Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

Pixel art games probably are, see: https://i.imgur.com/NiYyjTP.jpg

I recently digitized videos from VHS tapes and noticed that they too looked much better on CRT than on a modern LCD. The source was equally poor in quality, but the experience somehow much better on a CRT.

There’s a lot of music that is hard to find on popular digital distribution networks like Spotify. They have gotten better to be honest but I still have vinyl records where there’s either not a digital version or more likely there is somewhere but it’s taken from a record. Or even taken from the original mastering and not remastered for digital which does make it sound awful compared to the original mastering. This was a huge problem in the early 90’s with CD’s and why so many CD’s from that era sound awful. Most of the more popular albums and quite a few niche ones have since been remastered for digital. But there’s a lot of obscure music that hasn’t been remastered for financial reasons or the masters don’t exist.

For new music recorded digital a vinyl record will probably sound worse really.

I suspect you didn’t use it for long enough for it to develop a good profile of your tastes. I’ve been using it for 5 years and the recommendations are my favourite feature, and on the whole very impressive.

I’d consider myself into quite underground music (electronic/techno, nothing mainstream or commercial at all, I’d wager even most people who consider themselves into electronic music wouldn’t have heard of a lot of the artists I listen to) and it usually gets it pretty right, sometimes amazingly so.

I’ve been introduced to some of my favourite music by Spotify, and the interface makes exploring related artists etc. really easy. Ideally I’d like better cataloguing (e.g. tagging) and metadata (e.g. more emphasis on labels) but I know I’m a niche user and I can work around these limitations.

My tips if you try it again would be:

- if it recommends something you don’t like, press thumbs down (if available) and skip - they use skipping as a signal you don’t like something

- build up a collection of music you do like, using the save button and/or playlists

- check out the feature which plays related music after you’ve finished listening to a track or album - this often finds the most interesting music for me

- check out the “related songs” area under any playlists you’ve created. If you have focussed playlists (e.g. I have ones for different subgenres), this can help you discover some great stuff.

I’d actually say the stuff Spotify plays after an album/song is the best part of their recommendations for me. The daily mixes it generates aren’t bad. Release Radar and Discover Weekly can be a bit hit or miss, sometimes for example it will recommend overly commercial stuff for my tastes, but it’s always worth scanning through (and I do thumbs down the really off recommendations).

It’s not perfect of course, for example sometimes I find it gets “stuck” in a small subset of artists after a while, but combined with other sources and some input to guide, Spotify is the best service I’ve found for discovering music, and is way above for example YouTube suggestions

Don't forget that some "obscure" music is marginally cheaper/easier to obtain on vinyl. For example space age pop, which is one of things in the sweet spot for collecting (for pleasure, not for money): used to be popular and mass-manufactured, now almost no one cares, so the market has a lot of this relatively cheap. Living in the former communist country, I regret not having easy access to heaps of Western vinyls in Goodwills and such, but at least seller awareness is not that high.

Also, records are psychologically so much nicer to own. They are large and so is the artwork. Pretentious/ridiculous liner notes are great. Having them set up to sound on par with digital (I don't claim to have means or ear to achieve true "audiophile" sound) is a PITA and requires some money or hustling/tinkering (that's me). You have gear maintenance, cleaning etc. But it's a little hobby in itself.

There is also interesting things about the vinyl itself you start to notice. Up to about 1960s the material was thicker, and then starts the progression toward the "floppy" vinyl from 1980s (although some state publishers in my country used the old style even then, great production quality also). Nowadays vinyl is thick and heavy again and probably better produced than ever. But it also became a semi-luxury product so it's almost never worth it, at least for me. I have some new records that they messed up in manufacturing but I'm sure it also happened back in the day.

The Tesla and the manual have something else in common; braking as soon as you let off the gas (at least if you configure 1 foot driving and downshift driving)