Would the economics of this work out?

I doubt it would be that popular, especially if the albums were also available on a non-subscription basis. Who the hell would have joined the Sub Pop singles club if you could just get the singles individually from your local record store?

But then you never know. Personally I would be reluctant to subscribe unless I'd heard recommendations from others who had already subscribed, or if the labels involved were ones I already trusted to release generally good stuff.

rough trade tried this in the early 90s on a small scale: i don't think it worked (but they were in big trouble anyway so maybe it did but just not super-well enough)

It might work but I doubt it. there's a whole aspect to buying/collecting music which is about scratching around in second hand shops and finding lost gems, or taping stuff of your mates - making discoveries for yourself. This idea kind of eliminates that, and I'd miss it.

My main emphasis here is on really obscure and unusual music. It's motivated by reading The Wire and thinking "God! I could never even track half of these CDs down, let alone afford to buy them." (A friend of mine subscribed to Unknown Public which was in the right direction, but I felt it was too expensive for too little music. ) But I'm not thinking of the things you might buy in the local HMV.

subscription clubs were very common in the 30s and 40s, when there were relatively few small labels: they mainly serviced classical listeners of slightly arcane taste — viz harpsichord music — and the package was pretty swish (swanky boxes of high quality 78s with additional literature)

with the coming of the hi-fidelity microgroove the upscale classical market was swallowed by the majors, but (if anything) even more generously serviced

i don't believe it's ever prospered outside the high-cult market, but i might be wrong (folkways for example might have had a subscription basis)

My friend told me the other day that he wants me to "do all his record shopping" for him. I said yes!! We'll see...

This idea would be great for people who love dance music but have no idea about the artists. Which is, roughly speaking, a fuck of a lot of people.

But tracer: that's what ministry of sound comps are for (and they do sell subscriptions, I think).

phil, you might want to check out something robert fripp of king crimson did on his label DGM - I think it was called the 'collector's club'. basically, people paid like 100-150 bucks or so up front, and got to pick from an ongoing series of king crimson-related archival releases, live shows and stuff, done up all pretty-like. the details were different from what you're proposing (for instance the market was target much more directly) but similar enough to make it worth a look.

Prophecy Productions (a german folk-oriented label) has a subscriptions service where you pay an X amount of money to get all their releases.

there should be an indie britannia club. every month they send you their recommended cd so long as it's by a recognised indie god, for example, mull historical society. then you get to purchase a minimum of six other indie cds. that would keep sales buoyant. if you had an advert at the back of the mail on sunday you magazine every week you could get publicity for lots of proper bands, e.g. chris t-t, or tom paulin.

but all subscribers would have to buy tigermilk first because if you don't have that then frankly you do not have a record collection.