OMG, People Buy Records? Vinyl In The News Thread

http://www.scoopmarketing.com/2012/07/the-nielsen-company-billboard-2012-mid-year-u-s-music-industry-report/

my dad doesn't actually know what he's talking about. but vinyl sales rise a little bit every year. a whopping two percent of sales last year.

UggGgHHharhghgh there's going to be a segment about the "resurgence of vinyl" tonight on NBC nightly news with Brian Williams

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/51013811/#51013811

Chuckled a little at the token indie nerd at United, dude looks like Paul Rudd.

oh man the first thing i see is my pal nina playing violin!!!! so cool. her and willy are both from MVI. she's amazing.

they just HAD to add some crackle to that album at the end!

why do they ALWAYS have to start with: HEY REMEMBER THOSE BIG ROUND THINGS WITH THE HOLE IN THE MIDDLE?

is it, like, a law or something.

― scott seward, Sunday, October 11, 2009 7:10 PM (3 years ago)

Still true, apparently!

In this case, "Yeah those rounds things with the grooves in them!" or something.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/has-the-vinyl-revival-gone-too-far,93610/

Finally, a (mild) backlash against the (mild) increase in vinyl sales!

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/queens-woman-seeking-buyer-large-vinyl-record-collection-article-1.1290208

that ridiculous article led me to this scott neuman clown's twitter feed which is equal parts hilarious and infuriating. that guy must be a gigantic fucking crook. please show me the two classical lps you appraised at 20k each, sir. how is "vinyl appraiser" even a viable occupation in 2013? he's pissed at stores for allegedly ripping off grandmas because he thought he'd cornered that market
himself.

"Our current fee is $20.00 for the first item of the appraisal and $5.00 for each additional item."

https://twitter.com/forevervinyl

Even if it were true, the chances that a classical record is worth money is that much rarer due to the piles of them the target reader likely has covered in mold in their basement/garage. Given that, it would be protocol for most people to offer not much more than 10 cents per clean copy as a blanket rule.

For $20, I'll happily look up your records on collectorsfrenzy.com and even cross reference with discogs for an extra $10.

record appraisal is going to be my new business, thanks

Looking at my proprietary vinyl appraising software, a laptop with forevervinyl.com decal stickers an equipped with the latest google databases, it looks like this record sold last year for $15, but I analyzed the description against your copy and it seems yours is not "MINT white label promo shrink RARE!!!!!!! CLASSIC ROCK T. REX KANSAS BEATLES PEARL JAM", therefore it is worth upwards of $5 at peak.

That'll be $20 please.

But once you find one of those $20,000 classical albums your appraisal fees are taken care of for literally months.

I took a phone call from someone looking to unload their neglected 70s and 80s vinyl for $$$ the other day when I was in the local shop.
Man, I would not want to have that conversation every day.

A group of ladies brought in a grip of crap another time. "Are Boz Scaggs records very common?" Sigh

Nothing against Boz, Boz is cool.

its' stuff like that that was really driving me batty toward the end of my record store tenure. i just can't handle having to crush peoples dreams every day.

haha! that's part of my job and honestly i'm kinda used to it/good at doing it gently.

I once had a moderately heartbreaking conversation w my mom about the value of her old blues project LPs.

sucky village voice actually bringing half a LOL:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2013/04/vinyl_is_back.php

Do Kids Even Know What Records Are?
Pressed vinyl as a musical format is old. Children, on the other hand, are not old. What happens when these two things meet? Who cares, but write about it anyway

What's nuts is that I encounter people once a week it seems that are surprised people are buying vinyl records still. And that new bands are producing vinyl. So I guess these articles will be rewritten until that stops.

it will never stop

there's a great little record shop in knoxville, wild honey. the guy who runs the store is amazingly good at letting people down who bring in their crap vinyl to sell. he's mastered the art. it helps that he can point them toward the 2nd hand store down the road.

Just witnessed the dick manager at Academy annex do that today. Though doing that particular thing is not dickish.

the guy who runs the store is amazingly good at letting people down who bring in their crap vinyl to sell.

This is a difficult skill to master. I try to gently talk people down a little if they're hype up on $$$ INTERNET PRICES $$$, but thankfully I don't have to do the final heartbreaking bit.

part of his zen is that he says (in a much nicer and calming way), "wow, this is really cool.... i love this record.... looks like your (father/grandfather/mother/cousin/whatever) really liked it too. it looks like he played it a lot. that's the problem--everybody wants something really clean and unplayed, but most people played their good records a bunch. so it's kind of ironic."

usually at that point he gets knowing nods from the people who 5 minutes ago were hoping to get like $30 per record or something.

the folks at the amoeba buy counter use the same line every time across the board, "well you could have a yard sale..." which is about as zen as they get. generally speaking the amoeba buyers are not particularly zen and sometimes are a bit aggro.

I use the yard sale line. also tell people they can go around the corner to the salvation army and that their donation would be tax deductible.

I get to the point pretty quickly now. If its stuff I don't want I tell people point blank that I just can't sell it in my store. or I lie and say that I already have too much of whatever they have. which isn't always a lie. but I stress the MY STORE part. and tell them that other stores might want it or that they could try craigslist.

This one's not horrible. I like Kozinn when he writes about the Beatles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/arts/music/vinyl-records-are-making-a-comeback.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

this one is actually worth reading! and is on the money.

http://thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/collateral-damage_numero-group-on-the-vinyl-bubble

the baseball card analogy is interesting, but as I think the article implies, the value of a record is more than just as a "collectible." So as long as you have reasonably priced, nicely packaged vinyl and an audience of people who believe the sound and tactile experience are preferable, you have a vinyl market. If the market is relying on people who think they're investing, then obviously that's not sustainable.

right and the bigger labels (and not so big) have been acting like big baseball card and big comic book. trying to gouge every last dime out of people while they can instead of just delivering affordable quality products. labels aren't making ANY money on compact discs so why not try and get the most money possible out of this new vinyl craze.

they're assholes basically.

but then we knew that already.

But the limited reissues of those super common Taj Mahal records are only $32.99!

I'm sure these companies believe if they knock the gimmickry incentives down even a notch than a huge portion of potential buyers will settle with digital downloads over the vinyl/download combo.

$12 jazz reissues are cool

baseball cards just really started to suck, i think a lot of people were turned off by the extreme rise and even more extreme falls in value post-upper deck/leaf. i remember when dave justice (lol) leaf rookies were worth $100 or something.

Actually putting the needle on the record instead of simply playing the download from from itunes is still novelty to a lot of buyers. And there is empty satisfaction in saying "I have the blue vinyl version!" but there is nagging guilt when you get the common black vinyl/non-numbered copy if you're that person that just shelves it anyway.

I have like 4 different Sammy Sosa rookie cards...

i remember thinking those steve avery and gregg jeffries cards were going to make me a wealthy man

I think the phenomenon is: Lots of fans want to buy music but buying digital files doesn't validate that satisfaction at all. So people buy all this vinyl because it feels good to own something and even CDs only exist to mine digital files. Then when it starts to feel silly to have all this shelved vinyl (too busy and otherwise not stimulating enough an activity to put the effort in playing) you need stronger incentives in the collectibility of the object as the focus.

I guess my input was a healthy mix of obvious/pathetic or something. For the record (ha) I wasn't necessarily describing myself.

that Wire piece is good, but isn't there a whiff of pot-calling-the-kettle-black? or have i missed something about Numero Group?

i raised that point on facebook and scott got mad at me.
they are good at keeping their catalog in print and in general their records are affordable, but they definitely do the "deluxe boxed set" thing and the "1000 copies on white vinyl" thing and i thought it was a bit in poor taste to call out other labels (major labels?) for doing the same thing. like that syl johnson boxed set came out and there was no way to get the records individually, which was a drag. they finally pressed a few of them up as single LPs a couple years later.

another minor point, though, is that its ok to call people out for doing something you yourself do. it doesnt nullify the criticism just because you too are guilty.

^^ i don't buy that. imo, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything" is a good rule. especially when discussing people who work in the same industry you do.

(p.s. one of my favorite pastimes is talking shit but i try to reserve it for relatively private conversations, i don't write an article in a popular music magazine.)