you who don't know how it works, VMP is an online record store/community. They provide you with an "Album of the Month" which is printed in a special color, might include a booklet, special features among other things. The album also comes with artwork by a featured artist and a cocktail recipe (I'm not a drinker so I toss them or give them to my brother when he lived here). Then once a month at noon EST the membership store is open to members. Here you can shop for a handful of different albums depending on their picks for the month along with merchandise (speakers, hats, hoodies). The scenario goes like this every month; some albums are new releases, some are re-releases, some are box sets. All free of shipping charges. When I first joined I picked up an average of at least 3 albums a month not including their Album of the Month. When they had their "90s" theme of albums I bought 9 in that month of December. I feel I peaked in July with almost 7 albums and then rarely ordered more than 1 or 2 from the store each passing month.

I feel like I have hit a plateau in terms of albums available that interest me. Not all of their monthly albums were that great in my opinion (most I've never heard of) and you only get 1 swap (you can trade it out for another album of the month from the back stock). Currently the membership price went up to $307 which is $25 for each Album of the Month (which sucks if you don't like the AotM). My main peeve is the membership store opens immediately at 12 noon. I am not allowed on my phone until 1 at my job. In a span of that hour going by when I can finally log on my phone, nearly everything I wanted from the store is out of stock! It's like a crazed Black Friday experience of customers crashing the server and particular albums being in demand. They sell out within minutes. It got so frustrating I just gave up. I feel there is also a severe lack of female artists in the catalog too. Overall joining this music community was exciting at first but now almost 2 years in, it's losing flavor. As many concerts as I attend, purchasing the album there at the show (handing the actual artist the money) is better than buying it online. Yes the special edition or colored vinyl is fantastic but vinyl is vinyl. It plays the same, you are getting the same songs no matter which version you buy.  

Here's the kicker. I guess I'm not the only person with the same opinions on my membership. Ironically after claiming reasons they "raised membership prices," they are now letting you have "unlimited swaps" (why this wasn't the case earlier?) and are now letting you curate your genres in music (I'm guessing they will have a survey you fill out with your likes/interests to enhance your shopping experience). This is great and all but still, the "open at noon" is still super annoying. This is why come August I am terminating my membership. Will I go back? Maybe for a month depending on who the Album of the Month is or the membership store picks. But for now I'd rather stick to what I know best, record stores (especially the mom and pop shops that need to stay in business so they don't get overrun by internet sales)