Buying Vinyl?

It seems the best option to buy online are german and british stores, they have almost every album in stock... I'm very impressed by the catalog of sites such as piccadily, boomkat, phonika and a-musik for example, problem is shipping is very expensive overseas.

Where do ya'll buy your vinyl records? Any recommendations for purchase within the states?

HAY USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION MOKA

Rolling 2008 Vinyl Thread

Peeps in there are talking about the vinyls they're buying not their choice for a record store specifically. Cant deserve another thread perhops?

there are many other vinyl threds champion.

There's no online vinyl store thread.

what genre

i buy indie vinyl in the US from tonevendor

I've actually just ordered from tonevendor and it's great... do you use any other when tonevendor is out of stock?

I can't tell any genre in particular. I buy Techno as I do Hip-hop or Indie, sometimes funk or tropicalia (for which I use dustygroove) other times just rock classics. I don't have a particular taste to be honest.

http://www.forcedexposure.com/
http://www.calsound.com/shop/vinyl-records-c-462.html

I've only bought music online once in my life, everywhere else is in stores and whenever a craigslist-user is deciding to sell off stuff, which I'd recommend. Sure the selection online is waaaay superior, but hey it's still only half as fun.

try http://www.musicfearsatan.com (used to be e-vinyl.com but now stock cds and dvds, good prices and quick postage from France)
also I use
http://www.roboticempire.com/store/
http://www.allthatisheavy.com/
http://shop.relapse.com/store/product.aspx
http://www.theomegaorder.com/
http://kreationrecords.net/
http://www.normanrecords.com/
http://www.conspiracyrecords.com/store/index.php
http://www.southernlord.com/store.php
http://www.troublemanunlimited.com/store/
http://www.temporaryresidence.com/
http://www.bluecollardistro.com/bcd/categories.php?cPath=1_481
http://www.shiftyrecords.com/mailorder/
http://www.kozmik-artifactz.com/shop/index.php?language=en
https://www.southern.net/eu-shop/

Hope that is of use to you.

there's insound too

and Amazon is selling vinyl now too. Kind of strange, maybe.

i work for a vinyl record shop that does a small bit of mail order and our catalog is here:
academymailorder.blogspot.com

also fusetronsound.com
eclipse-records.com

and of course EBAY.

Hey Ian...

Which NY store is my best bet for picking up recent reissues? I'm after stuff like Milk n Cookies and Debris' Static Disposal

I'm there on holiday with my girlfriend for the weekend and want to pick up as much as I can before the pound finally crashes out and ends a long spell of cheap-o US mail order. Probably won't make it to more than one or two stores though. I'm hoping to get a quick look at The Thing, at least...

Nevermind! I should have checked that Academy blog listing first. There's loads of stuff there I was after.

Narlus - Do not miss Other Music at 15 East 4th St off Broadway.

http://www.auralexploits.com/

http://www.dustygrooves.com/

I'm after stuff like Milk n Cookies and Debris' Static Disposal

yeah Academy is your spot for that. there's a few locations, you want the one in Williamburg on N. 6th

one of Ian's co-workers put out that Milk n Cookies record I think

How bout The Thing? Is it regularly topped up with new shit? I'm guessing there's a ton of crap, but enough good stuff scattered about to keep it interesting.

I actually haven't been there. I think Jaxon went when he was in town

I think the general consensus is that if you have a lot of time to spend you can find good stuff but if you've only got an hour don't bother

http://www.weirdorecords.com/

and the always entertaining

http://www.anti-naturals.org/swill/maincat.htm (click on 'Reviews' for the lists)

for reggae/dub cannot fuckin beat ERNIE B'S!!

Gnarly! Dude! Come say hello.
I'll put aside copies of the Debris and Milk n Cookies LPs for you.
We are located at 96 North 6th Street in WILLIAMDBURG, BROOKLYN. Off the Bedford Avenue L train stop.

except it looks like we're out of the Debris record at the moment.

Insound and Amazon are terrible choices for vinyl. They have absolutely nothing in stock. I'll give it to Amazon, though, that the vinyl section is somewhat new which could explain the poor catalogue but in the meantime. The other choices Pfunkboy are excellent for rock and metal. Thanks.

http://www.forcedexposure.com/

Has anybody ordered from here? The site appears to have a very comprehensive catalogue in stock but somehow the site just seems very sketchy to me. Do they really have everything they say they do?

http://www.auralexploits.com/
http://www.dustygrooves.com/

I like dustygroove, been ordering from there for a while now. Auralexploits is a good choice, some great reissues and special editions to be found there once in a while but they run out of stock rather quickly.

i work for a vinyl record shop that does a small bit of mail order and our catalog is here:
academymailorder.blogspot.com

Wow, Ian I've been looking for Can's future days and they have it in there as well as some that have caught my attention. Do you ship to Canada and Mexico?

I'll add turntablelab to the list. Good for downtempo, new disco, hip hop:

http://www.turntablelab.com/vinyl/

dustygroove is okay for some stuff but I've really soured on them over the years - their selection can be really spotty, particularly when it comes to stuff I used to rely on them for (like jazz and Brazilian music). They always seem to have some crappy post-peak stuff in stock, but never the canonical works (for ex. check their Coltrane catalog)

and the always entertaining

http://www.anti-naturals.org/swill/maincat.htm (click on 'Reviews' for the lists)

I swear I don't recognize any records listed on both sites you suggested but those surely are some entertaining reviews in there.

Forced Exposure isn't sketchy, they've been around since the '80s

Forced Exposure might not have everything they say they do, but they're very reliable and a quick email to check the stock is simple enough.

FE actually does distribution, don't they?
I've had a few items from orders not be in stock, but they're good about communication and letting you know if things are back.

Wicked. Thank you and sorry, it's just I found it suspicious that none of their items are marked as out of stock, I suppose they erase them from the catalogue when they dont have it. I'm mailing to doublecheck and ordering a couple from there.

Does anyone know a good place to find 'the Zombies' reissues? Are there any reissues at all? I haven't had any luck with these. My father is a crazy Zombies fan and I want to buy him anything I can find.

There are no currently available Zombies reissues on LP.

and Amazon is selling vinyl now too. Kind of strange, maybe.

― Cars That Go Boom (mehlt), Wednesday, September 17, 2008 10:36 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I highly doubt this url will work, but hell, even best buy is selling vinyl now

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=ccat02001%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~nf207%7C%7C56494e594c&list=y&nrp=15&sc=musicSP&ks=960&usc=cat02001&sp=&list=y&iht=n&st=processingtime%3A%3E1900-01-01

newbury comics' in-store vinyl section has gotten pretty big lately. not sure how their on-line service is, though.

http://www.newburycomics.com/rel/v2_home.php?storenr=103&deptnr=596

A Zombies "Odyssey and The Oracle" re-issue from a couple of years back is still floating around, I believe. The 2LP "Time of the Zombies" compilation is the easiest to find used Zombies record (check ebay)and it contains most everything a Zombies fan would want.

when I was looking at new vinyl in newbury comics the other day I realized I went from buying records for $6-$8 to CDs for $10-$15 and now back to records for $18-$20.

There are no currently available Zombies reissues on LP.

I was expecting this, they should definitely do some sort of special reissue this year. After all 2008 marks the 50th Anniversary of Odessey and Oracle, am I wrong?

A Zombies "Odyssey and The Oracle" re-issue from a couple of years back is still floating around, I believe. The 2LP "Time of the Zombies" compilation is the easiest to find used Zombies record (check ebay)and it contains most everything a Zombies fan would want.

I'm still to find any trustworthy place to sell the odessey reissue. The 'time of the zombies' is in fact available on ebay and at a reasonable price, but damn that is an ugly cover. Did the people selling this actually listened to the zombies before doing the artwork?

I was expecting this, they should definitely do some sort of special reissue this year. After all 2008 marks the 50th Anniversary of Odessey and Oracle, am I wrong?

It's actually the 40th anniversary, my bad.

http://www.mimaroglumusicsales.com/

great selection + service

I've bought a few LPs from Bullmoose and found them very fast, with cheap shipping to boot. Also when they sent an LP that turned out to be defective I emailed them about it and they just sent out another copy; I didn't have to return the bad copy.

I would just recommend Ebay ... there are a ton of small indie stores that are on there. Some folks charge a bit extra to cover ebay and paypal fees, but you can sometimes contact these places directly and get cheaper off-ebay prices. And these mom-and-pop shops probably need your money more that Insound, Turntablelab, Forced Exposure etc. Or maybe you could just see if your local shop does special orders.

Also, Discogs is great for dance music (especially out-of-print stuff).

I can't stand Gemm with their crappy layout and search function, and Musicstack is only slightly better.

But I do use a lot of the other store/distro sites mentioned above for research purposes. It's great that so many of the big online stores write up reviews and post audioclips.

I wasnt aware Discogs sold vinyls :S

discogs is the means with which independent sellers reach buyers.

gemm is awful for usability but amidst the overpriced crap you can find some deals there sometimes

i have gotten many a good deal on gemm and musicstack, and also found stuff there i've never seen on ebay. don't discount them out of hand...

Did an update to our mailorder catalog this morning.
http://academymailorder.blogspot.com/

Full list:
http://academymailorder.blogspot.com/2008/08/currently-available.html

vinyl vs cd. which keeps its value better?

vinyl, no question.

that is, for an example, you buy a cd for twelve bucks and you'll be lucky to get one or two for it if/when you decide you're done with it. some CDs gain value, or maintain their value, but the vast majority don't. OTOH, say I buy a record on ebay for $50, chances are that if/when I decide to sell it, i'll be able to get about the same as what i paid. this is in my experience.

^yeah i just dropped $25 on a mint orig press of "wonderwall music" by george harrison, was just curious basically but i'm sure i can ebay it later for that if not more if i get sick of it.

the thing is though that you spend £40 on a first pressing of are you experienced and then you never want to play it in fear of the value going down by you wearing it out.

aw, that's silly. if you know how to take care of an LP you should be able to play it hundreds of times without any noticeable damage to it. so long as your needle isn't damaged or blunted, the act of playing an LP doesn't do much to "wear it out."

Since 9 of the 15 items I ordered on Forced Exposure aren't in (for reference sake, they're techno 12"s from 06 and 07, stuff like Achso, Full Clip, and stuff on labels like Bar25 and Oslo). I want these records, would like to get the other stuff I ordered in like a month from now. Is there even a chance these records will ever be in stock again (I asked in an email they said they don't know when they'd be in)? Will they just hold my order forever?

It'd be wise to email them asking for their stocks before placing any orders. That's the first thing I did after I saw a vinyl I was looking for everywhere ('Lali Puna's Scary world theory') and that was supposedly available on Forced Exposure. Then I learnt they don't have any 'out of stock' Lps over there.

Prolly you should ask for a refund on those 9 Lps.

FE usually tells you they can't get what you want and offers to send what they can get. You shouldn't get charged for anything that's not in stock. I would tell them to just send what they have and ask if they can notify you on any of the other stuff if it happens to become available (and I would not be optimistic).

Well, I emailed them, and told them to hold it for about 3 weeks and then send my order but replacing the not in stock items with a bunch of other stuff that's definitely in stock. They shouldn't be charging me for those 9, unless somehow they all come in in the next while, but that's unfortunately doubtful.

It's disappointing though, because out of nowhere I suddenly had access to all these gems I missed out on and have been kicking myself since. You can't just play with someones emotions like that!

that happened to me all the time--seeing stuff in stores, passing it up because it's on order at FE, never materializes. they need some kind of 'in-stock/remaining copies' thing on their website!

Might as well bump thread. Anyone happens to know where can I get the LP version of "bavarian fruit bread" by Hope Sandoval?

I might know where, do you have an e-mail?

motelmoka(at)gmail.com

Hello fellows.

The web-store for Academy Records NYC is now up & working. The catalog is limited to about 300 items right now, but we're adding things every day. You can check it out & browse by genre (also searchable!) at www.academyannex.com

The catalog is all vinyl. Sorry for the self-promotion, but I've spent the last few weeks getting this shit together and am pretty psyched that it's operational.

xoxo
IJ

King Tubby : African Love Dub
Clocktower reissue

Price: $110.00

Wau! I will sell my copy for $100

hey ian nice job on that!

cool ian i will check that out.

btw. i have had a falling out with a certain local record store.

i will be pretty covered on most stuff, jazz, classic rock, folk, more mainstream indie stuff...however, is there any good place online to order new LPs...um...like say something like Blank Dogs or bands in that general realm?

any advice would be appreciated. thanks

M@tt, this is bad news because now that my record player is back up and running, i was going to ask you where you were buying stuff.

oops lol that's a typo. (re: king tubby)

matt we carry lots of blank dogs & related marchandise, though none of it is on the website yet. e-mail yer wants to academymailor✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ and me or arturo will take care of you.

errr. academy mail order at gmail dot come no spaces.

when I click on store, I get directions.

is it a wordpress blog? there's a great plugin you could use for audio samples that I use on the Acute site.

M@tt, this is bad news because now that my record player is back up and running, i was going to ask you where you were buying stuff.

― Burt_ in the disco! Hongro blessed DJ! (jjjusten), Wednesday, March 11, 2009 8:05 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i totally endorse roadrunner, eclipse, hymies, even electric fetus and cheap have a lot of stuff.

i am pretty much done w/tr33h0use so there's just a small niche of more obscure indie/punk stuff that sort of isn't covered by those places...

but most of the stuff you need you can get at the places i mentioned.

and honestly i shouldn't discourage you from shopping at a local business even though i just happen to personally hate the owner, tr33house is a good store.

yeah it's a wordpress blog.

click on genres to get to the store--i dunno what's fucked up with the image map.

thank u guyss for helping me fix errors.

actually, clicking on "Store" on firefox here seems to take me to the store's display of recently added items...

the two things up on your site look real intriguing ian : )

;_;

like, i know the "local labels" page currently sends you to the directions, but do you all really have trouble accessing the store? cuz if it's just me that it is working for then i will be needingk to fixing it.

also dan if you ever want to come show me how to use sound sample plug-in i will trade you records or food for your time.

hey ian the Mark Fry - Dreaming with Alice record is labeled Dreaming with Acid

lololol thanks, i'll fix gthat.

;_;

― ian, Wednesday, March 11, 2009 8:38 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude i wasn't being a dick! i swear...i meant the abner jay and obfesa (sp?) LPs looked cool!

btw ian the site works fine for me (firefox PC)

yeah looked fine here too, firefox on mac

thanks dudes.

no prob. ian, when I get a moment I can just email you the link. It's really easy, just a plug-in you install to wordpress, then when you're making a blog post, you just type a simple code and it does it all automatically.

check out the samples on this blog post:

http://acuterecords.com/blog/?p=50

it's definitely a popular plug-in because I see it used elsewhere. You can use some basic coding to adjust it's look, for instance I made mine black and red to match the site. The "control-click to download" is just additional code from me, not part of the plug-in, and probably not something you'd need.

But to be able to have a record and a simple way to play an mp3 sample, this is the best.

http://www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/

awesome. thanks dan.

http://wayneandwax.com/?p=4229

Buying vinyl in Morocco (and links to ethical issues re which vinyl gets reissued)

does listening to music on the net count as vinyl

Hilarious

no you

ethically-licensed high quality vinyl reissues of obscure Amazonian cumbia.

tracks on that blog are sweet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=34&v=GuCdsyCWmt8

I am imagining that narrator is Jared from Silicon Valley

About 41 million vinyl albums were sold in 2022, compared with about 33 million CDs, RIAA said in its year-end report released Thursday.

The figures contributed to another banner year for the music industry. Sales of recorded music rose 6% to a record $15.9 billion last year...

Revenue from vinyl records rose 17% to over $1.2 billion last year, the 16th straight year of growth for the format and nearly double what it was two years ago. Vinyl albums accounted for 71% of physical format revenue

Wild development

yeah but

https://public.tableau.com/static/images/U_/U_S_RecordedMusicSalesVolumesbyFormat_0/SalesVolumebyFormat/1_rss.png

I read that vinyl sales were actually down if you correct for sales of mdnights

I'd believe that

So if I'm interpreting this correctly, the # of units went down but the revenue went up, so (and sorry if I'm being obvious) the conclusion is that vinyl prices went up significantly...? I'd believe that. I rarely see new vinyl under $20 nowadays. Mostly $23 to $33 (which seems crazy to me) for a single disc.

yes it actually averages out to $30 per LP, I read elsewhere, which is just staggering to me

CDs in the nineties were regularly 15-18, which adjusted for inflation is in the $35+ zone. Do it’s not crazy but the issue is that nobody’s income has kept up with inflation. This post inspired by the bodega charging $10 for a 12 pack of lacroix.

I think Universal (?) raised their vinyl pricing across the board, so naturally everyone else followed suit. 2LP releases routinely hang around the $40 mark now, if we're talking major label stuff (indies seem to have agreed on $30 as the mark to hit there).

I'm sure the costs actually have risen in some areas of the manufacturing process, but A LOT of that is bloat.

Wow, dang. Yeah, good point about inflation. I feel like it's even hard to find used vinyl under $15 except for: classical (which has always been generally inexpensive), jazz (except for Miles, Coltrane, etc.), and avant-garde that's off people's radar (e.g. not NWW list stuff). The best luck I've had lately is finding some great but lesser known $5-$8 jazz records (someone got rid of their Altschul collection! Score!).

I don’t think I ever paid $18 for a (non-import) CD though, even if that was the theoretical upper-limit retail price.

FWIW, I was talking to a friend's parents about CD's, and he said he used to get them for about $3 or $4 per title by buying them in bulk through CD music clubs. I think this had to be the '90s?

I remember this. If you did the absolute minimum for the BMG club (buy one CD at normal price), and maximize all the "free" CDs you get (you had to pay for shipping), yes, the average cost per CD was around $4. Sign up, do the minimum, cancel, repeat. They had some amazing deals on boxed sets, like the Miles Davis ones. They were counting on lots of people not bothering to cancel their subscriptions in a timely manner or not accepting their monthly selection (which you could refuse and return to sender, for free, but many people probably didn't know that), which apparently worked out for them.

That's such a half-assed business model - we're banking on subscribers forgetting or being too lazy - but I feel like that's the business model for a lot of things (i.e. it does actually play out that way). Look at TV ratings - they always talk about "lead-in" as if viewers were too lazy to turn off the TV or to even change the channel.

How much were those Columbia Records “The Nice Price” CDs? Like 8 bucks?

I did the BMG and/or Columbia House thing a couple of times — this was 1994-95. After I got my 8 CDs for a penny (or 12 for the price of one), I sent back the postcard saying, “Please send all future deliveries to [address in Europe].” They’d write back saying, “Sorry, we don’t ship there, but enjoy your CDs!” I got the Ray Charles 3CD Atlantic set, the Count Basie Decca set, and many other things I don’t recall offhand but still have.

As for its business model, record clubs were a notorious way for major labels to hide or otherwise just flat-out lie to artists about sales. There’s a reason the barcodes on LPs, cassettes, and CDs sold by record clubs were replaced by “mfd for BMG direct marketing in ____” or whatever.

Yeah, IIRC club CD's were considered promotional CD's. Like there's a line item in the budget for every major label release specifically for promotional discs, and if you were green you figured it was only the cost of pressing and mailing discs to media/press for review. It was really that and any copies sold through record/CD clubs, which means ZERO royalties to the artist.

Should have searched first - a good article on clubs:

https://www.spin.com/2021/06/cd-clubs-columbia-house-bmg/

Clubs became famous for jiving even the artists whose music made them rich. All featured acts were paid reduced publishing and royalty rates on the claim that placement in company catalogs was billable advertising — this, while clubs paid the artists’ labels full rates. Such royalty shakedowns were a precursor to the floss-thin rates streaming services currently pay musicians.

Piotr Olov, a former content strategist for Columbia House, recalls, “The labels would get this enormous advance against all this product. And then, of course, that advance didn’t slide down the hill to the artists. The royalty rates were a percentage of what even the crappy major label royalty rates were at the time…basically, it is so Spotify, it’s a joke.”

There’s a good (IIRC) documentary made by a guy working at Columbia House in the early ‘90s – The Target Shoots First.

How much were those Columbia Records “The Nice Price” CDs? Like 8 bucks?

$9.99 or $10.99 was typical during the '90s, maybe a dollar more at a mall chain store. Sony also had a "Best Value" line, which was more mid-price ($11.99/$12.99) and WEA's Super Saver Series was about the same as that. Most back catalog titles on majors (basically anything from before the CD era) were in these tiers, but there were exceptions (The Beatles, of course).

CDs in the nineties were regularly 15-18, which adjusted for inflation is in the $35+ zone. Do it’s not crazy but the issue is that nobody’s income has kept up with inflation. This post inspired by the bodega charging $10 for a 12 pack of lacroix.

― ian, Saturday, 11 March 2023 17:22 (yesterday) link

i remember when my small town record store was selling the newly released weezer green album for 20.99 and did a hard no. those were the last few years where you could still scoop up used copies of a well regarded albums for a couple of bucks.

If you think about it, this record club was kind of a precursor to all the monthly digital subscriptions you have now, where they hope you sign up and then forget and pay the man $9.95 a month into infinity.

I looked into working at the Columbia House warehouse back in the 90s until I found out they tested and knew that was not going to work out. It paid pretty good for that kind of work and I knew a couple people that worked there going to IU.

physical media is a niche these days and press runs are much smaller so i don't bemoan the pricing. re. columbia house i tend to avoid anything with CRC on it because who knows where/how it was pressed.

I still think it's wild that the record clubs were still pressing vinyl up into the '90s, and there are actual club editions of, like, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins albums that are heavy collectibles now.

They were still selling 8-tracks through 1988.

You haven't heard Nothing's Shocking until you've heard it on 8-track!

https://i.discogs.com/0Fv6M4WWnviAsjyOYSrSbBBlvOj_-lK8r7cWDVhFe00/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:767/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE1NjQy/MzYyLTE1OTUwODQw/MjItMzk0OC5qcGVn.jpeg

how accurate are soundscan numbers for vinyl? just given a much higher percentage sold through indie stores that, at least years ago, didn't report

do Bandcamp sales count?

Bandcamp does report to Soundscan per their site

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/apr/05/man-who-made-12m-from-fake-vinyl-records-caught-out-by-clash-fan

haha yes I saw that earlier today. I don't understand how he was manufacturing them! Aren't all the pressing plants backed up for years? Was he making acetates? Buying from some established counterfeiting group? So many questions.

"Some of these bootleggers, they make pretty good stuff."

I don't understand how he was manufacturing them! Aren't all the pressing plants backed up for years? Was he making acetates? Buying from some established counterfeiting group? So many questions.

― Perverted By Linguiça (sleeve)

welcome to the chaos that went through my head as i read this.
also, a low quality clash pressing gave the game away !?
of all the bands to be able to do a quality check on.

Aren't all the pressing plants backed up for years?

The backup is now down to between 6 months and one year, depending on the plant and the order. But apparently there are pressing plants that will happily process an order from some rando who emailed them MP3s of Nevermind.

Bootleg pressings take up so much of the new reissue stock at a lot of record stores around here, and they’re pretty easy to spot. Not to mention “legit” bootlegs that could be found on plain recordings/4 men with beards/etc. With the really blatant illegal bootlegs, the stores must know what they are and they just don’t care.

the thing is, i knew i was buying bootleg cd editions of Brainfreeze via Fopp when i had the chance, given how rare the originals were.
but with a cd, it mattered not.
whereas with vinyl, i guess its a very different ballgame.

idk man I know for sure there are some boot CDs that are MP3-sourced (e.g. Muslimgauze "Chapter Of Purity")

ooh, god yeah, i have had that re soulwax mashup boots that sound truly 128 dreadful.
but the Brainfreeze boots that were available via Fopp looked very legit, and sounded great.
guess its easier if you have an original cd as source given there is a lot less chaos in the process as opposed to vinyl.

I think there are some plants where if you have a good relationship with them they can turn stuff around fairly quickly...like within a month or two. 100% Electronica for example does a ton of small run pressings and from what I've heard a lot of it is on pretty short notice. So I guess it IS possible if you've got someone on the inside.

The article makes it sound like he was buying stock from European bootleggers, not having the albums pressed himself.

i think this is the first time I've seen the phrase "told to wear a tag" for house arrest
i had to look this up. at first i thought he had to wear a nametag or something like "BOOTLEGGER"

The Scarlet Letter, but it says "VG-"

lol

Electronica for example does a ton of small run pressings and from what I've heard a lot of it is on pretty short notice. So I guess it IS possible if you've got someone on the inside.

I have long wondered about this and have even asked a few people who I would expect would be in the know but no one seems to have an answer. I see bands on social media complaining about waiting a year for test pressings but I feel like there are 75 new dance 12"s on Boomkat, Hardwax and Bleep every three days. And I'm assuming that the cost is more or less the same to press a 300 12"s as 300 LPs, or at least the difference is negligible as far as mastering and plating and test pressings and all that stuff. I buy a lot of house and techno so I'm not complaining, and if there is indeed a conspiracy or secret EDM handshake taking place I'm willing to look the other way, but it still seems odd to me. Kidding about the conspiracy, of course. Any theories? A lot of dance labels are based in Europe and the UK so maybe the plants are more plentiful or at least more accessible over there? I really have no idea!

The Sound of Vinyl site appears to be having a sale in which LPs are $8 total. They are listed as free but shipping is $8 and I don't think you can combine shipping. Found out about this from the Hoffman forums. A lot of the PJ Harvey reissues are included in this.

https://thesoundofvinyl.us/collections/1lp?q=&hPP=30&idx=official_products_price_asc&p=0&is_v=1&fbclid=PAAab7tOr1NeaoH4bAv-I3-t3WmPqmtp8fJUkdoWJqTTawZdQoLOCmuhCYIow_aem_th_ATdsdxFfyjLKXr5QlvRxwaglZp6G1HVdzBew44IORkb6_Gy5d8ZLnHvXAlxk_k83gHY

yeah it's been funky - sometimes you can't add an album to the cart, or sometimes you add it to the cart then it disappears, they are probably getting slammed i'm sure.

was finally able to process a transaction, picked up the PJ Harvey 91-04 Peel Sessions collection for $8 - pretty awesome

Yeah similarly I grabbed the Stories from the City Stories from the Sea - Demos. A lot of her demos LPs are cheap on discogs but not free + shipping. That's a pretty aggressive sale but I assume they figure it gets peoples attention and drives awareness for their online shop? "free records + shipping" is more likely to spread word of mouth than "cheap records + shipping" so I kind of get it, if that's what they're doing.

It took a lot of messing-around (adding and removing items) because things would disappear, but if I added enough I could get two 'free' albums in my cart and pay $8 total shipping for the order. Placed 7 orders like that, so 14 albums for $56 total, a couple of them double LPs even. I mostly got PJ Harvey reissues/demos, a few jazz reissues, the last Avalanches album and some hip-hop (Jeezy, Eve,PE).

had no clue that Avalanches album was on there, that's definitely worth the eight bucks

Amazing - thanks for the heads up. Got 6 records in 5 orders for $43.

FYI it looks like albums are still being added to this sale.

I'm not really finding a good way to view them all, and this link is broken:

https://thesoundofvinyl.us/collections/markdowns

The link upthread works for me. Just check the box for In Stock.

nothing on offer on the UK site of course.

Unrelated but why is it for certain records 90+% of copies you find will have a corner cut?

Are you asking why record stores would cut the corners, or why so many ended up with cut corners?

anyway all it means is that the record companies overshot and produced way more than people were willing to buy at full price for that title. so most copies ended up getting remaindered (cut corner) and sold for a discount.

FWIW, I recognized certain titles as being poorly reviewed elsewhere due to poor mastering - Natty Dread for example - or due to digital sources when other reissues were all-analog, so it's possible certain titles were simply records they had trouble moving.

yeahhhh I looked at those and that was my first thought, bad digital rips or poor manufacturing

The reviews of that particular site have me staying away from this sale but hope everybody gets what they ordered ASAP

could not resist the pj peels

Eh sorry a bit late to reply to the above but I meant specific albums…for example, like at least 17 out of 20 copies of Zarthus by Robbie Basho (if you can even find one these days!) will have a cut corner, whereas for your average album you might find 1 out of every 20. Did Zarthus just not sell well in relation to units pressed? If so that’s interesting, as it usually fetches a decent amount of money ($60-$100 range) these days.

Well that's a pretty common thing though; the album that sold poorly upon release but becomes a sought after cult hit many years later. So common I'm actually a bit surprised you find it interesting!

But I don't mean to offend, just reminds me of some of the basic misconceptions I'd hear as a record clerk, like when someone selling back vinyl would argue about the value based solely on whether the albums were "good" or not (regarding quality of music, not condition).

But if you're implying that it would mean there should be more copies out in the wild that were never claimed, I suppose but I wonder how many were pressed initially too.

Sound of Vinyl is having another "Free" sale - just pay shipping. Picked up 4 and paid $43 for shipping + taxes.

https://thesoundofvinyl.us/collections/secret-specials

Looks like shipping fee is way up... $8 shipping last time (1LP) now displaying as $14 for me with no other options available.

yeah me too, it's kind of a gimmick sale..say maybe $10 record sale at this point or something, but still not bad depending

40 bucks for new, long out of print vinyl

https://store.bluenote.com/products/mccoy-tyner-extensions-lp-blue-note-tone-poet-series

grabbed some PJ Harvey records; averaged out to about $10/each which is not bad

What's the general state of the vinyl market at the moment? Have prices peaked and started to fall again or are things much as they were 12-18 months ago?

Asking mainly as a casual buyer who, for one reason and another, pretty much gave up on it about four years ago.

I feel like prices have peaked and demand isn’t as high — prices haven’t dropped a ton but have come down at least slightly but no idea how far they’ll fall…probably not any lower than pre-pandemic prices anytime soon.

it's still terrible i.e. expensive but yeah I feel like it may actually have peaked

I was glancing through my wantlist on Discogs for the first time in a while and it feels like I saw significantly fewer eye-popping prices.

every year or two i have a market stall selling excess vinyl from my collection and decent LPs that I have picked up cheap in my travels

the first time i did it (maybe 10-15 years ago) people were crawling over each other to buy average Lou Reed records for $20

but the stall i had a couple of months ago was the slowest day's trade i have ever had - felt like most of my sales came from lifers, but that the newer buyers had really evaporated

i ended up taking a few crates of stuff i wasn't into to the op shop/thrift store just to free up room at home, and resolved to not do it again for quite a while!

I'd say prices are rising at a slower rate, and perhaps sellers pricing more "optimistically" are willing to accept less. The gold rush aspect seems to have died down a little bit. It's possible things have peaked, but there are some recent factors that will influence the near future and possibly beyond:

Postage rates continue to rise. For americans it has become inconvenient and expensive to ship worldwide. For example, to ship anything USPS-insured to the UK must now be sent Express at a cost of like $70. IIRC, vinyl used to cost $22 or so to send to the UK on the standard service. Might still, but you can't insure standard service and must use express (this is what I was told- if anyone knows a way, please share as I'd love to be wrong). There's all sorts of new documentation, HS Tariff (whatever the fuck that means), VAT... all this shit that used to be handled by the customs and or buyers in their destination countries is now burdening sellers who are now expected to navigate this stuff on their own... it's just not realistic to expect someone selling a record every once in a while making like $15 after expenses to spend the time and effort on documentation. And you have to send insured because if buyers decide literally anything is "wrong", with or without proof, acting in good faith or bad, the buyer gets a free item or the seller must $15/20/50 whatever to get their item back. Casual sellers are going to do that once and never again, and stores are going to realize how little they make after factoring time as an expense. Sellers limiting where they ship to or not selling online at all mean less supply and higher prices.

Discogs new rate increases now include shipping, so that's another disincentive, and more sellers that sell only domestically or pack it in altogether.

Titles become unavailable (at least temporarily) almost immediately, everything is a limited edition now. Even the new Beatles single, the Stones album, those were believe it or not very scarce at retail. And speaking of silly prices, the new Red/Blue albums are about $75 each brand new. $75! Manufacturing has never caught up to the 15 year vinyl resurgence, and the resulting prices/scarcity are turning a lot of people off... and this is just for new reissues- commodity stuff, or what should be. Not all new vinyl- Target editions seem to be so overpressed that these equalize on the second hand market to sane prices, often $15-22. Much like a huge chunk of RSD stuff from last/a few years back- which can be like $8 plus shipping. I would say that most RSD titles, in the aggregate, now sell for below wholesale cost.

I think the CD resurgence is becoming less of a punchline. Let's face it, vinyl is a problematic format.

on the new side, feels like there's a real glut. some crazy sales lately (like Sound of Vinyl). Plaid Room Records had good stuff marked up to 70% off, with a warning that shipping could be up to five weeks! not sure where that inventory came from.

crosspost from Shady scams and other silly business ideas to take advantage of earnest new vinyl collectors

My 17 year old coworker told me yesterday she spent $100 at Goodwill and I was like right on, hope you got a nice coat or boots or something. Then she told me she bought a “Grease vinyl” for $30.
Goodwill in on the grift!

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Monday, November 20, 2023 3:10 PM

and yeah xp nobody wants new vinyl anymore

I mean as majorairbro mentions it's so damn expensive. I saw those Beatles sets priced at $75 apiece too and was just like, uhhh good luck. but like I'm seeing single LPs for $33.99 or more. some stores around here finally got in the Macho Man Randy Savage LP and it's over 40 bucks! what the hell is going on here??

Seeing the Macho Man record in the new bin at my local recently - arguably the worst album released in my lifetime - priced at $45 truly made me question my faith in a loving god.

I mean he recorded a hip hop album and the first tune is a Hulk Hogan diss track you gotta give it up for that

That was a RSD title that was more sought after than anyone expected. Interestingly, 832 owners of the 1000 pressed have logged that one in their collection on the Scogs. Amazing, you know, you drum up all this hype for limited, one time only releases only to be like, well in purple. We'll make some in red later.

I bought five CDs at Half Price Books yesterday for $21

Well, just found out one of the best record stores I've ever been to is closing next month. Not sure of the details, could be personal to the owner, but could be industry related as well.

Double Decker? Yeah that's a huge bummer, curious as to what the reason is too. I feel like the owner just wanted to do other things as even on random weekdays the place would be bustling with people and on Fridays and Saturdays it was jammed, without fail.

It's hard to know what the situation is with selling records these days. At the store I work at it's pretty much business as usual with reissues of older titles, the big ones still sell easily and steadily, despite rising prices. Newer releases are less popular, people less willing to spend on something they aren't as familiar with maybe? And pretty much whenever I try to bring in a more interesting reissue it stalls, but that's probably also to do with our location/clientele being upper-middle class folks who want what they know.

Used stuff still sells well but we try to price competitively and not become a brick and mortar Discogs store as so many places have. My own personal Discogs sales have been weird as hell, one week I can barely keep up with shipping things out and the next it's tumbleweeds.

I also wonder if/when the general shoddiness of new pressings is going to catch up with them. I realize a truly perfect pressing is rare and every LP will probably have some bit of surface noise on it but the amount of non-fill and random clicking I've been hearing on some albums right out of the shrink is maddening. I've used the Amazon return trick a few times to replace these copies, sometimes it's just a bad one, but sometimes it appears the entire run is just bad. Which is frustrating because from what I've read it really isn't that hard to prevent these things. I mean its wild that used, often dirty looking LPs will sometimes play with less noise than something that's brand new, in fact there seemed to be hardly any straight up bad pressings in the 70s and 80s, but nowadays you kind of roll the dice with everything. I can see people just getting frustrated and saying fuck it when it comes to buying new vinyl.

iirc a lot of that comes from not letting the records cool properly and for long enough once off the presses, but yeah I suspect we are not alone in mostly giving up on new vinyl

Kind of ironic that so many people got into vinyl “because it sounds better” at a time when it in fact mostly does not sound better

Double Decker? Yeah that's a huge bummer, curious as to what the reason is too. I feel like the owner just wanted to do other things as even on random weekdays the place would be bustling with people and on Fridays and Saturdays it was jammed, without fail.

Yes! The store was incredible - for a while they were posting sealed OG Funkadelic records, just driving me nuts that I didn't live closer - even in my few times there I always came away with A+ purchases. Their prices were mostly fair from what I had seen. 27 years is a long time in any business so you might be right.

Recently had to take a trip to a mid-sized American city, a once booming but now sorely neglected corner of the great Midwest. Found an expansive record store, stacks crammed into every corner of an old house -- three stories in total -- with sizable jazz, soul, country, classical, and international sections (though sadly A and even most B-Tier stuff was picked over).

Browsing the country stacks, I found no fewer than 10 copies of Rosanne Cash's Seven Year Ache all priced above $15! Still thoroughly enjoyed the experience of meandering through the place, and I left satisfied with similarly over-priced copies of Anita Baker's Rapture, Jerry Jeff Walker's Viva Terlingua, and The Judds' Why Not Me.

How mysterious! Sounds like Cleveland but I can’t think of any place like that there.

Almost sounds like toad Hall in Rockford

for me the heyday of the new vinyl resurgence really was 15-20 years ago, when so much new vinyl was $15 or under. i still remember aron's records in hollywood had virtually all new indie rock vinyl priced at $7.99, $12.99 for double LPs. i remember picking up all the sleater-kinney vinyl at that rate. i think One Beat was more premium -- $8.99!)

in the new era, there are so few artists who have enough loyalty from the new vinyl target audience. Lana Del Rey can easily sell her albums for $30-$40, same goes for Taylor Swift and a small handful of others. legacy artists or those who are favored by the slightly older more trad vinyl audience will do pretty well. but for the vast majority of new LPs, they just sit there forever, or so it seems. i don't understand who's dropping $30-$50 on some of these when the CD is sitting there a few rows away for a fraction of the cost.

related: a friend and fellow U2 fan just sent me a link (emphasized with an angry face emoji) to the RSD release of Live Under a Blood Red Sky, which is retailing for $54.99.

xp ding ding ding -- impressive

Double Decker? Yeah that's a huge bummer, curious as to what the reason is too. I feel like the owner just wanted to do other things as even on random weekdays the place would be bustling with people and on Fridays and Saturdays it was jammed, without fail.

Yes! The store was incredible - for a while they were posting sealed OG Funkadelic records, just driving me nuts that I didn't live closer - even in my few times there I always came away with A+ purchases. Their prices were mostly fair from what I had seen. 27 years is a long time in any business so you might be right.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Tuesday, 21 November 2023 15:46 (three hours ago) link

Last night I had to break the news to my Bethlehem-based friend cause I saw the announcement before he did. Did not take it well...

It's got to be a personal or lease related reason. But the fact that it closes on December 2nd and was announced last night... there must be some major unavoidable reason why they'd provide such short notice with no word of store closing sale or anything, seemed odd to me.

The one measly visit I made there I got some insane deals on a couple of Grouper records, by the way, but the high priced stuff was especially high iirc.

Their $3 bins were really good if you want stuff like near mint Hall & Oates records.

Really interesting conversation. I'm a relatively new returner to vinyl - I have no idea how common my situation is, maybe it's a little unusual...

The first thing to say is that I'm really an amateur in all this business. I also suspect I have somewhat cloth ears for the finer points of recording quality. I follow the debate of whether CD/Vinyl/FLAC whatever gives better sound quality, but in all honesty myself I just can't tell. This even applies to my total rubbish record deck (how rubbish, you ask? Well my mum bought it from *Lidl* 10 years ago). Oftentimes it sounds fuzzy as hell. I don't care though, I still enjoy listening to it.

So why have I started to buy the odd bit of vinyl? Well it comes mostly from guilt. See, for about 15 years I never once purchased music. It wasn't that I stopped listening - it was simply Napster and downloads as a teen, then youtube, now streaming. It started to get ridiculous when I consider how much joy some musicians have given me - and some are still alive and releasing music.

It's so easy for me to reach for one of these digital solutions and basically have the music available - at effectively no price. CDs are indeed super cheap but feel a bit pointless, since it's almost the same experience (if you don't count finding a CD player and fussing with the disc). So post-pandemic I've been trying to see more acts live, and buy merchandise directly, in order to support them. Picking up some vinyl at a reasonable price (I can't really justify spending more than £30) - especially if I can buy direct from e.g. Bandcamp gives me the warm-and-fuzzies. They genuinely will be the medium I reach for in the evening, it's nice having the packaging and the old cliche of the "physical object".

Not sure how big a contribution people like me make though. I couldn't be bothered to do this with the "big acts" (they have enough cash aleady!). Will also never buy a tape again.

people want something shiny to hold and look at.

this weekend I saw some 2023 Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo Japanese releases displayed behind the counter. I couldn’t tell if they were 7”s or special cd packaging or something but they looked super nice.

nice thoughts jifMoose :)

This might be answered on a different thread but roughly what are the artists making on cd vs vinyl at a gig? ie what do they get for each £25-30 record sold vs a £10 CD? (Adjust to your local currency and actually throw in a £20-25 t-shirt while we're here)

Partly just curious but I'd like a concrete idea when I'm doing these weird merch table calculations as I decide whether and what to buy (feeling flush vs feeling broke, liked the band vs loved them, beautiful artifact vs nice enough object, band needs support vs commercial monster etc etc).

Last night I had to break the news to my Bethlehem-based friend cause I saw the announcement before he did. Did not take it well...

It's got to be a personal or lease related reason. But the fact that it closes on December 2nd and was announced last night... there must be some major unavoidable reason why they'd provide such short notice with no word of store closing sale or anything, seemed odd to me.

― Evan, Tuesday, November 21, 2023 2:18 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah the suddenness is very strange and I think you're right that even if it was his decision it decision it probably was a result of some outside factors.

They are a great store and they do what all great stores do - price stuff to move and turn their inventory over, mark it down until it sells, lean on old stuff and carry a curated selection of new stuff.

Stores who price stuff like they need to squeeze every possible penny (according to Discogs stats) that a record might be worth and leave it there for months or years, what's the thinking there? Idk

I hardly ever buy new vinyl for the reasons mentioned above, but as far as used stuff goes I've recently discovered the joys of classical vinyl. Compared to other genres it tends to be cheap and in excellent condition, and the pressings are usually high-quality to begin with.

For a long time I had the mindset that classical music is best-suited to digital formats because of digital's superior dynamics, absence of surface noise, not having to flip the record for longer pieces, etc. Then a few weeks ago I found a pristine copy of Gustav Leonhardt's 1969 recording of Bach's Art of Fugue on harpsichord (this one) at a local store for $6, and it totally destroyed my world. Sacred mathematics at the gates of infinity, elevated in the indescribable way you only get from a flawless vinyl pressing. Also for music this dense I find that being forced to listen in smaller sidelong doses is the best way to take it in.

So now I'm on a Bach vinyl spree (mostly keyboard works so far), and it sure as hell beats tracking down OG pressings of 70s prog and folk records like I had been doing for a while.

I'll stop raving, but first I want to shout out this pressing of Helmut Walcha's 1973-74 recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier on harpsichord. 5 LPs of some of the greatest keyboard music ever in a gorgeous package, and NM copies currently go for about $20.

That sounds like a neat way to switch things up.

that's awesome. Leonhardt's Bach harpsichord recordings are indeed transcendent

holy shit, yes! i have that same box! amazing

also, #onethread, try switching it up later tonight or tomorrow with this extremely glittery harpsichord-adjacent Catherine Christer Hennix keyboard interface composition:

https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/solo-for-tamburium

RSD release of Live Under a Blood Red Sky, which is retailing for $54.99.

i saw this...wtf, this is barely a full album's worth of music

budo jeru, I'm liking that Hennix quite a bit.

we are having kind of a joyous Hennix celebration across multiple threads at the moment!

Yeah budo, thanks for the Hennix rec (you had me at "harpsichord-adjacent" lol). About 10 minutes into it and I'm flying.

Also awesome that you have the Walcha WTC box. Desert island material for me.

i meant the Leonhardt box actually!

but i will definitely check out the Walcha recording

Oh sorry. The Leonhardt is just as awesome! I also love the cover design on that box, really suits the dark gothic vibe of the music.

I'm just gonna buy them both ;)

and yes, old used classical vinyl is absolutely one of the best bangs for your buck in terms of value for money

I love this thing:
https://www.discogs.com/release/4340406-Sibelius-Okko-Kamu-Herbert-von-Karajan-Gerhard-Stempnik-Radion-Sinfoniaorkesteri-Berliner-Philharmon

I'm just gonna buy them both ;)

This is the way.

Been meaning to get some Sibelius and that set looks lovely

I also wonder if/when the general shoddiness of new pressings is going to catch up with them

my new vinyl buying has dwindled to a trickle (those prices!) but the few i do pick up have been surprisingly/happily free of issues bar the occasional bit of distortion (grrr the reissue of ptah the el daoud notably), def not as bad as some of the rubbish pressings i have from the 2010s era looking at you 4mwb.

re classical scores: my shelves are BULGING with cheap & amazing classical lps... will forever bless the day i lucked into a mint copy of this for the equivalent of about 5 us dollars!

I picked up this from a National Trust shop the other day, unplayed and sounds amazing and has a lovely booklet as part of the box set:
https://www.discogs.com/release/10359578-Klemperer-Wagner-The-Philharmonia-Orchestra-Klemperer-Conducts-Wagner

I remember NickB provided some tips about what to look out for when buying second-hand classical vinyl, I will try to look those out and re-post

My main interest in classical vinyl is the 60s/70s avant stuff like Stockhausen and Xenakis, unfortunately the prices on those sets went through the roof years ago.

This is definitely one of the tricks to still enjoying collecting records - find stuff the general public don't want lol. Classical records are so plentiful and cheap at pretty much every store. There are a bunch of genres like that, too. I collect local country/folk/country rock records from the 70s and yeah there are the whales that command some money but so much is available for under $10. Many of them are miserable but sifting through is part of the whole thing, really.

xp no lime tangier, that Messiaen box looks incredible. I had no idea he recorded his own organ works! I'll have to track that down at some point, though I'm sure I'll have to pay a bit more than $5...

Another recent classical vinyl epiphany: Quartetto Italiano's 1965 recording of Debussy and Ravel's String Quartets on Philips (early Netherlands pressing). They're best versions I've heard of those magical quartets with surprisingly great fidelity for 1965; the recording sounds like it could have been made yesterday.

My main interest in classical vinyl is the 60s/70s avant stuff like Stockhausen and Xenakis, unfortunately the prices on those sets went through the roof years ago.

― lord of the rongs (anagram), Wednesday, November 22, 2023 4:16 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's been my experience that a lot of this can still be had for under $10!

xp*They're the best, that is

xp budo jeru Yeah I feel like almost every record store I've visited recently has a copy of this pressing of Xenakis's Metastasis / Pithoprakta / Eonta for under $10. But it's true the rarer Stockhausen, Xenakis, et al. pressings can be outrageously expensive.

I actually have had my eyes on a nice $45 copy of Stockhausen's Hymnen (mid-70s Deutsche Grammophon reissue) at a local shop for a while, but every time I go I find something cheaper that excites me even more.