Time for the Vinyl Revival to GET REAL

You may want a labeling system, but it probably won’t happen because It doesn’t appear to be hurting sales.

 

Nearly all the new music I buy is on vinyl.

 

They won't do a AAA system or suchlike. They're scared you'll find out how many new vinyl releases are digitally sourced.

 

I do my research on each pressing. This may sound like a lot of work. But when you consider that most high quality new stuff is going to run $25-$50 per title, I want to know what I'm spending my money on.

This forum has a wealth of info on each classic album and good reviews on the new stuff. What NOT to buy as much as what sounds great. The used vinyl search is also a fun pastime.

 

I think our interest in vinyl is really about nostalgia.

Although I still have a turntable and a lot of albums and do play some, I've been happy with "Psuedo vinyl." for the last ten years. Gives me a bit of nostalgia from any era.

 

I'm more concerned that most of these LPs are not AAA!

 

I agree with @cwitt1980 that the vinyl resurgence could seriously slowdown if a major global recession occur. This is combined with a major glut of vinyl records flooding the market from terribad grey-market European public domain releases, crummy releases on LP, and countless unnecessary releases during Record Store Day. It doesn't help that bottom-of-the-barrel companies simply slap their brand names from OEM companies making suitcase portable players and very low-end record players from Hanpin are taking advantage of the whole vinyl record trend either. In my opinion, these trends give vinyl records a wrong idea. It's an out-dated medium, not a panacea to the "cold digital" sound crapola or whatever.

A whole lot of it is purely cynical marketing with the fetishism towards "warm sound" and "crackle pops" nonsense. I still think this vinyl record trend could be in deep trouble in the near future if the next global recession or a cataclysmic event were to occur.

 

I think YOUR interest in vinyl is really about nostalgia. Not mine. I buy new releases almost exclusively.

 

Yeah, I know. My initial comment was more in response to the guy's assertion that there wasn't any new music being released. I'm so tired of hearing this dusty crapola that I posted quickly to get it out of my system and wasn't very clear. Some sources estimate that as many as 100,000 new albums are released each year across all formats, which dwarfs the number of unique releases in the past.

Out of that batch, surely even the crankiest of old men can find dozens, nay, hundreds, of titles available on vinyl that might interest them. Factor in all cranky old men currently living in the USA alone and that's more than enough potential sales to keep a "revival" going. A lot of available vinyl doesn't even show up on marketplace sites. Bandcamp is filled with new music and plenty of the artists offer vinyl, but none of that is showing up on Amazon or Music Direct.

 

I have noticed fewer pressing defects among new releases I have bought in the past year or so. I wonder if the plants are actually improving, if labels are starting to use the better plants more, or if I’m just getting lucky? I definitely don’t find one in three unlistenable...

 

Well... That's two opinions, innit?

Eastern European vinyl production factories improving?

 

Regarding AAA, etc., it would be nice to know what you’re buying, sure, but they’re not going to advertise that unless it’s an audiophile label that is specifically selling AAA pressings at a premium price. I tend to assume some digital is involved unless specified otherwise. I’m not too worried about it, though, as I have plenty of digital-sourced records that sound very good.

 

I see the "there's no good music these days" canard flinging around and it cuts across all demographics and genres alike. Usually, this is perpetuated by gatekeepers, journalists, elitists, curmudgeons, and edgy kids.

The Internet exists for people to discover something new. If it wasn't for the Internet, my music taste would be severely stagnated.

 

For me, it's merely about SQ. The medium is inconvenient and a chore to acquire, store, clean, play but it can oftentimes sound better than any other release of the same album which is why I stick with it.

I can only speak for myself but nostalgia plays no part whatsoever in my playing it. I'd be happier being able to download albums and queue them up with a couple of clicks of a mouse but I go wherever the SQ takes me.

What's pseudo vinyl? Are you referring to LPs pressed from a digital source? Some will sound fantastic and some will sound utterly terrible. All is on a per-release basis.

 

I wonder how many of the folks who complain on this forum about a lack of new music have ever had any interest in finding it. There are a lot of people here who have convinced themselves that all radio sucks based solely on their local FM station without exploring the options easily available to them these days online.

 

This doesn't surprise me if there is a sizable portion of posters on this forum who have this myopic view of recent music.

Though it can be argued that people's taste in music peaked at age 33 on average, according to this news article from a Spotify study: Spotify Study Finds That Musical Taste Stagnates At Age 33

Music fans who constantly seek to explore new artists and genres are an outlier in the grand scheme of things.

 

I go with sound quality first. AAA is nice, no doubt. But it's a slippery slope too. What I mean is that a AAA title is normally going to run you 2x the cost (or more) because you need the original tape, special mastering, cutting facilities and the technicians who can work well in that environment. After all that, you could be better off searching out an analog era pressing that sounds just about as good for a fraction of the price. And then some of the new vinyl cut from high-res digital is dang good like you say. It's very subjective in the black hole known by the audiophile...

 

I agree except for the part about them asking what happened. They won't ask what happened because they won't really care. If you were to ask the industry now if they'll care when physical media disappears they will tell you no for the most part. They'd rather have everyone streaming or downloading.

 

...and therein possibly lies the subject of an entirely new thread: what new music is worthy of the level of effort required to produce a superior quality long playing album? I can continue to cherry-pick selections from eBay, but at some point I'm going to fulfill my vinyl want/need unless new product is forthcoming.

Then again, I do rotate some unwanted/duplicate content through a local trade-in shop, so it might take a bit longer...but eventually I'll arrive at critical mass.

 

I have a lot of clearly marked DMM discs, mostly classical issues from Decca, Hyperion and Deutsche Grammophon. They're out there.

 

You're reading too much into my post. The link was to one of my jukebox wall boxes, originally used to play...err..vinyl. Adapted to play mp3 files. Hence "Psuedo vinyl."

Let's not get too intense over something so trivial.

 

No intensity in my reply whatsoever and I thank you for clearing up what was meant by pseudo vinyl.

 

Gluts mean you get to buy cheap. It's not like vinyl is going anywhere and even if they stopped production today, there's going to be some source you can go to.

 

From my anecdotal observations, I still see a glut of European public domain releases, Record Store Day exclusives from years ago, and reissues from terrible labels that sit for many years at full retail price. Since new vinyl records sit on razor-thin profit margins for brick and mortar shops (after considering wages, taxes, etc.), I rarely see "new" records that have its prices slashed. In my opinion, it's still a glut.

 

You must be very lucky, or are probably buying different stuff than I'm buying. Lots of pressing defects lately and I don't buy much from the lower end plants. The higher end plants have been slipping lately IME/IMHO.