Are all these Special Edition records gonna kill the industry

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Bhob, Sep 16, 2018.

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  1. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    Of course - but as I said, people have bought into it, so they're willing to pay way over-the-top for items that have no reason to be scarce in the first place.

    It's bad news because a) There are people who want to buy and enjoy music, but are unable to because either a release is unecessarily scarce, or it has been priced out of their range; b) It encourages more of the same. So for example, when the likes of Tull and Bowie get scarce, you know something is wrong.

    The whole idea of a fair price has gone out the window.
     
  2. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    It's the record shops that get stuck with surplus stock that will suffer and not the labels. These expensive sets appear to sell well enough for Amazon not to reduce prices on them for a long time. Find the coloured vinyl most annoying as this is clearly aimed at collectors or vinyl newbies rather than good sound quality. It appears £100 is becoming the norm for 3/4 LP sets including extra material (that you listen to once only). This is outrageous being close to MFSL one step releases in price. I'm wondering if vinyl is now subing the lack of high profit from digital products.
     
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  3. Zongadude

    Zongadude Music is the best

    Location:
    France
    It is my understanding that these Special Edition records are gonna SAVE the industry.
    In a world where there are less and less people buying physical records, the only way to make a difference is to propose more than just the music: nice packagings, extras, goodies, etc... to appeal to the hardcore fans.
    Because only the hardcore fans are buying cs and records today. And hardcore fans are able to spend plenty of money for Deluxe Editions, so its all good for the industry to follow that path. :)
     
    pghmusiclover likes this.
  4. dance_hall_keeper

    dance_hall_keeper Forum Resident

    From what I've been reading lately, they have become very popular as a "venting outlet" for music fans' opinions.
     
  5. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Personally I don't care that much. I guess one simply has to select more carefully when it comes to these boxes. Of which we are definitely experiencing an overkill at the moment. Not just reissues, new albums too.

    The coloured vinyl hype by the likes of Newbury or Vinyl Me Please is a different beast, I guess coloured vinyl reissues are more aimed at "hipsters" or new collectors that think anything advertised as "limited edition" makes for an instant collectable. And I'm saying this as someone who always loved the limited colour variant of a brandnew release - like Sub Pop's Loser Edition. But stuff from the 60's/ 70's/ 80's as new colour reissue? No thanks!
     
  6. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    I've been saying it for a while. Record companies are not going to want to totally kill physical product. Why would they? Vinyl is seen as relatively piracy free, and is very buoyant given fans are willing to pay massively over-the-top for it. Press too few, make it pretty colors, and you can milk it again and again with large margins.

    Well, two things. Firstly, those declining sales? 170m albums were sold in the US last year (2017). Less yes, but it's not insignificant. It's easy to throw around the "declining sales" numbers, but I think we should be careful and sensible when we do it - they're talking about a decline from a high. Same as they do with Vinyl sales. They keep going on about how Vinyl is re-surging, but you have to consider it's a resurgence from an all-time low. Therefore, the numbers will always be flattering.

    Secondly - the labels helped create the situation of declining sales by giving away their assets - the music - to streaming sites. They were battling piracy, and chose this path. Because the business has been run by myopic executives for years, they never see the truck coming until they're bouncing off the back axle.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2018
    Zongadude likes this.
  7. Zongadude

    Zongadude Music is the best

    Location:
    France
    I totally agree.
    And now their only chance, is to target the fat wallet of the 40 and 50 years old "fans" who still enjoy physical records and crave Deluxe Editions.
     
  8. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    That and China. The industry wants to break into China big time due to the numbers involved. Doing that with Physical product is a massive undertaking - but streaming? Much much easier. As they look to new markets they'll be thinking the easiest, fastest, and cheapest method available: AKA - throw another server up.
     
    Zongadude likes this.
  9. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    If it looks good and sounds good + i can afford it I'll get it
     
  10. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    Vinyl fad has it's days numbered.
    As other poster says here, people will get tired of storing records at home. Nowadays people increasingly got rid of physical objects
     
    Giacomo Belbo likes this.
  11. Markyp

    Markyp Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louth
    I think in some respects the future of vinyl and indeed physical music media is in danger.
    I don’t know the answer but I wonder what the % of vinyl sales is new reissues of old stuff?
    The main market for that is the 40+ age group with more disposable income. We grew up with vinyl but there’s a limit to the existence of this market and with how many times we will in many cases rebuy stuff we already have.
    The purposefully press in limited quantities so they can issue again in a few years but with slight differences. So we have the urge to get it while we can and then in 4-5 years are tempted by a different or similar pressing.
    The days are gone when vinyl is pressed and that version is available for years and years unchanged.
     
  12. L.P.

    L.P. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austria
    I was nearly done collecting CDs because I had almost everything I needed, and now I finally have a turntable again and I really feel how I start to fetishize the big covers and the colored vinyl.

    But I try to hold myself back, because the prices are ridiculous. What really annoys me that they charge double the price for a double album. It used to be the same with CDs long ago. The Basement Tapes or The White Album did cost as much as two full price CDs when I first bought them (with Austrian Schillings, years before the €). And you thought, ok, I also get twice as much. Later it turned out how minimal the production costs of a CD were, so twice the money was a little bit much. Now it's the same again with vinyl. 30-40€ for double double albums.
     
  13. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    Credit to the music biz. They've convinced people that 180g is necessary and especially desirable. They've also managed to convince them that the color of the Vinyl is important. Why not, there can be endless colors. The 180g means older pressings are obsolete.

    Back in the day, an album might come out on a colored disc, but good old black was common for the most part - because, you know, colored Vinyl just sounded worse. By taking out the black - in some cases entirely - they've created an "exclusive". Brilliant stuff.

    As you stated, "The days are gone when vinyl is pressed and that version is available for years and years unchanged." Again, a masterstroke of marketing. There is no good reason for this to be the case. It's completely manufactured and accepted by punters. In reality, they can make as many as they want, but they've worked out they're better off turning the tap down so far that there's a trickle, rather than a flood. By doing this they keep prices high, and that's the reason it's done.
     
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  14. Pizza

    Pizza With extra pepperoni

    Location:
    USA
    Then collectibles aren’t your thing. Some folks like to collect. I used to but not so much now. Still, I like color vinyl, laser-etched, picture discs and stuff. I bought an album last year because it was on color vinyl and for that reason only. It brought me some joy.
     
    If I Can Dream_23 likes this.
  15. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    I get it. People drink to oblivion, collect glass dolls, there is evena guy who collects plastic cutlery from McDonald's. However, in this particular case, I'm here because I'm a music lover, and that's my passion. This "collectable" thing is, at best, a tangent of that.

    Worse though - RSD puts out things normal fans can't get hold of without being dragged into this crazy world where prices explode and availability is tight - and that's when, yes, it's a problem, imo. Hence the "collectables aren't your thing", doesn't really apply. Collectables aren't, but the music is.
     
  16. Pizza

    Pizza With extra pepperoni

    Location:
    USA
    Music is first and foremost, no doubt. I’m not a fan of Record Store Day and avoid it. But I still like color vinyl or an autograph on a jacket. And I have framed a few things and hung them up in my music room.
     
  17. The industry is moving in toto towards a collectibles model for physical media.
     
  18. 200 Balloons

    200 Balloons Forum Resident

    Vinyl records aren't a necessity to have on-demand music in 2018 the way they were in 1968. They're an expensive, inconvenient luxury product now. If colored pressings make vinyl more appealing to younger people, I fail to see the problem. Unless there's some reason to believe that there's widespread speculation of the special edition releases, I also fail to see the problem.
     
  19. R. Cat Conrad

    R. Cat Conrad Almost Famous

    Location:
    D/FW Metroplex
    I doubt that special edition records will hurt the vinyl LP market, but as niche markets go it's always a dice roll what will peak a buyer's interest. As a non-turntable oriented buyer ...parish the thought!... I'm much more enthusiastic about special edition CD sets that have been doing quite well given the decline in CD sales in recent years.

    The trend seems to be completist sets of remastered legacy albums along with unreleased live concert performances and ...occasionally... live filmed performances on DVD and/or BD ( Wishbone Ash and Procol Harum immediately come to mind). How this relates to vinyl collectors is debatable, but if multiple packages are released in both digital and analog forms as "event" products coordinated with Anniversary releases, disbanded group's reforming for farewell tours, etc., it could be lucrative all around. My two cents, ...inflation adjusted.

    :cheers:
    Cat
     
  20. Diego Lucas

    Diego Lucas Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brazil
    I think it´s help the industry, but maybe one hour, when the reissues will be absolutely the same as always, things can be change.
     
  21. Fullbug

    Fullbug Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    We are amazingly tolerant and patient people. We have to wade through an incredible amount of junk to get to the good stuff.
     
    Vaughan likes this.
  22. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    The internet has killed the music industry in a lot of ways.
    It is good in that you can access more music.
    Streaming websites are not good as I think they pay the artist very little.
     
    Vaughan likes this.
  23. Mr-Beagle

    Mr-Beagle Ah, but the song carries on, so holy

    Location:
    Kent
    What bugs me are the deluxe issues that have extra tracks but also contain a blu ray disk and a couple of vinyl singles/LPs. I don't have a blu ray player or a turntable.
     
    Vaughan likes this.
  24. tinnox

    tinnox Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
  25. Giacomo Belbo

    Giacomo Belbo Journalist for Rolling Stone 1976-1979

    This is such a brilliant comment!

     
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