The DJ on the local classic rock station just informed me that last year, for the first time since the year R.E.M. released "Document", vinyl records outsold compact discs.
The DJ on the local classic rock station just informed me that last year, for the first time since the year R.E.M. released "Document", vinyl records outsold compact discs.
I've been buying some, but it's old stuff, usually soundtracks, from ebay.
New music on vinyl sounds weird to my brain. The exception is new stuff that sounds old like modern rockabilly bands.
They get good money for some of that vinyl also.
Makes sense. The big benefit about cds was the sound quality was better than tapes, and doesn't degrade over time. The only thing they have over vinyl is portability, but that's pretty much not a factor any longer with better forms of digital media
edit/
I did a stupid and posted to the headline rather than reading the article. Article is referencing unit sales. I'm referencing revenue. My Bad.
/edit
I thought it happened 2-3 years ago?And on the overall pie chart of music sales, physical media as a whole is but a sliver.
Makes sense to me. Vinyl is cool. CDs are not. When my 3 year old is my age (33), she'll probably have a collection of cassettes and be thinking about getting a CD changer. Meanwhile I grew up with CD changers and don't want the 2 I have and want to get rid of them, but I do have and use 2 working turntables. I have a couple of cassette players just because they were a clock-radio thing or a mini-system, and a box of cassettes somewhere in storage, but haven't listened to a cassette in at least 5 years - and that was just because the car was that old that it came with a variety of cassettes for the player.
In reply to mtn :
Tapes were a compromise to get some portability. So I would not expect anyone to ever go back to them.
I still get some CDs- not that I buy them, just a benefit for following a band. But they also sell vinyl, a lot. And for that, they will stay right along with tube amps- because enough people think they sound better (add in the hipsters who think they can hear that).
In reply to alfadriver :
Cassettes are indeed making a comeback. I doubt it will be as big as the Vinyl comeback, but it is happening.
I like the experience of vinyl. Call it silly or nostalgic or whatever, I don't care, I enjoy it. CDs are for the car nowadays.
I threw out my tapes ages ago but thought about getting some for the LS400 daily beater.
Then I realized I didn't want more stuff floating around the car and it also has a 6 CD changer which was the height of luxury in 2000.
mtn said:In reply to alfadriver :
Cassettes are indeed making a comeback. I doubt it will be as big as the Vinyl comeback, but it is happening.
I like the experience of vinyl. Call it silly or nostalgic or whatever, I don't care, I enjoy it. CDs are for the car nowadays.
I heard a part of that is that there is a limited number of places to get vinyl pressed. So a lot of smaller bands have trouble getting vinyl produced because of the increased demand so the smaller bands started putting out tapes.
There's something to be said for actually owning the media you purchase. Especially since we're seeing written works from authors like Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl being retroactively censored in their digital forms. Even though I ripped everything I had to MP3, I still regret selling my whole CD collection about 10 years ago.
Racebrick said:Makes sense. The big benefit about cds was the sound quality was better than tapes, and doesn't degrade over time. The only thing they have over vinyl is portability, but that's pretty much not a factor any longer with better forms of digital media
CDs have both quality and lack-of-degradation over vinyl as well.
Vinyl's appeal is like that of a manual transmission compared to (modern) automatics. Objectively the digital music (or automatic transmission) is better in every way that you can measure with numbers (*), but some people prefer the experience of using the older technology. With vinyl that number is increasing, while (sadly) with manuals it's decreasing.
(*) I'm talking about lossless audio here, not mp3 or other compressed formats.
I buy everything on CD if possible for archival reasons and because I want to own my music. When my grandfather died, I was still able to listen to his records. I don't need the vintage hiss and pop of an easily damaged vinyl record, I'll take a nice strong digital CD :)
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:Racebrick said:Makes sense. The big benefit about cds was the sound quality was better than tapes, and doesn't degrade over time. The only thing they have over vinyl is portability, but that's pretty much not a factor any longer with better forms of digital media
CDs have both quality and lack-of-degradation over vinyl as well.
Vinyl's appeal is like that of a manual transmission compared to (modern) automatics. Objectively the digital music (or automatic transmission) is better in every way that you can measure with numbers (*), but some people prefer the experience of using the older technology. With vinyl that number is increasing, while (sadly) with manuals it's decreasing.
(*) I'm talking about lossless audio here, not mp3 or other compressed formats.
I collect vinyl records, and this is pretty much where I'm at. Digital streaming is more convenient than CD, and with HD streaming it can be just as good (or arguably better) quality. Vinyl offers a unique experience and ritual that I don't even really get with CD's.
I also think there are a lot of albums that were meant to be listened to as *albums*, and the song order on an album that needs to be turned over is a part of that. Dark Side of the Moon is a prime example of this. The jump from "The Great Gig in the Sky" to "Money" is a really jarring tonal shift that feels *wrong*... because it is. "Great Gig in the Sky" is mean to end Side A, and then you have silence to digest.
Since digital media became dominant, artists rarely think about song order with sides in mind. Although, it's interesting when they do. I swear Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories' was ordered to work played either strait through, or broken up into 4 movements. Very impressive.
As sort of referenced above, below some threshold of "care" there's no reason to own any physical media. Whether you have digital files on the storage you already own or just stream it, the physical media is just unnecessary and cumbersome unless it's something you want to make sure you always have.
I buy some stuff as FLACs, stuff I care about more as CDs and rip to FLAC (or Bandcamp generally includes a FLAC download whether you buy digital or a CD, so saves a step), and then some random stuff that I have some emotional desire to specifically have on vinyl, I do that. That's the exception, as I do the vast majority of my listening from digital files and places that aren't next to my Proper Stereo System(ish), so if I like something in a way that I want it on vinyl, that probably means buying it twice.
I use Spotify a lot, and it's even introduced me to a bunch of music, but the pay rate for musicians from streaming seems to be pretty terrible. Moreover, if you really like music, you should assume that if you don't own it it will vanish unexpectedly from your current streaming service, or all streaming services, or generally get really hard to find. Or weird stuff like the version of Magazine's Shot By Both Sides that arbitrarily turned into a different mix right in an existing playlist of mine. Spotify actually swapped out the file. Turns my teeth on edge every time it plays now, even though it's just a small change.
If anybody ever brings back, or starts to collect cassettes or 8 tracks, it is purely for the nostalgia, or hipsterism. They are unquestionably the worst form of media in the history of man.
I still have a couple of hundred LPs, but haven't bought a new one for 35 years or more. If I want to support the artist, I buy a CD.
And don't get me started on Dolby noise reduction...
Streetwiseguy said:If anybody ever brings back, or starts to collect cassettes or 8 tracks, it is purely for the nostalgia, or hipsterism. They are unquestionably the worst form of media in the history of man.
What, you didn't like it when a song faded out and didn't pick up again until you switched to the next track? 
I still have a pile of vinyl that I bought in the 70s and 80s , much of it at yard sales / swap meets ,
but it was all played on cheap record players and I am sure it's not very good quality now if played on a decent player....
I am more an AM radio quality listener !
Regarding longevity, I have noticed modern releases are on thicker vinyl, much more rigid than the stuff I have from the 80s. Don't know if that helps much since the grooves should still be the same depth.
j_tso said:Regarding longevity, I have noticed modern releases are on thicker vinyl, much more rigid than the stuff I have from the 80s. Don't know if that helps much since the grooves should still be the same depth.
It may have a correlation with quality, but isn't inherently a mark of one. It's about the quality of the vinyl pellets used, not the quantity.
The 80's were actually a low-point in vinyl quality, and often records were pressed on cheap, recycled vinyl. The 70's are generally recognized as the high point of quality pressings.
Vinyl records are actually quite durable though. It takes a lot to damage them. They didn't have any special mystique in the past. It was just the standard storage medium for music. And despite that, a cheap $1 thrift store buy of a 50+ year old record will probably still play just fine. I have mid-60's records that play like new. If treated decently, they'll almost certainly live and be playable for another 50+ years.
In reply to Beer Baron :
That makes sense, I have a few hundred records and the ones from the 80s are noticably crappier material than the 60s and 70s ones.
Then there's the old Victrola 78s...that are 1/4" thick. You could kill a man with one of those platters, and still play the record.
I have read that CDs do not last forever. Even under ideal storage the plastic degrades. I have some 20+ year old CDs, and some of them are unplayable anymore.
Cassettes may sound terrible, but, like a GM product, they'll sound terrible for longer than some media will play at all. For car audio, they were really awesome. Mrs VCH still wishes she could have gotten one in her new car. Instead, I put her entire music collection on a 128 gig stubby USB drive, named it "MomsTape", and plugged it into her car's USB port.
Rock on, mom.
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