The art of collecting vinyl: please just let us do

[Simon8]

In a spirit of unity, peace and love 😅, I personally wish that the "What vinyl are you spinning?" and "What are you listening to?" threads were merged into one (which would make it easier for me to discover new and old music

[clifford_thornton]

not a bad idea; I've noticed some people post vinyl listening in the "what are you listening to now?" thread. I'll admit that I check out the vinyl thread more than the general listening thread, however.

[Big Beat Steve]

44 minutes ago, Simon8 said:

In a spirit of unity, peace and love 😅, I personally wish that the "What vinyl are you spinning?" and "What are you listening to?" threads were merged into one (which would make it easier for me to discover new and old music

Not so sure ... and not because I'd be against peace, unity and love: I realize the "what vinyl are you spinning" thread was started here when vinyl was not yet subject to a resurgence of interest and an ultimate hype in some areas and therefore stressed the particular nature of music on vinyl - as oposed to the then more current formats and media. (Or so I have always understood it ...) And even as it is used today, posting there just might (rightfully) place the accent on the fact that it its precisely music on VINYL that people are spinning. And bypassing those occasional posts that (to me anyway) look just a bit like "showing off" ( along the underhanded lines of "look what supreme pressing I have!" ) , it will certainly be of interest to some (SOME! Others, please disregard! ;)) what someone listens to on vinyl and WHY it is vinyl or any particular release/pressing on vinyl that does it for him, etc.
Whereas the generic "What are you listening to" thread places the accent elsewhere and not on one specific format and this can and will lead to different slants in the discussions or feedback. Besides, at any rate I'd guess anyone is free to post even what he listens to on vinyl in the "What are you listening to" thread (which does NOT exclude vinyl, does it? ). But forcing everything together in ONE single thread would make this too much of a hodgepodge IMHO. Nothing to really be gained from that.

So this is a classic case of pros and cons that cannot please everyone. 

Besides, what is begining to baffle me a bit here is that there really seem to be some who feel vinyl fans are way too touchy if they ask not to see their preferred format dismissed too harshly - and then these "non-vinyl" people in turn seem to find nothing wrong with being touchy enough themselves to make a point of publicly announcing they are going to avoid the vinyl forum or vinyl discussions. Is that really necessary? And is it necessary to dig confrontational trenches just because of such petty matters? I hope it all boils down to just some misunderstanding once the dust has settled and everyone has slept it over. And please remember, those of you who feel you are not leaning towards the vinyl camp, for every release or reissue that is "vinyl only" (which seems to be a bone of contention and starting point for quite a few critical remarks about vinyls as such) there are and have been dozens (no, hundreds!) of CD-only releases and reissues over time, and nowadays an increasing number of "download or streaming only" releases as well.
So everyone always loses out somewhere unless he equally adopts ALL formats in his listening and/or collecting hobby.
But "I've dumped my turntable XX years ago and resent being forced into a situation where I would be forced to obtain one again because I want to listen to that music" should really not be a criterion, should it? ... 

Edited January 5 by Big Beat Steve

[clifford_thornton]

I am a bit concerned, as mentioned upthread, that some folks have been driven away by perceived bias against record collectors. The "ignore" function does work, and I've used it a few times (mostly just until my agitation cooled off). 

[ejp626]

I would never begrudge anyone their preferences and certainly don't look down on anyone collecting vinyl.  Despite my misgivings, there are 5-10 LPs that I will likely pick up one of these days (not on any other format, naturally) if I can figure out a way for shipping not to break the bank.

That doesn't change how I feel about the hype around the vinyl resurgence, which certainly doesn't help anyone who does want to pick up newly pressed LPs...  And that this resurgence is clearly distorting reissues with bonus material suppressed that should be available on any CD reissues.

[JSngry]

 Jesus people...just follow the rules. No politics, no religion, no personal attack, an no links to bootlegs 

No need to be intentionally rude. No need to take things as meaning more than they do.

It's not that hard.

[Big Beat Steve]

39 minutes ago, ejp626 said:

I would never begrudge anyone their preferences and certainly don't look down on anyone collecting vinyl.  Despite my misgivings, there are 5-10 LPs that I will likely pick up one of these days (not on any other format, naturally) if I can figure out a way for shipping not to break the bank.

That doesn't change how I feel about the hype around the vinyl resurgence, which certainly doesn't help anyone who does want to pick up newly pressed LPs...  And that this resurgence is clearly distorting reissues with bonus material suppressed that should be available on any CD reissues.

I see your point and you are totally right about the vinyl hype negatively affecting the "going price" of newly pressed vinyl. Yet I wonder if that music would have been pressed at all if there had not been this hype. The silliest thing about this hype, however, IMO is the prices charged for newfangled "collectible" series that contain music that has been round the reissue block a zillion times before, including on vinyl. (Need I say "Blue Note" or would this be heresy? )

However (and please beasr with me if i am a bit outspoken in what follows ), as for this statement of yours, "And that this resurgence is clearly distorting reissues with bonus material suppressed that should be available on any CD reissues", first of all I cannot see there is any obligation to include "bonus material" on any CD reissues. (Besides, isn't there a clear distinction between "previously unreleased or previously orphaned extra tracks" from the session(s) that the core reissue is all about on the one hand and oft-touted "bonus tracks" that actually are a more or less vaguely related number of tracks (often an incomplete (!!) second LP) to somewhat augment the playing time of the CD reissue? This latter kind of bonus material can be an asset but sometimes is downright expendable IMO and is likely to be a buying decision only to relative newbies. 

And secondly, since you are displeased with vinyl reissues that are limited to the contents of the orignal LPS (which is understandable, given the usual practices of many other labels on the reissue market at large), were/are you just as dissatisfied (and vocal in your discontent) with those CD reissues (from Japan, in particular) that also stuck to the exact LP contents (as outlined in my post yesterday in this topic)? So could these complaints about not giving the buyer extra tracks be related to VINYL in the first place at all? 

Edited January 5 by Big Beat Steve

[ejp626]

7 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

And secondly, since you are displeased with vinyl reissues that are limited to the contents of the orignal LPS (which is understandable, given the usual practices of many other labels on the reissue market at large), were/are you just as dissatisfied (and vocal in your discontent) with those CD reissues (from Japan, in particular) that also stuck to the exact LP contents (as outlined in my post yesterday in this topic)? So could these complaints about not giving the buyer extra tracks be related to VINYL in the first place at all? 

Yes, I was just as annoyed by Japanese reissues that omitted bonus material that had come out elsewhere, and I don't buy them, though I usually don't moan about it either.  Maybe I consider there is nothing to be done about the way things are done in Japan, but if US/EU producers constantly deal with complaints about material being left out, then they will change their ways or do better with the d/ls or something.

[paulfromcamden]

I guess I'm in the minority here but I don't really want any bonus tracks on a vinyl reissue.

I realise that maintaining the original album formatting may be slightly arbitrary in some cases - I doubt Miles had much say in how a lot of his Prestige albums were compiled - but I enjoy having an album with the tracklist as it was originally conceived.

If there's a bunch of alternate takes stick them on another disc.

[Stompin at the Savoy]

Collect whatever music and format you like. Ignore people who put down the stuff you like - you don't have to please them.

[lowercase]

I've trimmed my vinyl collection to about 450 LPs and two boxes of 45s. All catalogued and ready for the day when I'm ready to sell them. I find the vinyl revival fascinating and to my amazement I started to buy vinyl again after not buying it for many years. I say 'amazement' because over past few years I became one of those strange collectors who buys limited edition vinyl not to play but to keep SEALED. Go figure!

[Big Beat Steve]

Just an update about whatever vinyl "resurgence" there is in the music buyers' world: 

Returning from another of those 2-day clearout sales at our #1 local record store (whch yielded a fair share of "great finds" for me too, but at 1 EUR apiece you cannot often go totally wrong anyway ), I found my impressions of the two sales days of last year confirmed again throughout all the hours I spent there on Friday and Saturday: The percentage of young'uns (between, say, 15-16 and 30) was really high, and a fair share of them were female. This was particularly evident in the vinyl rooms (the share of youngsters in the CD room seemed lower). From what I noticed at casual glances at the stacks these  youngsters had pulled out or what I overheard of their discussions, even jazz and jazzish pickings were not that rare. Though of course they often searched out the well-known names such as Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, a.o.).
What also baffled me were those two kids in their early 20s who patiently dug through the crates of 78s in the regular shop section. Some patience I hardly ever can muster anymore because there is very little of interest in the fields of jazz, R&B or rock'n'roll in there. You usually have to dig through about 100 or 200 items of popular ("Schlager")/light classics/folk pop etc. dross before finding anything of some interest. 

The only marked generational difference I noticed was (as always) that the early birds who lined up well before the shop opened to get an early start on everyone else were almost all of them well past 40 or even 50.

Even at other recent trips to the shop I noticed that vinyl does attract a lot of youngsters, and nowhere near all of them hung out around the hip-hop or Metal crates. 

Anyway, nice to see vinyl isn't something only for the 50+ or even 60+ generation yet.