More signs of a vinyl resurgence?

[Noj]

If I could trade all my cds for vinyl, I would.

You wouldn't want some of MY vinyl, Noj - where's the smiley for "Yechcchhh!"?

Almost every CD I buy that I already have on vinyl is a huge upgrade.

MG

True, but if I could have them all crisp and new I could digitize them myself then tuck the precious plates away.

[Soul Stream]

Just speaking for myself as someone who gladly ditched records for CDs. I'm not a format hound at all. That said, in the last 10 years and especially the last 3 I've gone back to playing vinyl sometimes for a variety of reasons. Mostly, it's like a Zen moment. I put on the record and have to listen to each cut at flip it in the middle. Unlike my iPod which I flip around every other song, I hardly ever listen to a whole album on it. Also, simply some of this music isn't out on CD in the states or anywhere. But yeah, I mostly do it in a sentimental way.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Unlike my iPod which I flip around every other song, I hardly ever listen to a whole album on it.

Why? I mean, I'm sure you must get something out of that or you wouldn't do it - but what?

MG

[Teasing the Korean]

Unlike my iPod which I flip around every other song, I hardly ever listen to a whole album on it.

Why? I mean, I'm sure you must get something out of that or you wouldn't do it - but what?

MG

I think the convenience of the digital format invites the listener to flip around alot more at will. I know I tend to listen to LPs a little differently than I do CDs, iTunes, etc.

[sidewinder]

Back in the day I bought LPs, then switched to CDs back in the late 80s, thinking this would be a permanent switch. Upgraded the turntable and started buying LPs (mainly original) again around 5 years ago and won't switch from this preference. My ears are atuned to vinyl ! Having said that, I like to play CDs when I am in the bath.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Unlike my iPod which I flip around every other song, I hardly ever listen to a whole album on it.

Why? I mean, I'm sure you must get something out of that or you wouldn't do it - but what?

MG

I think the convenience of the digital format invites the listener to flip around alot more at will. I know I tend to listen to LPs a little differently than I do CDs, iTunes, etc.

Seems kind of odd to me, not that I'm criticising. I don't have this technology. Maybe if I did I'd change my listening habits, too.

MG

[kh1958]

Unlike my iPod which I flip around every other song, I hardly ever listen to a whole album on it.

Why? I mean, I'm sure you must get something out of that or you wouldn't do it - but what?

MG

It's called the Shuffle feature on the ipod. You listen to songs randomly from the songs on the ipod harddrive. This means that you might hear a Coltrane song, followed by Charlie Parker, followed by the Beatles, followed by Milton Nasciminto, followed by Muddy Waters, etc. It's a great way to listen to music. In other words, the ipod is a radio station that only plays the music that you like.

Edited March 30, 2007 by kh1958

[Chalupa]

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/20...omeback/?page=3

Vinyl goes from throwback to comeback

Young fans say analog records sound warmer and fuller than digital music

By Jonathan Perry

Globe Correspondent / June 2, 2008

Monica Morgan, an 18-year-old high school student from Jacksonville, Fla., is taking a breather from scouting prospective colleges in and around Boston. She is standing inside Newbury Comics in Cambridge, scouring the bins of new LP releases by artists such as Gnarls Barkley and Bjork. Rows of colorful album covers catch her eye.

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"My dad just gave me a record player, so I mostly like to buy vinyl," says Morgan. A stash of records originally owned by her mother, and now bequeathed to her, led Morgan to her latest love. "I have some old Beatles records with my mom's maiden name on them," she says. "I just like the way they sound."

Almost any other decade, this scenario would have been ordinary. But the scene - a teenager perusing stacks of cumbersome vinyl in a sleek digital age that is gradually rendering the compact disc obsolete - was unfolding on a Friday afternoon in 2008. And it is one that is being replicated in small but growing numbers across the country. Although she may be an anomaly among her peers, Morgan and other young music fans are embracing the virtues of vinyl.

Mike Dreese, cofounder and chief executive of the New England music store chain Newbury Comics, says his company's vinyl sales, which had been increasing at an annual rate of about 20 percent over the past five years, are 80 percent higher than they were at this time last year.

"Right now, we're selling about $100,000 a month worth of vinyl," Dreese says.

But why vinyl and why now, especially when even CD sales have plummeted 40 percent since 2005? Dreese blames the sterility of technology. "I think there are a lot of people who are looking for some kind of a throwback to something that's tangible," he says. "The CD was a tremendous sonic package, but from a graphic standpoint, it was a disaster. People still want a connection to an artist, and vinyl connects them in a way that an erasable file doesn't."

Vinyl lovers insist that analog records sound warmer and fuller, as opposed to the brighter yet brittle digital experience of CDs. The compressed sound of MP3s, meanwhile, sacrifices both the highest and lowest ends of the sonic spectrum.

"It's unbelievable how much vinyl's coming out," says Josh Bizar, sales director for musicdirect, a company that specializes in analog products ranging from new and reissued vinyl to turntables. "We're seeing this explosion of young people under 25 who never even saw an LP as a child running toward a format that was pronounced dead before they were even born. But if a title has any kind of mass appeal, it's coming out on vinyl today."

The new push for records is also coming from musicians. Elvis Costello issued his new album, "Momofuku," on vinyl two weeks before the CD and digital versions were released. And the Raconteurs, led by White Stripes frontman Jack White, recommended that listeners hear their new album, "Consolers of the Lonely," on vinyl (it is also available on CD and as a download).

"I prefer vinyl," says White, 32. "We talk about this backstage; as musicians it comes up a lot. It's a shame the new generation is missing out on albums - not just the sound quality, but the artwork, the experience of holding something tangible in your hands."

Scores of listeners have begun to follow White's example.

Bizar's firm, musicdirect, services 250 to 300 independent record and electronics stores worldwide and stocks CDs and MP3 players. But it is the company's analog-related inventory that is causing a stir: Sales of albums and accessories like needle cartridges and record cleaners have jumped 300 percent in each of the past four years, according to Bizar.

Sales of turntables, which can run anywhere from $150 to $24,000 (including models that can now transfer the sound on vinyl to a listener's portable player or computer) have spiked 500 percent annually during the same time span. Indeed, huge retail outlets such as Best Buy now stock an array of turntable brands and styles that reflect the surge in both technology and demand.

"They cannot make them fast enough," says Bizar. "Owning a record album is certainly a lot cooler than owning a digital subset of zeroes and ones on a computer. And the simple act of playing an LP takes a certain single-mindedness that seems to go beyond today's culture of multitasking. It's not as easy as just pushing a button."

Merge Records founder Mac McCaughan estimates that for every 10 albums his label puts out as a digital download or CD, eight get a vinyl release. "It's not going to come back and replace CDs or MP3s," he says. "But if you do it right and make the vinyl heavy and make the packaging nice, it's everything that people liked about music in the first place."

Then there's what Bizar calls "the collectibility issue." A limited-edition LP box set of Radiohead's 2007 album, "In Rainbows," which retailed for about $80, sold out briskly. A recent search on eBay found the now out-of-print package selling for $300.

Music fan Nick Pioggia, 25, buys even more vinyl now than he did as a teenager. "I got into it because the [punk] music I was trying to find was only available in that format," says Pioggia, who also runs a small label called Painkiller Records in Boston. "No one cares about CDs anymore, but someone will still buy an album because it's got the huge artwork and is a limited pressing. That's the biggest draw."

New releases are typically being pressed on vinyl in quantities of about 10,000 per title. But when it comes to the demand for lavish reissues, that number can double or even triple. Bizar says his company saw 35,000 advance orders for the four-LP edition of Led Zeppelin's "Mothership," a career-spanning collection released this spring. While that is certainly a far cry from vinyl's heyday of the 1970s, Bizar calls the demand for a bulky box set that retails for roughly $60 a pop "astonishing."

As an enticement for consumers to buy a record rather than a 99-cent download of a single, artists and record labels now usually include a CD version of the album with the LP package gratis, or enclose a secret code that allows listeners to download for free the album they just bought on vinyl.

The idea represents a compromise for convenience-minded consumers and artists who want their creative work to be something more substantive than a digital file. "If you're an artist," says Dreese, "you're like, 'What do I have to show my grandkids?' "

No one artist has released more records since the early 1990s than Robert Pollard, both solo and with his band, Guided By Voices.

"I have to have vinyl," says Pollard, who's issued dozens of records on labels large and small, including his own in-house imprint. "To me it's psychological. If it's not on an LP, it's not real. Anybody can make a CD, but as we used to say, 'Vinyl's final.' "

Evan Shore, singer-guitarist for the Boston band Muck & the Mires, recently announced that his band's next Extended Play would be a "vinyl-only release." With a European tour this summer, the reasoning was simple: "Vinyl is huge in Europe."

Geoff Chase, a 40-year-old "classic rock" fan from Watertown, says he stopped buying records because many older titles weren't available on LP to replace his worn copies. Until now.

"What got me back into it big time," says Chase, "was that one day I found an old [stereo] receiver on the sidewalk."

He took it home, hooked the receiver up to his turntable, and put on his copy of AC/DC's "Back in Black."

"I could not believe how good it sounded," Chase says. "I was blown away."

[Stefan Wood]

Dischord Records is apparently now doing the vinyl only route for new releases. If you buy the vinyl, you get a free download of the album on mp3.

While the vinyl resurgence is nice, what about the quality of the pressings? Wasn't there a recent thread that discussed how bad audiophile pressings were getting? Are the non audiophile indy record people doing a better job?

[.:.impossible]

I was at the only shop left in Chapel Hill yesterday and they had dozens of Sun Ra LPs, Moondog, ESP, Soul Jazz, Trojan, Ornette, Trane, etc. $18+. Not to mention the "classic rock" section, which was full of psych records that I had never heard of! I was actually surprised at how deep the selection was.

[Shawn]

I would love to get back on the vinyl bandwagon, but I just can't see going back and trying to rebuild my vinyl collection. It would just take too damn long and cost too much money. I love the sound, I love holding that record in my hand...but I just don't have the time to waste on it. Now and again I'll pick up an LP of something that I can't find any other way, if I can get it cheap, but that's about it.

At this point I'd rather invest in upgrading my digital music, getting better gear and using the computer as my main stereo component (which I've been doing for quite awhile now). Now that digital storage has gotten cheaper the idea of digitizing all my CDs, scanning the artwork and then packing them away in boxes out of sight appeals to me. I'm on a quest to simplify my existence as much as possible, running my music from a database on the computer has made picking what music to listen to alot easier.

[Big Beat Steve]

I would love to get back on the vinyl bandwagon, but I just can't see going back and trying to rebuild my vinyl collection. It would just take too damn long and cost too much money.

What's keeping you from going BOTH ways, i.e. buying vinyl whenever you prefer THAT medium and keeping and/or digitizing your CDs at the same time?

Dumping all your CDs in order to go the vinyl-only route is just as silly as dumping all your vinyl in order to go "all CD" (as many did in the 90s). I can't really consider those who are dead set on sticking to one single medium (and dumping their other media in the process) "real" collectors - they're just music consumers or maybe music bookkepers IMHO.

Digitizing your music for convenience is another matter (and where's the problem with buying your vinyl (or CDs) AND digitizing your music whenever you want it on an iPod etc.?) but I'm still not convinced ALL digitized media are going to last as long as vinyl does. And having to do backups of increasing data volumes on additional drives ever so often also leaves me wondering where all this is going to end. As for making one's existence easier, carrying thousands of tunes on iPods is an advantage, of course ... but as for home listening ... honestly, I really cannot see how things get easier if I have to select tracks and artists from PC databases (especially if I do not fancy leading my entire home existence in front of my PC anyway ) instead of just having to pull a record or CD out and put it onto the turntable/CD player? To me it's a bit of an "emperor's clothes" thing, all this ...

[michel1969]

Back in the day I bought LPs, then switched to CDs back in the late 80s, thinking this would be a permanent switch. Upgraded the turntable and started buying LPs (mainly original) again around 5 years ago and won't switch from this preference. My ears are atuned to vinyl ! Having said that, I like to play CDs when I am in the bath.

Definitely ! I have the same story to tell ! Moreover, i'd say that, playing an original on Blue Note or Prestige, Riverside, or whatever label or artist , means luxury, ceremonial, special listening experience, and i like it !! I have tons of CD's anyway.

[Shawn]

The database thing, yeah, it can be cumbersome to load the information in initially...so it IS more difficult than just popping on an album or CD. But it's also opened up interesting avenues. I added database fields for the type of combo (organ trio, guitar trio, solo piano, quintet, sextet, etc). So when I'm in the mood for solo piano, I don't have to search through thousands of discs...I just run a quick filter and sort by combo type and voila...instant playlist.

I'm sure I'll continue to glance through vinyl racks and pick up the occasional gem, but I'm going to avoid the audiophile pressing and collector's pricing stuff like the plague...I've spent enough money on music the past 30 years or so, I've been in a "cooling down" phase for quite a while. Got many other things in my life that I'd like to point the disposable income towards...like buying musical instruments....

[Kevin Bresnahan]

First off, I'm buying records again FOR FUN. Many of them are a lot cheaper than any CD version so I find myself buying records that I would never even consider buying on CD.

I still do not hear any audio advantages over a well-made CD.

The stupidest thing about these new bands putting out vinyl is that the entire recording chain is digital, right up to the cutting head on the lathe. The only thing these LPs represent is a needle drop of the digital audio. If you have a good transport with a good D to A converter, you can cut out this extra step *and* eliminate surface noise.

Ahh, there it is - surface noise. To me, this is what's bringing back vinyl. Many quotes I see from vinyl buyers is that CD sound is "sterile". Clicks and pops are not heard at any Jazz club I've been in. Neither is rumble. I consider the sound I get off of a CD to be more like a live recording than any sound I get off of a vinyl record.

I think this new crop of record buyers will continue to buy their vinyl until they start getting stiffed with crappy pressings like everyone in the history of vinyl record buying has. Oh how I hated vinyl back in the day. Bad pressing, bring it back, HOPE the store lets you exchange it and pray that the skip you had on the last one wasn't a pressing defect (they usually were). I vividly remember the stack of quarters and scotch tape that I used to keep next to my parent's turntable for those tricky pressings.

I recently picked up quite a few brand new pressings so I know it's going to be the same as it ever was. The Who's new double LP set from Best Buy is impossible to find without warpage. The ZZ Top "Tres Hombres" has crackles on the lead out groove that sounds like you just poured milk into a Rice Krispies bowl. It will continue to have the same problems. It's part of the vinyl experience. Look at all the people complaining about those $50 Blue Note 45 rpm LPs.

In a nutshell, I think it;s great that vinyl is making a bit of a comeback, if only because the mastering engineer can't MAXIMIZE the crap out of the audio or it will jump the groove. If only these meatheads hadn't MAXIMIZED every modern CD version of their releases, people would never have been forced to try vinyl in the first place.

I blame the mastering engineers for this vinyl resurgence.

Kevin

Edited June 3, 2008 by Kevin Bresnahan

[Stefan Wood]

Yeah, if you're paying $18 - $30 for a repressing or an 180g "audiophile" pressing, and it's warped or crackling I'd be angry. As for the quality of sound for vinyl, it is still hit or miss. Even back in the day there were major labels spitting out quality music but the sound was mediocre. For instance, I was just listening to a Pharoah Sanders Impulse! lp from the 70's - 1st pressing - and it sounded hollow. The japanese cd import was a marked improvement.

Edited June 3, 2008 by Stefan Wood

[captainwrong]

First off, I'm buying records again FOR FUN. Many of them are a lot cheaper than any CD version so I find myself buying records that I would never even consider buying on CD.

I still do not hear any audio advantages over a well-made CD.

The stupidest thing about these new bands putting out vinyl is that the entire recording chain is digital, right up to the cutting head on the lathe. The only thing these LPs represent is a needle drop of the digital audio. If you have a good transport with a good D to A converter, you can cut out this extra step *and* eliminate surface noise.

Ahh, there it is - surface noise. To me, this is what's bringing back vinyl. Many quotes I see from vinyl buyers is that CD sound is "sterile". Clicks and pops are not heard at any Jazz club I've been in. Neither is rumble. I consider the sound I get off of a CD to be more like a live recording than any sound I get off of a vinyl record.

I think this new crop of record buyers will continue to buy their vinyl until they start getting stiffed with crappy pressings like everyone in the history of vinyl record buying has. Oh how I hated vinyl back in the day. Bad pressing, bring it back, HOPE the store lets you exchange it and pray that the skip you had on the last one wasn't a pressing defect (they usually were). I vividly remember the stack of quarters and scotch tape that I used to keep next to my parent's turntable for those tricky pressings.

I recently picked up quite a few brand new pressings so I know it's going to be the same as it ever was. The Who's new double LP set from Best Buy is impossible to find without warpage. The ZZ Top "Tres Hombres" has crackles on the lead out groove that sounds like you just poured milk into a Rice Krispies bowl. It will continue to have the same problems. It's part of the vinyl experience. Look at all the people complaining about those $50 Blue Note 45 rpm LPs.

In a nutshell, I think it;s great that vinyl is making a bit of a comeback, if only because the mastering engineer can't MAXIMIZE the crap out of the audio or it will jump the groove. If only these meatheads hadn't MAXIMIZED every modern CD version of their releases, people would never have been forced to try vinyl in the first place.

I blame the mastering engineers for this vinyl resurgence.

Kevin

*golf clap*

I was a holdout, still buying records into the 90s when either the pressings got worse or I just noticed how bad they'd been all along. Recently, I've started buying new vinyl again out of nostalgia and a thinking that this so called resurgence means quality has gone back up. Nope. I got a couple warped discs, several that crackled and a couple that just sounded flat and lifeless. To be fair, my Classics Soul Station sounds great. But that's the only one I was 100% happy with. And it was about three times what the same CD would have cost. So, I think I'm done with new wax again. Too much hassle. It's funny how I can buy $5 platters from the 60s that have visible signs of wear and they smoke all these modern pressings straight out of the shrinkwrap.

This whole vinyl making a comeback thing irks me more than it should. The part that gets me is just this blind "vinyl sounds better" mantra. Yes, some records do sound better than the CDs. And the opposite also holds true in many cases. But I really love when some hipster with a piece of shit $99 turntable and cartridge combo is trying to convince me vinyl sounds better. I just can't believe anyone in their right mind would prefer the sound of that to any halfway competently mastered CD.

[.:.impossible]

I'll tell you what is going to kill this "vinyl resurgence" real quick. The price of a new record. Return to Cookie Mountain $30.00? Please. $6.99 at yourmusic.

[.:.impossible]

just an example... not that i'm in the market for tv on the radio on vinyl.

[Chalupa]

I got back into vinyl last year after about 10 years away from it for a number of reasons.

1. I still had about 800 records and figured it would be cheaper to buy a new turntable then to sell off the collection and repurchase all of them again in digital format.

2. A lot of the music(mostly Free Jazz)that I've really gotten into the past year is only available on LP (or MP3, which I don't do). So vinyl really is the only way I can listen to this stuff. Example - Horo isn't available on CD.

3. Money. It far cheaper and easier for me to purchase used vinyl than it is to find used CDs. I'm lucky in that I live in a big metropolitan area w/ lots of good used record stores that sell vinyl on the cheap. I've bought a lot of Black Saint/Soul Note/India Navigation/etc. etc. in pristine condition for $5-$10 on LP. Used CD stores are hard to find in Philly. I have had better luck on Ebay and Half.com for CDs than buying local. Buying vinyl online is tricky and I try to limit those purchases to items that are still sealed.

4. I really do like to listen to a good, clean copy of something recorded/mastered in analog, in analog. Vinyl is less fatiguing to my ears than digital. Today I was listening to Terry Riley's Rainbow in Curved Air. Man, the vinyl just blows away the CD. No comparison.

I don't consider myself a vinyl snob. Some recordings sound better to my ears on vinyl and sometimes the CD blows away the vinyl. I still have about 1000+ CDs and purchase one or two a week. I can't really see myself living without both listening options at this point. One thing I really haven't explored yet is buying new vinyl, for the exact reason Kevin mentioned - it doesn't make sense to add an analog generation to something recorded in digital. My 'new' vinyl purchasing is limited to three BYG re-issues that sound better than my old, originals even though they are supposed to be sourced from needle drops.

[Chuck Nessa]

My 'new' vinyl purchasing is limited to three BYG re-issues that sound better than my old, originals even though they are supposed to be sourced from needle drops.

Since the BYG reissues, vinyl or cd, are needle drops I guarantee they are digital transfers. The masters have "gone missing" and digital is the only way to tweak them. Digital programs have much more flexible editing possibilities than analog. Why trust current vinyl?

Edited June 4, 2008 by Chuck Nessa

[clifford_thornton]

Seasons was done from the tapes. There's more on the CDs (announcements, etc.) than the orig LPs.

If I can afford the vinyl and can find it in nice condition, I go that route. But mostly I want to hear the music any way I can.

[Lowgen]

"Digital programs have much more flexible editing possibilities than analog. Why trust current vinyl?"

Why? Because most reissues are EQd badly, in my opinion -- I've been disappointed many times. If it sounds like it was EQd, it was over-EQd!

Boys with toys.

[Chuck Nessa]

"Digital programs have much more flexible editing possibilities than analog. Why trust current vinyl?"

Why? Because most reissues are EQd badly, in my opinion -- I've been disappointed many times. If it sounds like it was EQd, it was over-EQd!

Boys with toys.

That happens anyway - analogue or digital.

[Shrdlu]

I love the jazz vinyl from the 50s and 60s.

I don't think there is any point in vinyl for new recordings where everything is done digitally until the very end. For house DJ-ing, give me CDs and the Pioneer CDJ 1000 decks every time. Sounds great.

I never had any difficulty in looking after my old jazz LPs, and it pisses me off when I get used jazz LPs on eBay and they are so crackly. Certain eBay regular sellers can often be relied on to sell you a lousy copy, described as VG++. Grrr.