'Record Store Day' Creates Vinyl Logjam (newyorker.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Today is Record Store Day, an event which includes exclusive vinyl releases distributed only through record stores. But besides complaints about scalpers hoarding the limited-edition releases, musicians and labels say the event monopolizes all of the available production capacity for pressing vinyl records, creating delays as long as six months and inflating vinyl record prices as high as $30. "The bottleneck persists even though plants work around the clock for months to accommodate the surge in orders leading up to Record Store Day," writes the New Yorker, noting that the demand for vinyl records has now increased six-fold over the last eight years.

Part of the problem appears to be big labels. (One insisted on printing 2,100 copies of their 1974 novelty hit "Kung Fu Fighting" for the independent record store event, the New Yorker notes, "meaning that an up-and-coming band's new album could, in theory, be delayed.") Meanwhile, with current techniques, one production plant still has to scrap up to 20% of the records it presses due to quality issues -- although in the last four months, two companies have introduced new faster technologies for pressing vinyl records.
This year's records include a Dr. Who track called "Genesis of the Daleks" and a track from the "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" soundtrack on a vinyl picture disc, as well as releases from Anthrax, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Miles Davis, the Flaming Lips, and even Devo members Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale. Metallica -- this year's "ambassador" for the event -- plans to stream a live performance at Rasputin Records in Berkeley California.)

Comments

Re:Fetishization

[Locke2005]

Sure, I want to listen to a recording media that degrades every time you use it! My audiophile friend has high-end electrostatic speakers driven by a tube-based 500W amplifier, high end phonograph and oversampling CD player... and the CDs sound better.

Re:Fetishization

[ottawanker]

Lots of vinyl has been mastered 'better' than CDs. Basically anything in the 'loudness war' that was released on both vinyl and CD will sound better on vinyl, because it won't constantly be clipping (Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication is an album I can't stand to listen to on CD).

Why is this modded "Funny"?

[mykepredko]

I grew up in the '70s - if you considered yourself anything other than a loser that didn't know anything about audio, this is what you did.

That and worry about:
- Your turntable (always wanted a direct drive for providing the most accurate 33 RPM)
- Arm (had to be balanced to minimized forces on the cartridge, needle and record)
- Cartridge
- Needle

I have a Technics turntable with a Shure cartridge and needle that probably cost the equivalent of $2,000 today. I couldn't find needles for the cartridges for years (although I can now) but now that I have replaced most of my collection with CDs,

I haven't brought it out of the (orginal) box for a few years now.

The irony is, I can't sell it to anybody because it isn't "modern technology".