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50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

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Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#151

I oversee pressing for over 150k+ records a year. We eliminated download cards a while ago because the redemption rate was so low. I wouldn’t doubt if the number of buyers who don’t own a record player is even higher tha 50%, and that the percentage of people who actually play the records is actually 10-20%. I don’t have data on that, it’s just a hunch. Many of us in the indie music industry (hip hop sustained record…

Gen X. Own a record player. Listen to vinyl as “intentional listening” and love the album cover art. My daughter (Gen Z/A) could play her albums but doesn’t. She puts them on display in her room. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I own a very nice record player. Absolutely love listening to vinyl while looking at the cover art (Jethro Tull has the best album art and I'll fight anyone who disagrees).

For me it's a time machine back to my childhood. We grew up poor and couldn't afford tapes and then CD's. We had thrift store vinyl albums.

For my kids, vinyl was this weird thing that sounded scratchy. Then they grew up and found that the plethora of selection was both a blessing and a curse. They now frequent local record stores and invest in physical media like vinyl specifically because it forces intentional choice.

There really is nothing as good as finding an amazing album you didn't expect, and there's nothing as crushing as realizing the album you just bought based on one song only has that one good song on it (any album by The Police, I'm looking at you).

Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#152
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"you can't appreciate good playback until you've heard awful playback on shitty record players like I had to.". My eldest is now plotting a complete hifi system This has strong energy of "Teach your kids how to play Magic, they won't have money for drugs."

"Teach your kids how to grow weed, they won't need money for drugs."

Is this a metaphor for me learning how to fix old AV equipment in my basement when I was a kid?

Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#153
post #20

My dad grew up in the 50s & 60s. During COVID he purchased my daughters' the, I quote, "shittiest briefcase record players" he could find. Both girls listen to their music on their devices, but also buy vinyl. The other day, my eldest came down from her room complaining that her vinyl "sounded awful". I told her to bring it up with their Grampy. His response: "you can't appreciate good playback until you've heard awf…

I was going to ask, when are the youngsters going to discover CDs? Much less prone to degradation to vinyl, lossless ripping, superior quality.

It's about owning the physical object like a concert ticket stub only way more accessible. They already have the music on their phone they don't need to listen to it on a record

Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#154
If they really want the old-school analog experience, you need a turntable and a cassette recorder so you can make mix tapes for your friends. We didn't have 'playlists', we had mix tapes. Also, to have in the car for road trips. Also, I must go and yell at that cloud now. Excuse me.

Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to ask, when are the youngsters going to discover CDs? Much less prone to degradation to vinyl, lossless ripping, superior quality.

I am the youngster in this case and I am going to tell you something but we really need to move off of spotify. I never really got onto spotify. I was always the youtube kind of guy, although I recently started listening to youtube music when I realized that my youtube feed was being impacted and youtube music's a better way to listen I guess We really need to get to pen-drives first before CD as well I guess. Like d…

Come and join the resurgent Minidisc movement!

Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is to happen, CDs and CD packaging would need a rebranding. Part of vinyl popularity is the large sleeve surface that provides a large canvas for a piece of art. Another part is that you get a physically large analogue object that, while previously would be cumbersome, has become interesting in a heavily digital age.

Afaict this has already happened. Vinyl is about the big art, CDs are all about the pack ins. You get small books, pictures, stickers all packed into a cardboard box the size of a novel. Not jewel cases. At least for the K-pop artists my daughter listens to.

That is quite uncommon outside of the K-pop space - I buy a pretty large volume of new release CDs and don’t own a single one in the K-pop form factor

Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody would work if housing and food were super cheap, for instance.

There are overwhelming examples of people who continue to work when all of their basic needs are met. Some work because they love to, some work because they have to; we, collectively, should be trying as hard as possible to make work optional (automation, etc), because the point of life is to live, not to work. Some combination of Abundance [1], Solarpunk [2], etc. The entire planet will eventually be in population d…

Nay, work is one of the pillars of a fulfilling life. Though for most of humanity relative freedom to choose what work one does is more of a modern achievement, the original commandment (“be fruitful”) was so general it might suggest God knew what he was talking about.

Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#158
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am the youngster in this case and I am going to tell you something but we really need to move off of spotify. I never really got onto spotify. I was always the youtube kind of guy, although I recently started listening to youtube music when I realized that my youtube feed was being impacted and youtube music's a better way to listen I guess We really need to get to pen-drives first before CD as well I guess. Like d…

Come and join the resurgent Minidisc movement!

MD will always be the coolest format

Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Introspect my favorite music media was cassette tape. I found them more robust and repairable then CDs.

Huh? IME cassette tapes often begin to stretch after fewer than a hundred plays, which permanently ruins them.

I still have a working copy of AC/DC's Back in Black from 1996. I have older tapes that work fine too, but not sure how much they've been played since they're mostly from thrift stores.

Re: 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player

#160
post #20

My dad grew up in the 50s & 60s. During COVID he purchased my daughters' the, I quote, "shittiest briefcase record players" he could find. Both girls listen to their music on their devices, but also buy vinyl. The other day, my eldest came down from her room complaining that her vinyl "sounded awful". I told her to bring it up with their Grampy. His response: "you can't appreciate good playback until you've heard awf…

I was going to ask, when are the youngsters going to discover CDs? Much less prone to degradation to vinyl, lossless ripping, superior quality.

I bought my kids all the songs on Tonie. Now I am buying them all the same songs on Yoto. I can't wait to just start burning CDs again.
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