Will Vinyl Ever Get Cheap Again?

I would suggest buying what you like and what comes highly recommended sonic wise. Anything else is a c**pshoot, unless it is an expensive boxset by a well known artist. Many artists will simply fall out of favor.

 

I agree with your last three words!

 

Right, and some vinyl. But of late, his vinyl has been reasonably priced. Pleasantly surprised. For a while (10 years ago) his new vinyl went for $30--I passed.

 

When the high price of new vinyl negatively impacts the sales of it, nothing would make me happier than the return of vinyl cut-out bins.

 

True. I miss the time when his 70s albums could be found in the used bins for a few Dollars. I should have bought more.

 

Yeah, but it would be nice to get some cheaper option.

At the moment, I wondering about some Sonic Youth reissues that Universal are blowing out for £9 each (about $12-13).

 

I wish I could go back to the 80s and buy Prince.

 

For convenience and usually cost, cds win hands down. That's as far as I agree with your argument, because you're denying several important things.

If you get a good record (admittedly you can be unlucky sometimes) it will sound more natural and lifelike than a cd. Modern remasters usually pump up the volume and lose the subtlety and air. An original record is like a piece of history. Like an antique piece of furniture vs a cheap reproduction. There's something amazing about finding and owning a NM original record that you forgot to pick up in the 1970s or 80s. They are just better and they give you a buzz - they are a great thing to have. It has a tangible class (sound and artwork), which cds (which are a bit cheap and throwaway) never will . However, I will qualify that - I was in Rough Trade East yesterday and it's full of brand new reissues from 2017/2018 on vinyl. The sleeves were often blurry and I'll bet that in a lot of cases the sound is blurry too - it's just not the same (although I did pick up TheThe's Radio Cineola Trilogy on vinyl and Germfree Adolescents on yellow/green splatter vinyl)

I sort of don't see the point of cds now that there are flac downloads, but there is still a point to hunting down and owning/enjoying an original first press vinyl record.
The original presses will only ever go up in price because if owners/sellers don't look after them they will forever deteriorate, but there's no excuse for new reissues being so costly if vinyl continues to grow in popularity.
No excuse, but there is a reason - the age-old one of the music industry trying to squeeze as much dosh out of its consumer base as possible for as little effort as possible.
'Twas ever thus.

 

Speaking of which, has anybody been by their local Target or Urban Outfitters to see if the LPs are marked down after Christmas?

 

Yours

 

I agree about the original pressings. Had a bunch of traffic LPs I bought in the early 80s. They sounded ok to me. Better than the CDs. Just found a bunch of original pressings at my local record store (Who knew they were originally in gatefold sleeves!) and they sound amazing. Even 'Shootout at the Fantasy Factory' Which was never one of my favorites sounds like they are jamming in my room.

 

CDs have no point now. Digital is streamed not played in a machine anymore.

 

Exaggerate much?

 

LOL

 

CDs are just a storage medium. Nothing more. Try to replicate the grooves in a record....I dare ya.

 

Recently I took out a few library CD's and was informed that they are no longer purchasing new CD's in the county - looks like like they are moving towards their digital options more now.

Granted, they aren't buying LP's either but it seems to be another indicator of where things are headed.

 

*YAWN*

 

Oh, yeah -- the 90s were great for picking up LPs. People everywhere were dumping their collections for next to nothing, just to get rid of them. Thrift and second-hand stores were selling them for as little as 10-25 cents a piece; even the most"expensive" ones were going for $3-5. I loaded up, and I'm glad now that I did, because there's no way I would pay the current prices that LPs appear to be fetching. Not when there are CDs, which are now regarded by people as the worthless throw-aways, and are cheap, cheap, cheap!

 

I'm in no way against CD's, for I have many and still play them. But I've always felt that those who think the "new vinyl movement" is new, apparently haven't realized that it's only new to those who haven't had the chance to enjoy music on what was its inherent format for the bulk of the past 100 years!

 

70 years!

 

Give it about a decade.

3D printing technology schematic of the grooves on a RL LZ II finds its way on a torrent, and now suddenly anyone with a 3D printer at home can print out their own version.

 

Well, 70 counts as a pretty good bulk of 100.

 

At which point the debate moves to "This copy was 3D-scanned at 12-trillion pixels-per-inch... it's obviously superior to previous copies scanned at a mere 4-billion pixels-per-inch."

 

IMHO, I don't see the price of vinyl coming down anytime soon. That said, I do what I can to minimize my TCA (Total Cost of Acquisition). I hunt for good (VG+) quality LP's in my "secret spots" and am often able to get finds for under $5 that are in great shape and play well. Then there are times I really want something and will pay retail for it. I offset the high cost of "new" vinyl with the treasures I find while hunting. Not only does this keep my average $/LP low, hunting for the nuggets is part of the fun of the hobby IMHO