Vinyl Is Poised to Outsell CDs For the First Time Since 1986

[killer b]

Kids these days are a different breed - there is absolutely no way I would have admitted to something like that when I was a young 'un.

 

[pinkychukkles]

Sadly I am in a position where I have got to sell my record collection , so trying to cash in before Brexit and / or World Recession Mk.2 hits, making vinyl purchases the discretionary purchases that they are and worthless!

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I think young people buy vinyl as more of a memento or art piece from a band they like.

A few years a go I hung out over a summer with a friend's band doing a tour and festival circuit. They had a big and young audience. Like 16 to 21.

They sold lots of vinyl, but none of the kids had anyway to play it.

Kind of like having proof you're a hardcore fan, I guess

Yep, see/hear this a lot at the small (some would say “hipster”) venue I work at. They all stream what they want to listen to as it’s easy, but still want to support the bands so buy the collectible merch. It’s quite cute really

 

[scifisam]

I think young people buy vinyl as more of a memento or art piece from a band they like.

A few years a go I hung out over a summer with a friend's band doing a tour and festival circuit. They had a big and young audience. Like 16 to 21.

They sold lots of vinyl, but none of the kids had anyway to play it.

Kind of like having proof you're a hardcore fan, I guess

The discs themselves and the covers can be gorgeous, which is probably part of the reason. Also, once they had a disc to play they might have got something to play it on. Lots of cheap record players out there, which probably aren't very good, but only true hipsters would turn their nose up at someone finding a different way to play their music at home.

 

[ska invita]

Met a guy this weekend who works at SRD, which in the 90s may have been the biggest dance music distributor, definitely on the jungle/hardcore/dnb scene...got talking about business and he said things collapsed around 2005 but are back to late 90s levels at the moment, and in regards what dance 12s are selling he said it was 90s jungle represses (which sell out in a flash) and techno that drives most of the business.

I think the techno scene has stayed quite purist on the vinyl thing - likewise the early 90s oldskool scene - whereas DnB and much of the rest is pretty solidly mp3 now (me included). Roots/Dub scene also usually vinyl only, but thats starting to change...bandcamp creeping in.

 

[killer b]

All the techno DJs I know play digital now. I think they might still buy the 12s, but no-one plays them out.

 

[ska invita]

In my experience its ye olde squat party crew types who are the most militant about being vinyl only

 

[killer b]

Bit strange that techno is the hold out, when its probably the music style that benefits most from the malleability digital allows.

 

[rutabowa]

When I was following the garage punk record releases more closely, like in the late 2000s, there were quite a few releases that came out, sold all 300 in the first few weeks, and then were selling for crazy prices like £50-100 straight after... so obviously people started buying them just to flip. 99% of those records are now like £1 on discogs now (because who wants to buy late 2000s garage punk in 2019?). Give it another 10 years and they might be back at retail value (or they might be landfill because noone has the slightest interest in them any more because they are busy dealing with return of the black death or whatever).

This thread is an excellent contemporary cautionary tale, if you have a coupe of hours to spare: BLANK DOGS "IN HERE" 7" PREORDER

 

[killer b]

This thread is an excellent contemporary cautionary tale, if you have a coupe of hours to spare: BLANK DOGS "IN HERE" 7" PREORDER

what page does it take off?

 

[BristolEcho]

Met a guy this weekend who works at SRD, which in the 90s may have been the biggest dance music distributor, definitely on the jungle/hardcore/dnb scene...got talking about business and he said things collapsed around 2005 but are back to late 90s levels at the moment, and in regards what dance 12s are selling he said it was 90s jungle represses (which sell out in a flash) and techno that drives most of the business.

I think the techno scene has stayed quite purist on the vinyl thing - likewise the early 90s oldskool scene - whereas DnB and much of the rest is pretty solidly mp3 now (me included). Roots/Dub scene also usually vinyl only, but thats starting to change...bandcamp creeping in.

I think a fair number of DnB labels are still pushing quite a few records aren't they? Critical, Dispatch, Symmetry, Metalheadz etc. Perhaps that sound in particular.

 

[rutabowa]

what page does it take off?

I can't exactly remember, but people are already wondering where the record is by page 4, so it is fairly near the start

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I actually bought a record from hmv the other day in Brighton. Bloody 20 quids though.
The crazy new postage costs for records from America and the weak pound are cocking up cheap imports. I might be looking at a cost of £37, plus duty if charged, for a record that only costs £15.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Roots/Dub scene also usually vinyl only, but thats starting to change...bandcamp creeping in.

I remember Iration Steppas getting a hammering in the 90s when they played DATS instead of vinyl and dubplate. But CDs were the norm in ragga from early on.

I think scenes like the rocksteady scene (and Northern Soul) where you are mainly playing old music have an understandable premium on original vinyl and I quite like seeing old people playing old records for mixed crowds personally.

Around the year 2000 a new reggae 7" would cost you £2.50 from Dub Vendor and now it is £12 . So I literally don't know who is buying them these days. I'd rather have the vinyl than play a tune on youtube, but not for £12.

 

[killer b]

The pressing cost of 7s isn't that much less than the pressing cost of LPs, and everyone is pressing in much smaller volumes now which pushes the unit cost up: That's steep even so though.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Around the year 2000 a new reggae 7" would cost you £2.50 from Dub Vendor and now it is £12 . So I literally don't know who is buying them these days.

Idiots like me.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Idiots like me.

Fair play but [dragons' den voice] I'm out.

 

[killer b]

What real choice do you have if you're a DJ though? You could spend a few months digitising your collection and move onto MP3, but for people who've spent a lifetime building a collection on vinyl that's not going to be a priority, even if there weren't the habit and nostalgia element to vinyl.

 

[belboid]

on tour next month - will defo be going.

you'll be a bit late if you wait till next month, he's at yours next wednesday

 

[killer b]

you'll be a bit late if you wait till next month, he's at yours next wednesday

already noted!

 

[pinkychukkles]

What real choice do you have if you're a DJ though? You could spend a few months digitising your collection and move onto MP3, but for people who've spent a lifetime building a collection on vinyl that's not going to be a priority, even if there weren't the habit and nostalgia element to vinyl.

I'm digitising my collection to FLAC… and it's very slow going for stuff that was never released on CD, the whole process of cleaning the vinyl (preferably with a vacuum record cleaning machine, ripping it, processing the files with software (click removal etc.), tagging, then finally moving it to my NAS, backed up to the cloud and also another HDD. It helps being a member of a private music tracker, there's folk there that have far superior ripping setups than I have plus anything that was released on a decent sized label was also usually released on CD and rips of those are already there. In fact, I've started to sometimes buy stuff on CD that I've already got on vinyl as it's quicker than ripping!

 

[editor]

What real choice do you have if you're a DJ though? You could spend a few months digitising your collection and move onto MP3, but for people who've spent a lifetime building a collection on vinyl that's not going to be a priority, even if there weren't the habit and nostalgia element to vinyl.

There's also the fact that advertising a 'vinyl-only' DJ seems to make a tangible positive difference in some quarters.

 

[killer b]

Absolutely. I think it's only got a cachet in a few very specific scenes though.

IMO it isn't really the format that sells a vinyl only dj though - it's the implication that the DJ will be playing music from a collection they've carefully built up over many years, and the knowledge and understanding of the music that comes with that.

 

[ska invita]

I think a fair number of DnB labels are still pushing quite a few records aren't they? Critical, Dispatch, Symmetry, Metalheadz etc. Perhaps that sound in particular.

This is true but I think SRD no longer do distro for a lot of the DnB labels they had contracts with in the 90s, which probably colours my anecdote. They don't do Headz anymore for example.

It would be interesting to know what the numbers are like for an average Headz 12 compared to the 90s. Apart from oldskool nights and maybe a pub gig , DnB partys are strictly CDJ and maybe Serato from what I see.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

After about a decade of DJ-ing once a year I am now pretty much out of that game.

I actually quite like having different music from different eras in different formats located in different areas of the flat. It means I can play different music/formats depending on my mood.

 

[ska invita]

I'm digitising my collection to FLAC… and it's very slow going for stuff that was never released on CD, the whole process of cleaning the vinyl (preferably with a vacuum record cleaning machine, ripping it, processing the files with software (click removal etc.), tagging, then finally moving it to my NAS, backed up to the cloud and also another HDD. It helps being a member of a private music tracker, there's folk there that have far superior ripping setups than I have plus anything that was released on a decent sized label was also usually released on CD and rips of those are already there. In fact, I've started to sometimes buy stuff on CD that I've already got on vinyl as it's quicker than ripping!

Yes but worth being aware tracks mastered to CD may be very different to the vinyl pressing, especially true for bassy dance music.... Only really an issue if playing out loud though.

Sometimes the CD version can be better too though

 

[Fozzie Bear]

This is true but I think SRD no longer do distro for a lot of the DnB labels they had contracts with in the 90s, which probably colours my anecdote. They don't do Headz anymore for example.

It would be interesting to know what the numbers are like for an average Headz 12 compared to the 90s. Apart from oldskool nights and maybe a pub gig , DnB partys are strictly CDJ and maybe Serato from what I see.

I'm not in the industry but I would doubt that Metalheadz shifts more than 1000 12" these days? I remember going into Rough Trade in Covent Garden around 1997 and they had a huge pile of the latest Photek 12" - like two foot high or something. And that was just one shop.

 

[killer b]

After about a decade of DJ-ing once a year I am now pretty much out of that game.

me too - at least partly because it's getting increasingly hard to arrange turntables ad-hoc, and most venues don't have a set anymore.

Last summer I did a ragga jungle set off two walkmans - that was fun.

I actually quite like having different music from different eras in different formats located in different areas of the flat. It means I can play different music/formats depending on my mood.

I sometimes like to restrict myself to specific formats for a day, as it totally changes what I listen to and how I listen to it.

 

[pinkychukkles]

Yeah, unfortunately for me, having a huge record collection had become somewhat incompatible with my lifestyle (starting a family, living in rented accommodation) such that I was actually playing less and less of my collection due to it being vinyl-only. Since I have started converting it to 0s & 1s, I'm both re-discovering all this music that I wasn't really able to really play much before (record shelves blocked by childrens toys, single deck [room for two to stay up now long since gone with space limitations] permanently covered in crap) and also listen to so much more of my music than previously.

 

[cantsin]

I've pretty much stopped buying new vinyl this year and stuck to downloading things from Bandcamp and playing what I already have... still buy second hand stuff and it is indeed a good time for CDs especially.

My daughter thinks her friends paying 30 quid for fresh Soundgarden repress LPs is the most hilarious thing ever. She remembers being dragged around record shops as a nipper and me buying stuff for a quid because it looked bonkers...

I've seen conflicting reports on the environmental impact of downloading vs physical media but the days of me ordering boxes of seven inches from America are long gone (and not just because postage is insane now).

downloading is the most enviro friendly format for obvious reasons, and as Apple are shuttering Itunes from ...next year (?), is effectively finished - streaming is by far the least enviro friendly now ( vinyl is sold in such comparatively tiny amounts )