The Death of the Vinyl Revival

[SONDEKNZ]

...Still running on my original 70s copy.

I lose count of the times I have been told by "those who know" that vinyl eventually wears out from normal playing.

Meanwhile, decades and thousands of LPs (that's what I call them) later, I have yet to wear out a single album.

In fact, I'd go on record for saying that played with care and optimal equipment, the actual playing of LPs makes them sound better and better!

Ahem! LPs sound best when you play them.... (Who knew? )

 

[Minio]

The only way I ever ruined a vinyl is with a wrecked stylus or excessive tracking weight.

My beloved Free Highway went that way very sadly.

 

[chartz]

The only records I wrecked are the ones I tried to wash. My first LPs are 45 years old and still play perfectly, apart from the odd click and pop obviously

 

[Woodface]

Everything is better represented (numerically) in streaming as it is the simplest, laziest, and most indifferent way one can get to hear music in 2023. That said I’d expect jazz, soul, funk, disco, reggae, hip-hop, rap, R&B and all other black music forms to be very well represented in record sales as this whole musical culture and history is so heavily rooted in vinyl.

Well the evidence suggests otherwise. Bigger acts dominate Spotify, it’s how the algorithm works. Have a look at the biggest acts historically, I reckon white rock based music dominates.

I think you are resolutely viewing through your own lens. I honestly don’t see the music you mention being rooted in vinyl anymore. Things change.

 

[Woodface]

I have been listening to his latest album on Qobuz..it's magic

Yes, really good. I find the two mixes distracting as I can’t make my mind up which I prefer.

 

[Woodface]

It may depend on your area of interest in music. Quite a lot of early Jazz is hard to find on CD. That can mean either waiting for - and paying stiff prices for - items like the Mosaic sets or finding somewhere the old LPs that covered this systematically. Then buying them secondhand and processing them to remove audible signs of damage.

Yeah fair enough. This isn’t driving the vinyl revival though. Proper early jazz would be on 78, I don’t see an upsurge in this? A lot of early Jazz is on Spotify though.

I am not sure the youth are into early Jazz either I did drag my son round the Armstrong House when we went to NYC last year though.

 

[matt j]

Classical was an outlier and is far better served by formats not limited to 20 minutes a side if you want to retain dynamic range. I’d have thought rap, R&B, funk, soul etc, that to a large extent kept the pressing plants open through the dark days of the late-90s was fairly well rooted in vinyl culture. From a purely personal perspective I’d rate Little Simz ‘No Thank You’ not only as one of the best albums of this year, but one of the best sounding too.

Anyway, I’m baffled. No way in hell would I have taken my parents or grandparents music even remotely seriously. I’ve no idea why kids are buying dad/granddad-rock given just how fresh, relevant and strong the music of currently active generations. I’m convinced we are seeing a specific market sector, not the whole picture. If things really are as bad as these charts imply music is over. This is the end. Three racks in the record shop ‘Dad Rock’, ‘Landfill Indie’, and ‘Taylor Swift’.

I'd say it's not the music but the album format, most young folks have playlists with a diverse mix that goes all over the place with one track having little or nothing to do with the previous, I'd wager the chances of even quite a big fan of Little Simz doesn't want the vinyl album- young fan at least.

 

[Woodface]

Was chatting to my son’s girlfriend the other day & she could not get her head around the concept of an album, “do you shuffle them?”.

 

[Paul Mc]

I think most of us would accept that there have been golden ages of different musical styles, and rock and pop is no different. That young people love Rumours, DSOTM, the Doors, Joy Division or even prog should not be a surprise to those of who also love late 50s/early 60s jazz. To call these golden age recordings 'Dadrock' misunderstands how young people consume music, which in my experience is less tribal than my boomer generation. Sure they have their own modern heroes, but a great tune, is a great tune.

 

[Minio]

Dear old Hermes brought about the death of this one.

 

[matt j]

Was chatting to my son’s girlfriend the other day & she could not get her head around the concept of an album, “do you shuffle them?”.

I think whole album listening has always been a bit niche, vinyl kind of enforced it by default but once CD came along most people were skipping all over the shop. Streaming is just CD turned up to 11.

 

[Woodface]

https://x.com/invadarecordsuk/status/1741064319222034659?s=46

I think this thread support my earlier hypothesis, take away the big dogs & it’s rather tough out there.

 

[Woodface]

I think whole album listening has always been a bit niche, vinyl kind of enforced it by default but once CD came along most people were skipping all over the shop. Streaming is just CD turned up to 11.

Difficult to say but best ofs & greatest hits etc have always sold well.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

I lose count of the times I have been told by "those who know" that vinyl eventually wears out from normal playing.

I'd contend that when using a decent, well set up, stylus + cart the main 'wear' would be on first playing. After that, if you ensure a decent, clean setup, etc, I'd not expect much more wear. One of my reason for loving the V15s is that they apply very low contact pressures and have good profiles. Thus minimising such things anyway.

Old metal needles on shellac 78s might be rather different! 8-]

 

[Alex N]

Difficult to say but best ofs & greatest hits etc have always sold well.

I’ve never bought any. The only compilations of any kind I have are a handful of label round ups, of tunes that would otherwise be impossible to find and / or be crazy expensive.

I once followed a link in someone’s profile on Naim’s forum though, where they listed their music, and they had literally thousands of greatest hits and all that, and little else. All the Now That’s, and whole series of wild stuff, I dunno The Best Smooth Classical Driving Rock Anthems Ever Vol. 16 kind of thing.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

Yeah fair enough. This isn’t driving the vinyl revival though. Proper early jazz would be on 78, I don’t see an upsurge in this? A lot of early Jazz is on Spotify though.

I am not sure the youth are into early Jazz either I did drag my son round the Armstrong House when we went to NYC last year though.

Yes, I doubt most 'young folk' know much about early jazz. And of course the sound quality isn't usually what you'd call 'Hi Fi'! Even when 'processed' to try and clean up the sound. Just that the music can be fascinating and enjoyable. I've been drawn into it over the years and find a hi-fi system does help the music come through the years and the trip via old 78 to LP to me.

Sadly, I can't play 78s. And if I did I have no idea where I'd find a decent set of ancient 78s of Jazz from well before WW2. But later collections by the companies on LPs do nicely quite often.

FWIW as a divergence from topc: The 'First Voice' series that Nimbus released on CD is similarly interesting for 'classical' singing, etc.

 

[Mike Reed]

SQ on Rumours is more analogue sounding than Tango. So Rumours gets my vote.

Ah, so that's the difference; you may well be right. Maybe Tango had a touch of digital to it but scintillating sound regardless.

 

[Mike Reed]

In fact, I'd go on record for saying that played with care and optimal equipment, the actual playing of LPs makes them sound better and better!

An interesting hypothesis. Hope it's true but it does fly in the face of logic/physics (take your pick) a bit.

Dear old Hermes brought about the death of this one.

Hermes really are crack couriers but they do have their Achilles heel.

 

[Woodface]

I’ve never bought any. The only compilations of any kind I have are a handful of label round ups, of tunes that would otherwise be impossible to find and / or be crazy expensive.

I once followed a link in someone’s profile on Naim’s forum though, where they listed their music, and they had literally thousands of greatest hits and all that, and little else. All the Now That’s, and whole series of wild stuff, I dunno The Best Smooth Classical Driving Rock Anthems Ever Vol. 16 kind of thing.

I’ve never really gone for them, I have the odd label sampler, often a freebie or very cheap.

However, as said earlier, we are generally non-typical on here. Look at the songwriters greatly enriched by the Bodyguard soundtrack & also how many bought The Eagles Greatest Hits. The latter was a decent pay day for JD Souther & Jackson Browne.

 

[Woodface]

Yes, I doubt most 'young folk' know much about early jazz. And of course the sound quality isn't usually what you'd call 'Hi Fi'! Even when 'processed' to try and clean up the sound. Just that the music can be fascinating and enjoyable. I've been drawn into it over the years and find a hi-fi system does help the music come through the years and the trip via old 78 to LP to me.

Sadly, I can't play 78s. And if I did I have no idea where I'd find a decent set of ancient 78s of Jazz from well before WW2. But later collections by the companies on LPs do nicely quite often.

FWIW as a divergence from topc: The 'First Voice' series that Nimbus released on CD is similarly interesting for 'classical' singing, etc.

I certainly love the Hot 5s & 7s recordings even though they are disc transfers.