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vinyl sales on the increase


PaulWarning
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just read this, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2796510/return-record-vinyl-set-sales-1996-sales-expected-past-one-million-mark.html
although I've got a turntable I've not bought vinyl in years, is it nostalgia or is there something in it? I can't really comment on the sound quality, although CD's do sound better these days now I've got a 3-4K Hz drop off in my hearing :)

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For the dying past time of "just sitting and listening", I have a significant preference for vinyl now that disc production quality is better, not to mention having a preference for how it sounds.

There was a long long thread here on basschat maybe some time last year about the audio and technical sound quality issues. It got a bit long-winded but generally ignored the fact that some people like apples, some oranges.

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The last "new" release vinyl I bought led to this conversation, which started off with "Hey man, is that a [i]record[/i]??" It wouldn't work the same with a download.



Free CD with it for £16 IIRC and on my system I do prefer the sound off the LP so I sent the CD (autographed) to a mate in the USA.

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Two things really. It's a physical product that can't be as easily copied (although most come with either a CD or download for free that rather negates that argument), and it's the size of the cover and it's artwork. Even a 7" single looks more impressive than a CD.

Vinyl quality has improved massively, although TBH it couldn't have got much worse than it had by the beginning of the 80s when almost everything seems to be pressed on just over flexi-disc weight and come pre-"relic'd" with pops and clicks even though it was straight out of a box you saw opened in from of you at the record shop.

Well mastered CDs will always be better sound quality, but the attraction of the vinyl format as a physical product can't be underestimated.

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The last vinyl LP I bought was in the late 80s . . . .er, hang on, nope I bought one this week featuring our very own Xilddx :) http://eccrecords.co.uk/shop/sheema/

Seriously, if I can be converted then anyone can . . . though I'll admit that the inclusion of a USB stick with all the songs in wav format did help!

But it did remind me what a backward step CDs were in terms of cover art.

I also agree with the dying art of "just sitting and listening", but I suspect that was more to do with vinyl having to be turned over every 20 mins or so, so you couldn't as easily be doing something else at the same time. After all, there's nothing inherent in CDs or even downloads that prevent people just "sitting down and listening" so I guess that constant music on the move, whenever and wherever, must be a preferred choice.

Also, there's now a generation of people growing up with no direct experience of music being related to anything physical at all. Everything is now online and at their fingertips - music, video, 'cover' art, band biogs, etc. Well, as long as they can afford a smartphone.

Gone are the days of rooms full of shelves packed full of LPs and avidly reading the sleeve notes while playing the records. Good or bad? I don't know really, but it's certainly different.

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must admit I get very bored just sitting and listening, like to be doing something else as well even if it's just reading the paper, listening while driving is quite pleasant, as is cycling with my mp3 player on, though a tad more dangerous, but I like to live life in the fast lane or in this case on the cycle track :)

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Thank you for buying it Fly! I really hope that having it on vinyl AND getting a pretty snazzy USB with the WAVs, AND having the gorgeous packaging makes the music experience a more immersive ritualistic experience. ECC are refusing to release it on iTunes and Amazon and what have you. This could be a good or bad thing, we'll find out soonish! But it is a philosophical decision from the record company.

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[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1413560528' post='2579618']
Gone are the days of rooms full of shelves packed full of LPs and avidly reading the sleeve notes while playing the records.
[/quote]
Not in my house it hasn't. I still have a few thousand LPs despite off-loading a couple of thousand in the last few years. :)

These 'Vinyl Revival' stories come out every year with TV and Newspapers covering them. There is of course no way back for vinyl but audiophile pressings have increased in recent years. Still One Million vinyl copies per years is tiny when compared to CDs and downloads.

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[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1413561585' post='2579639']
One thing I miss about the process of buying and playing vinyl records is the [i]smell[/i]...
[/quote]
Yeah, same with books, most of mine are on the Kindle. I love the smell of print and good paper and cardboard :D

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[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1413560528' post='2579618']
the inclusion of a USB stick with all the songs in wav format did help!
[/quote]

Absolutely - having a legal mp3/flac/wav/etc download sure helps me steer towards the vinyl purchase rather than CD. After all, no one's invented the scrobbling turntable yet. Have they?

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[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1413561783' post='2579642']
Yeah, same with books, most of mine are on the Kindle.
[/quote]

Just part of the process of making everything virtual. When there's no power, there will be no 'things'...
...including cash - as most wealth is now held on a computer as zeros and ones, you will be skint, too.

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I still have all of my old vinyl and a good quality record deck, I dig it out from time to time but I find it a pain in the backside nowadays, half of the records jump, are warped or crackle horribly....it is much easier to have all the songs on the media player and play them via a decent sound card straight to the hifi.

The records have recently moved out of the living room for the first time in 20 years, we are revamping the room in the new year at which point the record deck will move upstairs to my playroom to.

It's a shame as I used to love playing my records.

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[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1413562527' post='2579659']
Just part of the process of making everything virtual. When there's no power, there will be no 'things'...
...including cash - as most wealth is now held on a computer as zeros and ones, you will be skint, too.
[/quote]

Yeah but what if you lose everything in a house fire? :) Even more skint and no books no music no food, nowhere to have a sh*te .. Unless shitting could be made digital in which case the morning dance of the elderly will be a lost art form too.

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[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1413561427' post='2579631']
Thank you for buying it Fly! I really hope that having it on vinyl AND getting a pretty snazzy USB with the WAVs, AND having the gorgeous packaging makes the music experience a more immersive ritualistic experience. ECC are refusing to release it on iTunes and Amazon and what have you. This could be a good or bad thing, we'll find out soonish! But it is a philosophical decision from the record company.
[/quote]

Now you mention it, I have to admit that after plugging in the USB stick (and, folks, this is not a standard off-the-shelf USB memory stick chucked in as an afterthought, but a properly customised design piece in its own right - I've not seen anything like it before but it's very cool indeed!), I did sit back and read through the gatefold sleeve plus insert while listening to the music, so yes, a bit more ritualistic than my usual practice of playing a new CD while doing something else.

I really hope he idea catches on!

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[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1413566928' post='2579725']
I still have all of my old vinyl and a good quality record deck, I dig it out from time to time but I find it a pain in the backside nowadays, half of the records jump, are warped or crackle horribly....it is much easier to have all the songs on the media player and play them via a decent sound card straight to the hifi.
[/quote]

I think it's a common problem whatever media you use...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3iFa_V9GWU

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[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1413572336' post='2579808']
Now you mention it, I have to admit that after plugging in the USB stick (and, folks, this is not a standard off-the-shelf USB memory stick chucked in as an afterthought, but a properly customised design piece in its own right - I've not seen anything like it before but it's very cool indeed!), I did sit back and read through the gatefold sleeve plus insert while listening to the music, so yes, a bit more ritualistic than my usual practice of playing a new CD while doing something else.

I really hope he idea catches on!
[/quote]so what we need is a tiny little memory stick in a bloody great 12" x 12" gatefold sleeve, with insert, job done, maybe if they's made CD's 12" we wouldn't be having this discussion now

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[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1413570187' post='2579771']
Is that Steve Cropper stood next to you, Stu? Looks a bit like him.[/quote]

It is! He hadn't actually seen the vinyl version of his own album until then.
Really nice guy, his UK tour starts tomorrow in Chester so well be there. Going to get to 5 or 6 of them this time around.

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[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1413573251' post='2579827']
so what we need is a tiny little memory stick in a bloody great 12" x 12" gatefold sleeve, with insert, job done, maybe if they's made CD's 12" we wouldn't be having this discussion now
[/quote]

Probably not . . . . but since there aren't 12 inch CDs then it's a bit moot isn't it? :lol:

I'm not trying to deny that everything is going virtual these days and I fully realise there's a generation growing up that no longer associates music with anything physical at all (or even paying for it a lot of the time) apart from their smartphone to play it on, but I grew up with LPs and fancy artwork and loads of sleeve notes and although I'm a digital convert I do miss that side of things, so this new idea does it for me, that's all. YMMV and all that jazz.

Edited by flyfisher
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I always like reading about these vinyl topics. ( yet to read this thread all the way through tho'). I must say that my( and many others) listening habits have changed somewhat, since the mid '80s. I remember selling lots of vinyl,and buying the cd versions cheap/2nd hand. All well and good,until you find certain albums have not been transferred to cd in the 21st century.
I still have a fair bit of vinyl( approx 2 small hi-fi cabinets full. )Still have cassettes in the loft. Most of ny stuff is cd , which is my fave way of having a physical musical product. Over the last say ,7/8 years I listen to stuff on my iPhone .once I buy cd, I put it straight into my mac computer. I still have loads of stuff to do on that side of things. Next month, I will try spotify. If I like it, I will use that also.

Tbh, as I look over at my pink triangle turntable, which is gathering dust as the lid broke, I think that I am fed up with the vinyl after all this time.
Why buy a format , I was told to ditch? Have I got time for it? Why go backwards, when the way forward is download? Have I got the room? If I bought all the stuff I used to have, then obviously not. I look at my bookshelf speakers, and wonder if they should be replaced with a sound dock etc.

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