Why the Vinyl Boom is Over - WSJ

Its completely dead , vinyl sucks

ALL prices must be slashed 75%

 

The sales #'s don't account for used vinyl sales which I'd assume is much higher. Most non-rookie consumers aren't going to pay $50+ for a colored double 45rpm from low-res digital sources, when much of the time, for the same price or less, they can get a better sounding used original in a record store or ebay etc.

 

So what about those of us who also listen to new albums by current artists? I always forget how many people here only mean "new reissues of old records" when they talk about "new vinyl."

 

Three pages on an article that no one can read. It's like those threads on artists that no one has ever heard.

 

I buy lots of new vinyl (now playing The Residents' The Ghost Of Hope, purchased earlier today), and I never seem to get bad pressings.

Like, never.

 

The entire article is in post #12.

 

Yes it is, especially when you consider the growth rates of the previous few years. But it's hardly ever mentioned in discussions.

 

Yes

You mean unlike another Beatles thread?

 

I'd still say used records accounts for higher percentage.

 

I posted the text of the article about halfway down the first page

 

The people criticizing others for not reading are the ones who aren't reading.

That's pretty funny.

 

I read that as "a mom threw down over $600 of vinyl onto her son."

 

I love the way CD fanboys get so fiery over the idea that there's an option besides CD for physical media again after CD people essentially owned everything during the 90s and 00s. It's like they treat it as someone they thought they murdered in high school (and hid the body somewhere nobody would find it) but turned out to just be in hiding until they came back to haunt them.

 

This is what pisses me off.

 

So what you're saying is, The music biz is killing the vinyl fad itself.

 

Right, Many vinyl buyers are getting used vinyl as well as new vinyl. There are millions of used records out there. I mean vinyl has been in print for what 80 years? One could easily just buy used vinyl and compile a large collection and never be included in vinyl sales data. Not to mention used turntables have a much longer life span than used cd players.

 

I with you, very rarely do I have to return any new records. Perhaps less than 10 over many years. The new Elton John and Joe Bonamassa records I just bought are very nice pressings indeed.

 

WSJ...doesn't that stand for "Worthless Sensational Journalism"?

 

Vinyl isn't over, but our patience to accept subpar product at elevated prices sure is!

There's good and bad in that. The good: labels can't just mindlessly crank stuff out for a quick hit and run profit. (Well, they can, but they'll be shamed on social media for it and their reputation will take a hit.)
On the flip side, the cash cows subsidize the quirkier titles (as with all media) and if there are no cash cows, we may see less willingness to reissue rare albums from label back catalogs.

Hmmm.

 

It's over. Go ahead and send all your crappy vinyl discs to me so I can properly dispose of them

 

This isn't really unique to the vinyl resurgence though. The non-transparency of source materials has been going on since the very first CD reissues IMO. It's just that now, they are getting more slick with the verbiage. Back then, it seems they used whatever tapes were laying around, and as long as it said "digitally remastered from the master tapes", people were thrilled. I'm still amazed that Barry Diament got such good sounding discs from the crummy tapes he said he usually had to work with.

 

Consider yourself lucky. I've returned many records to Amazon in the past few years. Many of them were United pressings.

 

I've had to return many as well and finally gave up using amazon.

 

I am at the point where I automatically assume records are from digital files, if nothing is noted about source. It's the records that are advertised with wording like from original tapes which are actually digital file sourced. Oh well...

 

Yeah, I think at this point it's pretty safe to assume they are digital unless they make a big deal about it.