Vinyl love affair puzzling
I’ve done my time listening, reviewing and broadcasting music. And I still don’t get it.
Someone is going to have to explain the revived interest in vinyl records to me.
In New Zealand, revenue from record sales has climbed over the past four years. Radioscope, which collects data on the recording industry, reports sales doubled from $462,000 to $1 million between 2013 and 2014.
But I don’t get it.
It’s not that I don’t like records. I grew up with vinyl.
I hear songs today on digital formats and I can still hear the scratch I originally put in the records years ago when vinyl was all I had.
The original turntable that put those scratches on my prized records was recently re-released to meet the demands of the resurging global vinyl market. It now sells for almost $6000.
And I still don’t get it. Why is vinyl suddenly cool again?
Spinning plastic underneath a diamond needle at 33rpm always seemed to me to be a exercise in futility. No matter what I did, no matter how careful I was in the handling and cleaning of my records, each play inflicted more damage.
Tick, tick scratch tick tick….scraaaaaaaatch…
And I know the audiophile purists talk of the warmth of vinyl music and how it sounds superior to digital.
And all that is true. Vinyl does sound more natural and organic compared to digital. CDs never completely matched the inherent warmth of analogue record playback, it always sounded ‘‘digital’’, it was always brittle and clinical.
But many preferred the sonic trade-off for the portable convenience and Philips inflated promise of ‘‘perfect sound forever’’.
As CDs took over, vinyl and turntables went into hibernation waiting for the past to rear its analogue head, waiting for someone to rekindle the love of records.
But here’s the problem, those into vinyl are not going to get that superior analogue record playback experience on some tinpot record player on sale for $99 from Bob’s Music Shop.
Record lovers are going to have to spend big or find their vinyl collection sounds like mine in a year or two from now. Scratch…scratch…scratch…
Most of my vinyl damage was inflicted by my first stereo. It introduced me to music and hi-fi and it led me to a music hobby that has kept me involved, interested and engaged for more than 40 years.
Later my hobby turned professional as I wrote about audio hi-fi equipment for more than 20 years for the now defunct but ahead of its time New Zealand hi-fi magazine AudioEnz.
Writing about audio equipment opened up the door to over-the-top-music collectors and hi-fi audio snobs from all parts of the world.
At about the same time, in 1987, I started with the Waikato Times as a music reviewer, landing the job after I had destroyed my degree, my car and my relationship of the time building Contact89FM, Waikato University’s student radio station – all of it done (at a cost) for the love of music.
One quirk of student radio was the music so often went to air played at the wrong speed as EPs sometimes came in
33rpm while others were 45 and those new to radio were nervous and distracted and forgot to check the right speed before pushing the play button on the Technics
SP10 direct drive turntable.
Today I think back on my early days with music and audio equipment. I learned early on there was a difference between record collectors and listeners. I was in the buy to listen camp.
So I’ve done my time listening, reviewing and broadcasting music. Over the years, I have spent more time with music than any other interest or activity. And I still don’t get it.
I don’t get why vinyl is back.
Why would anyone want to listen to records on a cheap turntable in 2018?
Tick, tick scratch tick tick….scraaaaaaaatch…
Is it merely a cool beatnik thing or are buyers interested in the album artwork, liner notes and the engaging tactile rituals of vinyl playback?
Hamilton had great secondhand record stores in the 1970s and 80s. The Victoria Street Record Exchange and the store in Alma St were favourite haunts.
Today Tron Records in Frankton is keeping vinyl alive and is doing so along with another new used record store The Station in Tauranga and Vinyl Countdown in New Plymouth. Real Groovy is the granddaddy of them all and continues to stock and sell vinyl.
It may all be about money. Some collectors are making a small fortune hocking off their old New Zealand vinyl to enthusiasts with The Suburban Reptiles’ single selling for a record $1180 on Trade Me earlier this year.
Meanwhile a new record processing plant will open in Australia for the first time in 30 years to keep up with demand for new and reissued vinyl.
At up to $40 for pressing, I wonder if vinyl will in time be seen as what it has been for decades, a niche for music lovers who want a blast of retro cool. Play that $40 pressing in a year’s time on Bob’s Music Store turntable and tell me how it sounds.
So while I get the collector’s bug for records, particularly original pressings, I don’t get buying old scratched vinyl to listen to.
Someone will have to explain it to me.