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Sony plans to make vinyl records again

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#81

Post by cranjice »

I collect my favorite artist albums on vinyl for a few reasons:

* Big artwork and liner notes. I have shelves on my wall to display my current favorite albums and change them out over time.

* Conversation piece. Friends can actually browse a collection and talk about common interests. It's fun to hang out and listen to records with people.

* Vinyl requires some heavier duty stereo equipment. Regardless of how you think the vinyl itself sounds, it's a great way to get into building an actual hifi system, and that will make any format sound better. The stereo equipment becomes a hobby and collection in itself.

To me it's not a competition. Different formats can happily coexist. I own many albums on several formats (Vinyl for the living room, CD for the car, etc.) I use streaming too, especially for discovery and portable use.

And then there's the whole debate between lossy and lossless compression :)

P.S. For those who are interested in vinyl but annoyed by the prospect flipping records every few songs check out an auto loading turntable. These can stack several records and automatically play them one after another.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#82

Post by cr1895 »

mohaine wrote: post #55
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giant-sized artwork, liner notes, inserts, etc. I grew up with CD's. The vinyl primarily just feels like a collectible to me--something I can look at, turn over, read the liner notes while listening to the music, etc. I don't even really listen to the vinyl's I have, I use the digital rips instead.

I agree. I don't think most people are actually listening to these. I'm guessing most people don't even own a player (or even a home audio system to hook it to). Has there been large increase in player sales as well? I'm sure there has been an increase but I doubt it had any way to go but up. If it comes with a free download then vinyl is pretty much the perfect box to sell downloads at a brick and mortor. Thin but w…

>I don't think most people are actually listening to these. I'm guessing most people don't even own a player (or even a home audio system to hook it to). Has there been large increase in player sales as well? I'm sure there has been an increase but I doubt it had any way to go but up.

Huh...I don't perceive things that way, but this is probably due to my social biases and the fact that i buy and listen to vinyl all the time.

There seems to have been an explosion in cheap, toy-grade turntables of various brands coming out of a couple factories (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=crosley&t=h_&iar=images&dbexp=a&ia...).

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#83

Post by derwiki »

swiley wrote: post #44
aarmenante wrote: post #20

If you're into house/techno/disco all the best records get released (or rereleased) on vinyl first, before eventually getting out as a digital download. Also for artists, the profit margins are higher selling an LP (or even better a cassette) then releasing it to a small fanbase on Spotify. It's a better way to connect with a band you like than just streaming a track on your iPhone. You get the artwork to look at, an…

Cassettes seem like they would get distorted which is way worse than the failure mode for records (getting noisy).

Maybe the impermanence is a feature? My brother used to brag about wearing out 3 copies of Master of Puppets.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#84

Post by torrent-of-ions »

hashkb wrote: post #68
torrent-of-ions wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it can sound warmer and to some people that sounds better. You just seem annoyed that some people enjoy things that you don't.

Please define "warmer" and compare to how 100 other vinyl buffs define it. It's meaningless, if you just admit it's an emotional preference then I'm fine with it.

Define jovial. Define melancholic. It's music. The entire point is to evoke an emotional response. I can't define "warm" but people know what I mean when I say it and that's all that matters.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#85

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

intro-b wrote: post #78
kristiandupont wrote: post #11

I confess, I am part of this trend. And I just got into it, so I get no "before it was cool"-claim to fame. Not sure where that leaves me on the hipster-scale. Buying CD's used to be a weekly ritual for me and I missed it for years. Putting on a new album on a Saturday afternoon with a beer or glass of wine while I start cooking is a very enjoyable moment for me. Now, obviously this was for the most part because I wo…

One particular sight while living in Tokyo was the checkout line snaked around the store at places like Tower Records. Students and businesspeople alike, each with a CD or two, buying them after classes/work. New releases had entire sections with lots of promotional material. Honestly creates this warm nostalgic feeling, and I like the Japanese trend toward a "collection" aspect of maintaining a physical library of m…

I would never give up PDFs, arXiv, audiobooks, and ebooks, but I still heave a collection of physically printed papers and books.

I don't think that using a new technology for most things precludes having physical copies of the pieces of culture you find most important.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#86

Post by cr1895 »

jasode wrote: post #30
cr1895 wrote: post #5

>Philips invented the cassette tape in 1962, first introducing it to music fans a year later. Thanks to its compactness, portability and sound quality, it quickly began to surpass the vinyl record in popularity. This seems suspect... According to this figure (going back to 1973 only) vinyl still far outpaced cassette sales until the mid-80s. http://blog.thecurrent.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/9/files/2014...

I don't know what criteria WaPo used but I think if you include blank cassettes instead of just counting prerecorded releases, the tape media was much more popular than vinyl even before mid 1980s. Kids were taping songs from the radio and sharing "mix tapes" in the 1970s. Boom boxes had dual-well cassette decks for easy tape-to-tape dubbing. Cars quickly migrated from 8-track to cassette tapes. (Obviously, a fragile…

That is very true, but from the article I think they're referring to music that people bought, not tape as a storage medium. Having a tape recorder at home is one thing...having your own record lathe for DIY acetates is quite another.

The article says, "Thanks to its compactness, portability and sound quality, it quickly began to surpass the vinyl record in popularity."

People aren't making vinyl records at home, so to compare them to tapes-as-a-medium is somewhat apples to oranges. At least that's how I interpret their wording.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#87

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

eterm wrote: post #33
kristiandupont wrote: post #11

I confess, I am part of this trend. And I just got into it, so I get no "before it was cool"-claim to fame. Not sure where that leaves me on the hipster-scale. Buying CD's used to be a weekly ritual for me and I missed it for years. Putting on a new album on a Saturday afternoon with a beer or glass of wine while I start cooking is a very enjoyable moment for me. Now, obviously this was for the most part because I wo…

But why buy vinyl instead of buying CDs? I understand your point about listening to a whole album being preferable to singles, I feel the same way but I'd still much rather listen to a CD than an LP.

> But why buy vinyl instead of buying CDs?

I download most of the music I consume from torrent communities in FLAC. For those times I am inclined to buy the physical artifact, it is far better to buy the vinyl version as it has full-sized artwork and is more suitable as decoration in my home (google "Hang Up Your Old Vinyl Records!").

Like an enormous number of vinyl purchasers, I don't even own a turntable. I'd never play the vinyl, instead I play FLACs off a Raspberry Pi media center. I imagine most young people buying vinyl these days just listen off YouTube.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#88

Post by aaronarduino »

hashkb wrote: post #68
torrent-of-ions wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it can sound warmer and to some people that sounds better. You just seem annoyed that some people enjoy things that you don't.

Please define "warmer" and compare to how 100 other vinyl buffs define it. It's meaningless, if you just admit it's an emotional preference then I'm fine with it.

The question them becomes, where does that preference come from. The answer to that is what would cause people to think something is warmer. When someone says something is warmer it is due to a few factors. The first is a bump in volume in the frequency range from 280hz to 900hz. The second is a quality that causes sounds to separate or mush together. I think that is due to format resolution or frequency range. I think the second factor is what really separates digital and analog recording. Digital generally does not allow for sounds to mush together it keeps things separated.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#89

Post by intopieces »

afandian wrote: post #38

If you think this direction is bizarre, consider the 'cutting edge'. In the 21st century my 'CD player' (Spotify) is tracking everything I listen to so they can sell the data to a company who will build a comprehensive psychological profile about me and try to influence where I spend my money (or worse, which way I vote). This tweet specifically was bare-faced about it and appeared to be saying "our users are fine wi…

Does Apple Music do the same? Apple has been more privacy-focussed than other companies, or at least has tried hard to portray themselves that way.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#90

Post by deelowe »

arethuza wrote: post #2

I must saw I am mystified by this - I grew up with LPs, singles and cassettes in the 70s and 80s and I can't say I miss them.

Do you miss looking at a case full of vinyl records?

Opening the sleeve?

Reading the jacket?

Hearing the mechanical sounds of the turntable moving, the arm lifting, the hissing and popping?

Maybe people don't just want music? Maybe there's more to it than just the sounds of the musicians? Physical book sales are up as well compared to ebooks. I get it. I love my bookshelf. I never read an ebook these days (except for reference).

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