IS THAT FOREAL?
Yes, this may sound funny, but since the beginnig of 21st century many market researches show that vinyl has it's very own renaissance!
But to get y'all know better ye old good black disc i think we can have a brief history of that medium!
I think it is quite amazing to know that the invention of analog record discs has it's place in the 19th century! In the beginning, for many many years records were produced from soot or very very hard rubber so of course the quality of the sound wasn't as good as we know it today. But then in the 1940s the new material arrived! It was called Polivinyl Chloride and from that we got our favourite "vinyl" word. So since then this very classy and beautiful medium accompanied the music industry for a very long time and was very popular until there was a NEW, SMALL, MODERN and FANCY medium called Compact Disc or CD :) I can fully understand why then in the 1980 people rushed to buy new music on the shiny tiny discs and play it out loud on their brand new HI-Fi Hi-Tec players! CDs were perceived as much more versatile and portable media than classic black records and they kept the futuristic spirit of coming close to a next century. That in my opinion was the main reason of so-called fall of vinyl records in the end of 20th century.
BUT - we are talking about mainstream environment.
The truth is that vinyl records were very popular all the time in the underground music environment and I am talking about the environment with jazz backround - funk, soul and then disco, hip hop house and techno music. The main reason for that is because vinyl was a perfect DJing medium and the whole musical culture was always referring to the good old vinyl.
In the meantime we had the whole 90's dominated by tapes and CD's especially and the music industry was working the way it always worked - musicians made the music for the labels and labels were selling the music to the crowd.
Then all of the sudden we had mp3's and it's successor - streaming.
This whole enormous revolution which happened only in few years caused an incredible change in the crowd's perception of musical products like albums and songs. All of the sudden everything was affordable, everywhere and for everyone and it caused a devaluation of music - I am talking not only about devaluation in terms of money but about aesthetic and personal value as well.
This whole phenomenon made people wanting to be more conscious about what they listen to to actually buy music again. When we buy some piece of music we really consider if it's worth our time and money. It almost always has a great result making our musical library more valuable to ourselves.
But right now people don't buy as much CD's as in the 80's or 90's - it's not cool or modern anymore. Right now when we actually buy physical music we buy it in the purest and most beautiful form possible - the big 12" disc in the beautiful cover which we play putting the needle sofly on the record's surface and relaxing to the sound of forever.
Questions:
1. Do you have any records? If not have you ever seen or played ye olde good vinyl?
2. What do you think about music industry we have today?
3. If you ever were to buy a record for $1000 what could it be and why? Or why not?
Comments
I love vinyl, I love look at it, but I have never before read about history of vinyl's world. Thank to you, now I know this hstory.Thanks it is very interesting.
My family have many vinyl, but unfortunately tha player are wrong, so we can’t to listen screeching music :P
Now, music industry has two faces - good and bad , btw. as always. One hand music which have a sense, which has a big value like for example ( of course this is my subjective opinion) : Kortez, Katarzyna Groniec, Dominika Barabas and on the other hand bad music, which hasn't value, like for example every disco polo and cheap pop.
I'm sorry if I hurt someone from you.
Also distribution through the internet gives many independent artists a chance to actually have their music recognised, even worldwide. Something that vinyl distribution is oftentimes too expensive for. Vinyl will never be able to surpass digital distribution. Will it become more popular than it is right now? Probably, but it still will be more of a hobby, not a general way to distribute music.
I LOVE The Beatles. I've studied their music, album covers, history and all. Of course, their original vinyls cost a fortune; it's a dream to own a first-pressing of theWhite Album. Recently their label, Apple Music, has remastered the old albums and now they're a lot more affordable. Still, there's a huge difference in what you get, buying the remasters. I researched the opinions before I decided to buy. Finally I got the new version of the famous Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and... I'm not satisfied. The technology made a HUGE progress, but, in my opinion, they went too far. The sound is much too clean and flat; it lacks the distinctive 'space' and the tiniest scratches you could hear on an old vinyl.
I absolutely don't mean to criticise the vinyl comeback, but I wanted to show that the marriage of the old and the new produces various results. Especially as it's not perfectly analogue; although the techniques now allow for great quality of the source material, the music isn't recorded on tapes but digitally. There's still a certain compression to the final version.
Music industry has changed a lot and as far the "carrier" is concerned - I'm glad. Vinyls look cool but I need portability. I always liked spending time outside with my walkman then discman then mp3/mp4 player ;) My problem is that I rarely listen to a whole album of one artist. Best case scenario is that I have a self made various artists playlist. Because of that I'm a big fan of music streaming services. That leads to your last question - I would never buy a single record for that amount of money. Right now I pay 8 zloty a month for unlimited music (offline feature included) so obviously I wouldn't switch it for a physical record for a $1000 :)
Nowadays music indsutry have changed a lot, we use new media to obtain music, like streaming and downloading. When I truly like some music that I listen to on spotify or youtube, I buy the disc, to express my respect for artist who created it.
I don't think I have ever been listening to music that would be worth paying 1000$ for.
However, I don't have the record player right now, and I don't really feel the urge to buy one. I own a lot of CDs (like Marta, I like to show my support for the musicians and bands), but I rarely play them - most of the time, I just stream the music from Spotify.
I don't know if I would like to buy a vinyl for $1000, it doesn't seem the fair price. I'm not really a collector of rare editions, so it's not for me :)
No not really, I listen to the music mostly in the car or when I'm walking so its not really an option for me.
2. What do you think about music industry we have today?
Its doing better than ever before :D
3. If you ever were to buy a record for $1000 what could it be and why? Or why not?
Not really, music quality is not as important for me, so getting a vinyl just to get it is not my thing but i get it why people do it
But I don't really know if I will buy some good vinyls now, there are a lot of ways to listen to music now, also great quality speakers and headphones so I think I prefere that new technology.
For me they sound great, but I am not sure about the necessity to buy vinyl to listen to music, I am not that kind of person who is looking for purity of the sound. For me mp3 is good enough to listen to it on my way to the university or work.
In case of spending 1000 euros it is definitely the last thing I will think about. Again, I don't need this quality of sound, all I need a good pair of headphones, mp3 or wav and avoiding people on lecturing me on what music I should listen and in what format, for sure you can get it for less than 1000 euros.
In my house I have a very large music collections stored on these large plates, there are definitely more than 100 pieces. I also have a functional turntable, which from time to time with my family we listen to music. Definitely I would buy another vinyl plate because now the prices of vinyls are very similar to the prices of CDs.