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'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.)
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.)
I don't think that's entirely fair to a lot of vinyl 'enthusiasts'. I am not one myself, but I can appreciate why people like it. The ritual of playing a record on vinyl restores some sense of intimacy with the music. I have several friends who collect vinyl, and none of them are remotely interested in snake oil audiophile products. Hell, half of them use cheap, unimpressive old speakers. Perhaps that's part of the aesthetic?
You obviously have zero clue how to play a record.
you do NOT throw it on the turntable.
You put on a cotton glove, carefully remove the record from the sleeve, then carefully place it on a dampening mat on the turntable, you now zero stat it with a static dissipation device and then hit it lightly with a dust removal super soft brush. then you can spin up the turntable wait for it to get to speed, then carefully lower the needle on the record once it hit speed.
My computer boots from OFF in less than 15 seconds. it takes at LEAST 15 seconds to get the record safely on the turntable and the static dissipation applied.
Unless you love the experience of buttloads of pops and clicks as well as damaging a $580 cartridge on your technics turntable... you do it right.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If this vinyl thing gets much bigger, it will no longer be cool.
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).
Not all of us live in countries where we can happily piss 100watts of power continuously into the wind. Admittedly the parent's basement dwellers may not realise electricity has a cost.
True but that is the fault of the sound engineers who mixed it, the artists who approved it.
It is possible to make a digital version of that vinyl that sounds better. It required talent and care. Two things the music industry greatly lacks.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.