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

I used to fantasize when I was young about having the ability to just listen to every CD in the store and how cool it would be to be able to just think of a song title and get to listen to it. Which obviously you can do now.

sure

But I think when you do that it leads to you getting RYM-brain, where you're obsessed with rating and ranking everything under the sun in order to curate the perfect Top 50 list of albums which you actually haven't listened to in the last 7 years

no, being able to listen to the songs you want doesn't make you need to rate, rank or list anything, there must be something else wrong with you.

xp
Yes, especially since cassettes probably costs more to make than CDs. I don't actually know the costs of each medium, but surely cassettes are more time intensive?

I remember one night, back in like 2002 or 2003, a very stoned buddy of mine came up with a whole plan for used LPs being the delivery vehicle for selling weed to people.

Yeah, nothing bums me out more than getting excited about a band, jumping over to their Bandcamp page and seeing the vinyl pressing completely sold out 3 days after it was released and cassette as the only other option.

yes, time to recapture the warm memory of squinting to read the lyrics on the tiny lyric sheet. ahh, childhood.

the only time I willfully bought a cassette in the last decade was for Mac's out of print No LImit album which literally wasn't available in any other format for an affordable price, and at the time I still had a cassette player.

other than that, tapes are good for emergency toilet paper.

i’m struggling with that image tbh

This has been an interesting thread to read. I saved my father's records from going to the trash when he died. I was 8 and he had around 3 hundred records, mostly classic and psych rock with a bit of random jazz and soul. In high school, I started going to yards sales, ordering records through catalogs and collector's mail order lists. I've purged my collection many times, mostly keeping rare and hard time find records. These days I mostly dig for lounge records that there's no way to hear unless I find a copy. I've been slowly writing reviews that hopefully will end in a complete lounge/vanity record book.

I was gonna try and argue with the anti-tape folks but why bother, your loss

would you prefer no physical release at all? vinyl pressings are booked through 2023 FYI

(thanks, Adele and Garth)

only thing that bugs me about tapes is the loud mechanical clicking sound my deck makes at the end of each side. CLICK

I do still buy CDs on occasion... actually got a new portable disc player for that reason.

I buy all of my digital music, only use Spotify for convenience or playlists

would you prefer no physical release at all? vinyl pressings are booked through 2023 FYI

I'd prefer downloads and CDs, not cassettes-only.

Cassettes are kind of a trash format, which makes them perfect for lo-fi garage/noise/weirdo stuff. Lots of great amusing cassette labels out there in the 90s and even today doing the L-rd's work.

guess those would be Mars Volta guitars

Mars Volta dude did have a pretty sweet Ibanez signature model about ten years ago IIRC

just loaded the top of the thread and just learned by clicking the link that VYNL is still around which is somewhat insane to me

#FOXXBODIES* #FUCKINWHATEVER* #COMACULTURE*

Mars Volta dude did have a pretty sweet Ibanez signature model about ten years ago IIRC

― papal hotwife (milo z), Tuesday, November 9, 2021 10:24 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

If I had $3K, I'd buy Omar's EBMM model: https://www.music-man.com/instruments/guitars/mariposa

Wait, who releases things *only* on cassette with no download? The general practice with all tape labels I know is that the tapes are the physical format for those who want one but they always come with downloads too.

yeah thats always been my experience. im not into lofi noise tape culture but i would assume that anybody honestly doing tape-only-no-download releases has a pretty good idea that their fans are really into playing tapes?

I know Dump did that on this more recent release:

https://editalaservidumbre.bandcamp.com/album/dump-blown-dunks

no, being able to listen to the songs you want doesn't make you need to rate, rank or list anything, there must be something else wrong with you.

― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, November 9, 2021 5:08 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

for sure but I don't think I'm necessarily alone in this. idk maybe part of this was first getting access to high speed internet in 2004, when the word was the RIAA was gonna shut down all illegal downloading and sue everyone who downloaded "LiNkIn-PaRk-nUmB.exe". also I am pretty sure torrent trackers were getting shut down on a monthly basis. so there was this attitude of "get in while the gettin's good". I would guess the next generation, for whom everything is just available on Spotify and YouTube all the time, does not feel this way.

fwiw I'm not arguing that digital music is a bad thing, in fact it's been a very very good thing for me, just saying the fact that there is effectively an infinite amount of music out there can cause its own type of anxiety

ive talked before about how a big part of what keeps me in physical media is that, having grown up in the pre-streaming era, i find it hard to wrap my head around the infinite options of streaming, my brain shuts down, it becomes too overwhelming. the physical tactile element of 3-dimensional objects that i can look at, flip through, make stacks, stumble across, set aside, etc is just such an ingrained part of how i listen, remember, and organize music in my brain. i stream as well, but its almost always either triggered by a physical release or results in me getting a physical release.

I still enjoy physical media as well, but I recreate "pulling things off the shelves to listen to later" by simply keeping a list on my phone of things that pop up in my head. Since I can stream them all, it means I never struggle to decide what to listen to next.

Wait, who releases things *only* on cassette with no download? The general practice with all tape labels I know is that the tapes are the physical format for those who want one but they always come with downloads too.

Bunch of examples here where only cassette format exists: https://boomkat.com/new-releases?q[format]=Cassette

this thread was made for this website?
https://kollektivx.com/

I think I understand this as you pay money along with a group of strangers, for someone to buy a record, then this person gives you a rip of the record and this person keeps the record.

But also there’s an option for the buyers to vote to sell after it’s been ripped?

back in my day we shared dope music with anyone who would listen 100% for free.

seems like another nightmarish way that the internet is monetizing what used to be organic human interaction.

i mean, neat idea to get otherwise obscure music "out there" but right up front there's a huge disclaimer about how it's for "TEACHING, RESEARCH, PRIVATE STUDY, AND REVIEW ONLY I SWEAR GUYS I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY" and i am as equally as horrified by it as i am enchanted.

thread delivers two days and running. very creepy "sunday in perfect suburbia" vibes, this last one.

ahh shucks, i got this one confused with Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

but still, this is a really great one too.

that is some weird trapdoor backgroundo elitist ridiculousness! ever heard of YouTube? oh wait are these supposed to be like Dr Ebbetts quality?

iow, what austin said!

lads i just had lunch and i’m storing up a few big lossless rips myself

FLAC

This thread from Scat Records is, disheartening, to say the least.

We've been pressing records at RTI for 25 years. They're so backed up now that they won't accept *new* print deliveries for the last 3 months of 2021. Much of the print we've sent their way earlier this year is being stored outside.
Time to take the hint. Open to suggestions.

— Scat Records (@_ScatRecords) November 4, 2021

My distributor: "we've gone beyond pressing delays to systemic collapse"

— Scat Records (@_ScatRecords) November 4, 2021

related, on the trucking shortage:

https://jalopnik.com/greed-is-why-the-supply-chain-crisis-isnt-ending-veter-1848068966

Is this rolling US economy into shitbin?

Is this rolling US economy into shit cut-out bin?

Fixed

this is such bullshit, bring back CDs already

just sell cds in the same sized jackets that vinyl came in, best of both worlds, no more backlogs

this is such bullshit, bring back CDs already

― brimstead, Thursday, November 18, 2021 4:12 PM

BUT MY WARM AESTHETIC!

maybe VNYL can sell "smug, unearned superiority complexes" for a premium too if they run short on product

then what have i been paying for this whole time!!????!?

surely this isn't real

https://better-records.com/collections/new-arrivals

Imagine paying $650 for Blind Faith.

the FAQ teeters on the edge of being an actual store for the ludicrous Hot Stampers guy we were mocking this summer, and being an extremely knowing parody. the item descriptions feel overwhelmingly like the latter, so somehow sadly i think it's probably the former.

What’s the difference between White Hot, Super Hot, and Nearly White Hot. Are these Goldmine standards.

lol this is good.

Imagine paying $650 for Blind Faith.

"tell me you have more money than you need without telling me you have more money than you need"