Wax and Wane: The Tough Realities Behind Vinyl's Comeback

Corporate radio, I'm sure you're right, but I actually heard my local listener-supported jazz station (KCSM) play some old vinyl the other night (maybe something that never made it to digital). I could hear the surface noise and everything.

 

The night that Scott Miller's death became public knowledge, Evan Davies on WFMU scrapped his entire night's show and just played old Game Theory and Loud Family records. The pops and crackles on the fadeout of "Regenisraen" sounded incredibly moving to me.

 

A local college station here plays a lot of vinyl -- sounds great on the radio.

 

Although the sound quality of what was on Napster was bad the sheer range of music available was stunning. EVERYTHING was available, no matter how obscure. Same for Kaazaa. They were great days for discovering new music

 

I agree with this. I was able to access (and try out) music. I couldn't afford to purchase every album I had some interest in, but never really heard (youtube has helped that now). If I really liked something, I would support the artist and purchase the record. If I didn't, it was deleted.

 

+1

Where else could you find an obscure Charley Patton record from 1929, prior to youtube? I "previewed" a lot of new music through those sites, as well.

 

It's a demonstration of the aging Hoffman board demographic that vinyl threads devolve into vinyl-versus-CD debates-- when the rise of vinyl has much more to say about the newer, younger culture of streaming, mp3, and downloads. If the vinyl revival signifies a rejection of anything, it's rejection of that culture and not of CDs.

 

Great story! Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-----VINYL RULES. I never would have thought that people would finally use their own ears and hear what they were missing with digital. CDs, like cassettes, were great for portability, but not for ultimate sound. Long Live Vinyl!

 

OK, for what it's worth here's the RC edition that has the vinyl weight article - June 2014. Look at the right side of the cover. Has anyone read this?

 

Well said.

 

Very interesting and engaging reply! I love your point that essentially expresses that there is a trade off with either format....vinyl does have surface noise and digital audio can be fatiguing. I probably need to add that I definitely have heard some very fine sounding digital music. However, I think part of the issue is that you can mess up either format in the mastering process, and there are plenty of examples of this with both formats. And part of it is simply having an educated ear and knowing the material you are listening to really well. Then you can start to notice some differences between the two formats and make an educated choice. Sometimes, when the recording and mastering is well done, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference...until the surface noise comes out with the vinyl. But for me, its a comforting noise....to others I can totally understand how they don't get how we can tolerate that "noise!"

I didn't look up confirmation bias, but I will take the liberty of assuming that if you hear a format you like, or you take out a regular recording of something and then play the audiophile version, you are predisposed to like the one you are "supposed" to like. I totally get that and agree I have been guilty of such. That is a very strange phenomenon that certainly exists, though it seems odd as to why that would be regarding audio. But I agree its true. All I can say is that in my case, I enjoy the experience of listening to vinyl more, even with the faults, than digital because I prefer the surface noise to fatigue. I grew up with vinyl so perhaps it is because I am used to it. Kind of like living with your spouse's faults! You learn to live with it and probably would not leave her over them, and in some instances learn to even like her faults over time because you know the alternatives are probably not any better. We love what we are used to. And, I like the process of flipping through my hundreds of albums, seeing the art and taking the album out of it's cover, and reading the liner notes from time to time. It is more engaging....others would say it would be a huge hassle. And both would be right. I just like the whole vinyl experience. I no longer felt any real connection to my music when listening to it digitally, though I still do in my car.

At the end of the day, you and I know what we love, and we are lucky that both formats have incredible strengths! Enjoyed reading your reply.

 

All good and valid points! And if I made it sound like many agree with my points, it wasn't really a conscious thing I did, but probably because of commentsI have read in other posts here over the years that seem to say some of the same things. Bottom line is both formats, as you stated, can sound fantastic. It's what the mastering engineers do to the elements before we hear them that really make the difference, for better or worse.

 

I would suggest that vinyl and "mp3 culture" go hand-in-hand for many young people (and, increasingly, for myself). More and more new LPs come with download cards instead of with a physical CD inside: of the recent new LPs I've bought, the new Black Keys album came with a CD, but the new Drive-By Truckers, Jason Isbell, and most of the recent Record Store Day titles I bought came with a download card. As the band Magazine once sang, I believe, the CD format is getting shot from both sides in this equation: buy a new LP with a download card and you get a more aesthetically-pleasing, better-sounding physical media object than the CD to listen to when you're at home, and a vastly more convenient and portable digital option than the CD (with 99% of its sound quality) to listen to in the car and at work. There is a whole generation of artists from the past five or so years whose catalog I own this way: on LP and mp3/FLAC download, with no CD on the CD shelf. I pretty much only buy new CDs to keep up my collection of older artists from the CD era: I have every R.E.M. album on CD, so I picked up the new R.E.M. Unplugged CD just to sit on the shelf next to all of my other R.E.M. CDs, but when I listen to the album at home, I listen to the vinyl, and when I'm not home, I listen to it on my phone. I don't think I've ever even taken the Unplugged CDs out of their sleeve, because of Amazon AutoRip, which put the album on my phone before the CD showed up at my house. Pretty much the only CDs I ever even bother to play at home anymore are the DCC/AF gold discs; if it weren't for those I would easily go months without playing a CD.

 

There is a valid discussion to be had that the vinyl trend right now isn't 100% driven by sound quality. Materialism/collector OCD/fashionable trend also seem to play into more than anyone wants to admit. Looking at the top selling vinyl albums, I'd say more than 15% of the titles wouldn't offer a major sonic upgrade over the cd counterpart.

There's still more "bonus tracks" on cd(including deluxe editions bonus discs) than on vinyl. iTunes and retailer exclusive(ie: target cd bonus tracks) may also be more plentiful than vinyl exclusive tracks.

 

Well I can offer a reference as a dealer.

I have a Pawnshop, and a few years ago we made a decision to get CDs. We would have maybe 4000 in stock. Most of it's pretty unexciting but it sells. Lots of Greatest hits and that sort of thing. We do make an effort to get cool stuff as well.

We are in Australia..(stuff is, and always has been more expensive over here) . And we sell em for 5 bucks. We have a disc cleaner and clean them up like new, warrant them in that if they don't work they can bring them back.

What we are noticing is that people are more inclined to spend 5 bucks and have a physical copy of the music rather than pay for a download or steal a album via torrent sites. It's not so much about quality it's more about having it for ever and value for money.

I think people are going to regret unloading their CD collections for next to nothing.

 

Amen brudda. Back at ya!

 

I agree. We have to be realistic about it. Are you really going to hear a sonic upgrade if you're using a Crosley?

We have to accept that people are getting into vinyl for a lot of different reasons. Not everyone is in it for the SQ. There's nothing wrong with that either, generally speaking.

I'm on FB and there are several record collecting type groups. I always see posts from people showing their latest garage sale score. It's fun to see other people enjoying the hobby even if none of those records would interest me or I know they aren't the best sounding versions of those albums out there. But if they like hunting down records for $1 all the power to them. We all end up in the same place even if we take a different route.

 

I couldn't believe an email I got from one of the online vinyl vendors. It featured bundled vinyl titles matched with...Crosley tables! I guess your point is well taken, but those turntables are doing the hobby no good!

 

Oh I agree. There's a record store in town that sells them and it always annoys me when I walk in. I wish they would stop selling them.

 

My local record store sells el cheapo USB tables, not Crosleys, but some horrible piece of plastic junk. I also wish they didn't exist, but if those new to the hobby were forced to drop $500 right off the bat on a decent entry-level table, there wouldn't be so many new to the hobby.

 

This is already starting to happen! The "sale" bins at Newbury Comics are starting to increase substantially in size. Caught 3 records the other day for $20 (Bettie Serveert's latest $13, Mmoths EP $4, Lilac EP $3). Then yesterday got Shellac's Terraform for $20 as well. Not a super deal but far cheaper than the $40 it's been going for on the interwebs.

 

I think they ALL should exist. Sure I still would love for some company to make a quality portable or desktop record player like the table magnavoxes some of us had in the 60s. Something for around $300. There IS market. I know everyone here hates the Crosleys but they helped introduce younger folks to vinyl. S people don't know how to get into components or don't have the room. They just want a record player. Also seeing DJS play dances more than bands. Bittersweet yes, but helped bring back vinyl.

 

Those Crosley players are really REALLY bad.

Now, I am old enough to remember the good (but not as good as you think) old days when vinyl was king. Your average schmo wanting to play vinyl and without a bankroll would either have something like a SoundDesign all-in-one, or else some ghetto separates with either a low end BSR/Gerrard or (somewhat later) BIC turntable.

Those low end options sounded like crap. But the turntables in them were STILL better than the Crosley stuff...Not good, mind you. Not good AT ALL. But better.

And it was the unwashed masses who had these types of setups who ran to CDs. Because, without any question, CDs sounded WAY better than the sound coming out of their analog systems.

Anyone who is today buying a Crosley along with $25/slab vinyl is not buying for sound quality...and once they're past the age where their peers care about what music they listen to or own (think 25+), it will be stored away with the slabbed baseball cards. Whether the next generation will care remains to be seen.

 

Thats why I said there is a market for a good all in one table version

 

Rainbo is running 6-8 months right now. I know they have a rep for bad quality pressings, mostly due the Beatles set and such, but I've had very little problems with them, no nonfill, very very few rejected test pressings in 8 years. But yeah honestly, I'm leaving those guys. Missing every date we've set, I've got records that were supposed to be finished several months ago, still getting delayed for months on end. I feel kinda stupid for defending em on another post, but their quality I have never had a real issue with, lately the turnaround has been insane, and they're treating all the independent labels like wee're just being a thorn in their side and put us all on the last back burner available while they cater to the majors. I've finally had enough of that place. When this vinyl resurgance is over, it's gonna be the independent labels that prop up these plants like we have for 30 years, and the indies aren't going to forget how we've been treated. Something crazy is going on over at Rainbo, interested to see what the hell is going on, if workers are quitting, or if they are just pissing around with labels that aren't pressing tens of thousands at a time.

I think we might do a combo of Bill Smith and MPO after the new year. Just hope people will pay more for a hardcore/streepunk release that's high quality. We'd certainly have to up the retail price to 16-17.98 after switching. I wish people into underground and punk/hardcore music were more concerned with quality than they are. It's really a shame that a lot of kids could care less what their records sound like. I'm a audio snob, that doesn't jive well with the genre of music I put out haha.

But yeah, I've got 4 records pending at Rainbo, that's a ton of money just sitting around in limbo, waiting for when they "get a chance to slow down and take on our stuff". Been there for almost 8 years, and all the sudden they seem like they want nothing to do with us, too busy doing mainstream records by bigger labels. Almost enough to shut smaller labels down. This vinyl resurgence in my opinion sucks. Because most of the kids buying this stuff are simply buying cd sourced represses on wacky colors and would rather hang em on the wall than listen to em, and it's backing up the plants in perpetuity for those of us pressing new music. I think over the next year, we're all gonna see a ton of major label releases, and a drastic shortage of independent releases.