Vaporwave’s Mini-Boom of Floppy Disk Releases

Maybe the right word is "novelty"; it's being done differently in a deliberately obsolete, retro way. Part of that gives it publicity. But it's also a real item. Like Warhol's signed soup cans.

Re: Vaporwave’s Mini-Boom of Floppy Disk Releases

#6

Post by linkmotif » Tue, Jul 10, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

Good thing there was that “podcast on a floppy” post up on here last week.

Re: Vaporwave’s Mini-Boom of Floppy Disk Releases

#7

Post by 32qwef » Tue, Jul 10, 2018, 2:42 PM UTC

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #3

My mind just can't accept that this isn't a parody / publicity stunt.

I thought the same thing when all these punk and indie groups were releasing cassettes. Then I found out that most people didn't play the cassettes. They bought them because they look good on a shelf. The cassettes have a download code printed inside (Bandcamp will spit out a CSV), so when you actually want to listen to the music, most will redeem the code (or just stream it).

So it's still pretty silly, but not as silly as I thought. I have to presume Floppy releases are similar (Who even has a floppy drive now a days?)

Re: Vaporwave’s Mini-Boom of Floppy Disk Releases

#8

Post by JansjoFromIkea » Tue, Jul 10, 2018, 3:00 PM UTC

Making something that can fit on a floppy disc is pretty cool restriction to give yourself imo.

Do you just cripple the bitrate to squeeze a 3+ minute song on, do you stick to super short songs or do you find alternate means of maximising the space (I'm thinking potentially a mixture of midi files with some guidelines, and super low encoded vocals)

Floppy discs are much more aesthetically pleasing than cassettes (although maybe not cassette boxes) as a decorative thing imo too.

Re: Vaporwave’s Mini-Boom of Floppy Disk Releases

#9

Post by acconrad » Tue, Jul 10, 2018, 3:02 PM UTC

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #3

My mind just can't accept that this isn't a parody / publicity stunt.

And yet it's a sub with 100,000 followers:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Vaporwave/

There's a sub-genre that dubs Vaporwave songs with Simpsons clips that has tens of millions of views on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=simpsonwave

It is indeed very real. Surreal, even.

Re: Vaporwave’s Mini-Boom of Floppy Disk Releases

#10

Post by Paul_S » Tue, Jul 10, 2018, 3:06 PM UTC

JansjoFromIkea wrote: post #8

Making something that can fit on a floppy disc is pretty cool restriction to give yourself imo. Do you just cripple the bitrate to squeeze a 3+ minute song on, do you stick to super short songs or do you find alternate means of maximising the space (I'm thinking potentially a mixture of midi files with some guidelines, and super low encoded vocals) Floppy discs are much more aesthetically pleasing than cassettes (alt…

I was disappointed that the floppies didn't contain mods (tracker music).