Is the future vinyl?
Every week it seems that there is something in the news reminding us about the crisis in the music industry - how the old business model isn’t working anymore, CDs are dead and downloads are the future.
Although I love my ipod, I don’t particularly like the MP3 format – the music is compressed to hell and call me an old fashioned consumerist, but I like physically owning the music. I like the packaging, I like the liner notes, I like proper running orders and I like actually putting things on the stereo.
So since I started hearing that the CD is dead I’ve been having my own personal crisis. What the hell format do I get music in? Is there any point in buying CDs if they are redundant technology? Is it like still buying video tapes, rather than DVD?
I’ve always bought vinyl, but mostly singles and 12”s and old vinyl from record fairs, charity shops and the like; I’ve bought all my new releases on CD since 1990. CDs have never really been loveable, but they are portable and as someone who has moved house and countries several times I definitely know the downside of lugging crates of records around.
However, this week in a random act of strangeness I bought some new, mint vinyl LPs – Nostalgia 77 and James Yorkston – both readily available on CD and download, probably for much cheaper than I paid. They sound and look fantastic obviously, as vinyl does.
Is vinyl, as Wired magazine says, the future? Is this a new beginning for me? And more importantly, can the floorboards in our upper floor flat take it?
Tags: technology crisis, vinyl
January 19th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Hurrah! I’ve just received a new cartridge for my record deck. That apart, no, I wouldn’t say vinyl isthe future, though it’s far from dead. I also believe cd’s are far from being dead. Like you, I like to listen to music as sequenced by the artist, It gives an insight into what they might be thinking, which is of eternal interest to me. I like the physical aspect of the product,and yes, alot of MP3 files sound like shit. I find it to be a probelm with older CD’s. I had an MP3, but I lost the charger for it. It doesn’t bother me, I don’t miss it. I sit and make tapes to play on my trusty Walkman or on my kitchen cassette player. It makes me happy and keeps me out of mischief.
January 19th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Have you been into a record store recently? They’re all full of old people, well people over the age of 30 anyway. With fewer and fewer people buying CDs, particularly ‘the youth’, they are definitely on the downward spiral. Although oldsters like us will probably keep buying them for a while, keeping the industry afloat.
Mix tapes. Ahh… now, there’s another whole blog entry in itself…
January 19th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I suppose you’re right. Still, what the hell do the kids know? Bah!
Maybe the era of the album at an end. People tend to have favourite songs, rather than favourite albums. ?
As for mix tapes, I did a thing a while back, whereby I made a mix tape and blogged about it as it happened. You should have a look at this place. http://www.tinymixtapes.com/-Mix-Tapes- They’re bastards cos they never did any of my suggestions, but you might have better luck.
Then again, maybe like me, you would never make a mix tape someone else suggested.
January 20th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Of course I would never make a mix tape someone else suggested!! The whole point of the mix tape is to make your own and to prove that you have vastly superior taste to everyone else. Which I obviously have!!!!!