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

see also: 4 different color vinyl options for the Snowy Red/Carol reissue 7"

Every time a new release comes out on colored vinyl, I go out of my way to make sure I don't get the colored version. Colored/picture disc vinyl is one of the biggest shams of all time. Anybody who claims to be into vinyl "because it sounds better" and then goes on to seek out these colored and picture disc pressings is so fucking bamboozled. I'd feel bad for them if they didn't create their own quagmire.

where does it end? how long till vinyl me please offers hot stampers?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/30/vinyl-records-are-so-popular-that-sony-plans-to-make-them-again/

In 1989, Sony Music decided to stop producing the outdated, cumbersome records. Since then, music has enjoyed many formats, including the compact disc, the digital MP3 and, finally, streaming.

Somehow, though, the vinyl record hung on. Now, after a 28-year hiatus, Sony announced it will resume production of the vinyl record.

The details are scant, but the pressing plant will be in a factory southwest of Tokyo, CNN Money reported. It’s unclear what genres of music the company will be producing.

...

Vinyl record sales have been skyrocketing. More than 9.2 million records were sold in 2014, according to Time. In 2015, that number reached nearly 12 million, Hugh McIntyre wrote in Forbes. That year’s sales were the highest since 1988, pulling in $416 million, Fortune reported.

They even gave digital a run for its money. As The Post’s Thomas Heath wrote in December, “In Britain, vinyl sales ($3.02 million) — those petroleum-based discs that you hold gingerly by the edges — eclipsed digital music downloads ($2.6 million) for week 48 of this year.”

“That a format nearly a century old generated 3.6 percent of total global revenues is remarkable,” wrote NPR’s Andrew Flanagan of the vinyl record’s performance in 2016. And “vinyl could account for up to 18% of all physical music revenue this year,” CNN Money said, citing a recent report by consulting firm Deloitte.

i actually had to stop collecting vinyl just as i was getting started because i ended up moving not once, not twice, but about half a dozen times across two different countries, which kind of makes me sad, as ever since i've lived with minimal things because i don't have a stable place and no place feels like home

“That a format nearly a century old generated 3.6 percent of total global revenues is remarkable,” wrote NPR’s Andrew Flanagan of the vinyl record’s performance in 2016. And “vinyl could account for up to 18% of all physical music revenue this year,” CNN Money said, citing a recent report by consulting firm Deloitte.

I like the elision from "3.6% of total global revenues" to "18% of all physical music revenue". Very slick.

This is nicely done, too:

In 2015, that number reached nearly 12 million, Hugh McIntyre wrote in Forbes. That year’s sales were the highest since 1988...

What were the sales totals for LPs in 1988, though? I bet they were significantly more than 12 million.

http://static.spin.com/files/140516-vinyl-riaa.jpg

that looks like maybe 20 million? hard to tell

hey look what else I found

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_revival

Looks like about 50 million, compared to 150 million CDs.

You GUYS, I just put out some rare Texas Is The Reason vinyls that I picked up on my buying trip to Jakarta last month. Get on over here!

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19510360_10156007504502137_2046837864419874975_n.jpg?oh=150aa9f643c45ce34b7e80af83a4f720&oe=59C49A23

In 2015, that number reached nearly 12 million, Hugh McIntyre wrote in Forbes. That year’s sales were the highest since 1988...

What were the sales totals for LPs in 1988, though? I bet they were significantly more than 12 million.

― grawlix (unperson), Friday, June 30, 2017 9:52 AM (twenty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're getting into more advanced math because you need to account for inflation, which in itself has different theories of ways of doing it

i mean...in 2015, i'm assuming that $416 million number is revenue

in 1988, revenue was $532 million and in 1989, $220 million, which is good enough for me (accounting for inflation, 2015 is up by ~$18 million); deal in cost of production/labour/wholesale and things get more complicated

revenue data: https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/

and if you want more fun, cpi inflation calculator: https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

why the heck doesn't that chart include cassette tapes?!

the one sleeve linked, I mean

cassettes were ridiculously huge in the US by around 1990, I remember the midwestern shopping mall music stores having entire walls just covered in cassettes. unless there was a promo image, you'd have to get really close just to see what they were

i was talking to someone and she told me a pressing plant is opening in athens (georgia)?

Not just walls, mh.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/99/a4/45/99a4458acd1e9f21d76b1fe6a0c8e6e9.jpg

Kindercore Vinyl is the new pressing plant in Athens.

i am the vinyl pressing center

baaahahaha

well i was going to mention while it's worth mentioning that there are ~20 companies manufacturing vinyl records, they sound like they are small operations

sounds like sony wants to do this at a larger scale

Have you ever wanted to hear an entire book on vinyl?

ummm...no?

https://pitchfork.com/news/vinyl-audiobook-series-launches-with-david-foster-wallace-and-more/

aw i was hoping that url meant there was gonna be a vinyl infinite jest in a 900-piece set

Heh same. Get an lp every day for three years.

I've also never understood why anyone in 2018 would want to own stand up comedy on vinyl, but this is even stupider

I do love the poetry readings I have on vinyl tbh

aw i was hoping that url meant there was gonna be a vinyl infinite jest in a 900-piece set

― NEW CHIMP THREAT (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, February 28, 2018 6:18 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the future liberals want

So many 180g reissues of dollar bin mainstays out there now... not talking about legit awesome Friday Music issues or the like, these ones I see know are just part of the "vinyl is hip/back" thing that is taxing the poor vinyl presses

It really is quite stupid.

I started giggling when I saw Whipped Cream & Other Delights reissued and for sale at B&N

Yeah B&N has so much of that junk! And everything is at least $25 and it makes me sad

might not be a shady scam, but the amount of crap they package with these records is ridiculous. that guy from Nest Magazine should really have one of these artisan mixtape services. if he is still alive.

https://www.vinylmoon.co/

https://www.vinylmoon.co/thecollection/

i have no idea about the music but this one is kinda far out.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/cratejoy_vendor_images/65e9ffdd7c8749a0bf449ba2cc310fcd.jpeg

http://www.shop.vinylmoon.co/shop/product/1327023046

i do like that there are no words/type on the covers. they look cool. someone should do this kind of thing for music i like.

I made it through 18 seconds of one song on one of those vinyl moon comps. totally a scam insofar as you need packaging like that to sell these bands

Oh I think those look amazing and would love to own. Couple of those if the price is not insane.

I do not know any of the artists in there though, suspect all the artwork and packaging is compensating on the quality of the actual music.

When the actual music is tertiary to "OMG vinyl" and gimmicky packaging, it becomes like comic books and baseball cards in the early 90s when everything had to be a Collector's Edition regardless of merit.

a scary comparison but yeah one figures there has to be a bursting of the bubble at some point. after the $50 reissue of Use Your Illusion I & II i saw at a bookstore i mostly stopped keeping track of the insane and inexplicable who's-going-to-buy-enough-of-these-that-retailers-aren't-going-to-ultimately-take-a-bath items. i was killing time in a barnes and noble a couple weeks ago and saw sooooo much $28 shit nobody needs to own. don henley's most recent solo album was in there! but also so much shit like the big Asia album. who's that for? are Asia popular again? do people who were teens when "heat of the moment" came out really miss their old copy but can't be bothered with the dollar bins? i know we've been over this many times but it continues to boggle my mind. like at least i can understand some of the other stuff - - - the Stranger Things soundtrack would be desired by the kind of people who have cash to burn on this stuff, i get that.

I alternate between "Omg I has an original pressing" and "Whoa I have a pristine repress" all the time.

For instance, I got the recent "Sun Zoom Spark" Beefheart set, even though I have Clear Spot already, but I've already played the box more than the original (oh, and the Decals more than my mid seventies reissue, but then the sound is much improved)

I did get the cd box at the time but wasn't very fussed for some reason. Maybe I'd overdosed on Beefheart at that point, or maybe it suits home rather than car listening, or maybe I was so chuffed at getting the LP box for £20..

Mmm I have the original Asia album that belonged to my father... it’s fairly mint and I don’t care for it... might sell it on discogs if the demand for Asia is back.

stealing this from a friend's facebook. record store day releases. column h is wholesale and column g is retail. long live record stores....

https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/28795774_10155538768213528_6030469263706861567_n.jpg?oh=351f0d2e316010dc8d6c8a72e328bf5b&oe=5B4997FC

lol, love that last one. must be a typo. but it kinda FEELS like that.

I was just about to ask!

looool

I take it those are Light In The Attic releases and not Lita Ford back catalogue?

jesus christ what a scam

It's OK record clerks make all their money in tips anyway.

I'm just thinking of the number of times I've requested a couple records at my local place and the owner has quoted me a price and then knocked a few dollars off when I picked them up for being a good customer

$13.99 for a seven inch? JFC.

$2 per inch is standard now

10% markups? Those are grocery margins!

$2 per inch, excelsior