I have just been looking at the website of a local record store. Wow, just wow!
I got out of vinyl in 2015. I now stream with an NDX2 and have no regrets.
I was looking at the price of records, and my jaw dropped. All prices in canadian dollars.
275$ for a used record of Dark side of the moon.
95$ for a new copy of Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.
220$ for a new box set of 4 lps of Come Away with me by Norah Jones.
I get CD quality from Tidal at 11.99$ per month (soon to be High-res).
No record cleaning with streaming, no static, no taking up space with records in my home either.
I am happy I got out of the vinyl rabbit hole 9 years ago
When I had a vinyl setup, I spent more time fiddling with the record player, cleaning records than listening to music. I was more into the gear and collecting.
Oh no, not again , please.
We will have another battle between vinyl vs digital, the pros and coins of vinyl, the so imagined or theorised superiority of digital vs vinyl, my lp12 is the best turntable in world, rega vs linn, the digital transfer on vinyl today, the MOFI gate, and finally the same responses by the same persons as each year.
It would be interesting to know but I suspect the main purchasers of vinyl (numbers wise) these days are youngsters playing LPs on relatively low-fi turntables for the novelty/fun aspects rather than those who still have their high-end turntables.
The LP12 is still my best playback source, but for several reasons I don’t use it as often as I’d like - I still buy albums occasionally but several recent ones remain unopened/unplayed - I may have older copies but didn’t want to lose out on items maybe with limited appeal and low numbers pressed.
You’re right about storage - CDs/LPs/DVDs/BluRay can take up a huge amount of space especially now can replace much of it for audio or video.
Not only vinyl prices which seem very high, yesterday this recent release was nearly £70 on compact cassette!
There’s been quite a bit of coverage of Record Store Day here in the UK, on Radio Four over the weekend. Aside from the ceremony of actually playing vinyl records, or vinyls as I’m learning to call them, one of the contributors also mentioned that a record collection is a life curated in music. This rang true for me. As ever, not for everyone.
I’m not going to defend my enjoyment of vinyl; been doing so for decades, via only two LP12s, the second one with Aro.
Well understand, it doesn’t appeal to all. Live and enjoy, your ymmv!
As to the costs, several factors:
Low production runs (against historic levels)
Rarity factor if some of the special re-releases have a restricted number - appeals to collectors
Likely lack of wide scale production capacity for pressings
Scarcity of raw materials (previous thread here some time ago)
Niche markets have always had special pricing
I’m off to a vinyl shop this week for a particular album, more of a treat than anything.
I have a nice collection, which provokes lots of memories.
Absolutely delighted that you have found your music listening niche, superb result well done.
Me, well I like vinyl, CD, Streaming, live and radio, happy to listen to music in just about any format that’s available.
My vinyl collection stretches back to the mid 70’s, my CD collection the mid 80’s, I attended my first live performance at 14 at the New Theatre in Oxford nearly 50 years ago. I am no way ready to commit to one musical source at the moment as I don’t find one format better than another, I just listen to whatever takes my mood.
As far as I am concerned here’s no rights or wrongs in how we listen to our music just personal choice.
I am not justifying anything.
I can understand if someone has a record collection they have had for years, keeping a turntable.
I just don’t understand why anyone without any records would start in 2024.
Nightmare. If only there was a physical source that’s long-established, uncompressed and high quality, but also currently unfashionable and therefore cheap as chips.
I just repaired a Rega Planar 3 for a friend and built him a basic system around it because he wanted to rekindle his love of vinyl. You should see the smile on his face when I played him his favourite Bowie album. Priceless.
None of us have to justify our choices, we do what is right for each of us, some will, like you, have moved across to a fully streamed setup, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Equally there will be some who have become fascinated with vinyl and decided to bite the bullet and get involved today, bought their first TT and vinyls today and as I write this are enjoying their first ever vinyl listening session.
You’re happy doing what you’re doing, others are happy doing things their way, it doesn’t matter about cost or anything else.
It’s all about choice, no rights or wrongs, just choice.
, please.
