The cost of LP's and CD's - an observation

jssmith

...  it holds some kind of status, in-the-know or hip factor, otherwise all LPs would be at the dump with all the other obsolete technologies.

There are reasons to buy LPs other than the status you imagine they possess.

Why else would you spend thousands of dollars on a turntable, cartridge and tens or hundreds of LPs on a technically inferior, inconvenient and space-consuming medium when the same money would give you 10-20 years of streaming millions of albums?

This is the logical fallacy of "begging the question," also known as circular reasoning.

To understand why some still buy LPs, you might consider auditioning a high-end LP playback system at a local dealer. Then you might have an idea of what's possible with LP playback.

I didn't realize that my original post would generate so much discussion. I'm glad. Although I was thinking to respond directly to several posts, I think I'll just add a few extra thoughts:
1) I could have expanded on the comparing the cost between LP, CD to streaming. I'll leave that to some other economist or maths guy.
2) I purposely did not try to also compare quality as that is a whole other discussion, but it's a point well taken regardless of which format each person believes is good, better, best. You get what you pay for.
3) I listen to each type of media depending on my mood, desire/ability to handle a LP, to hear something new, and whether it's background music or a 'serious' listening session. Nope, not gonna tell you which is which as that will open another can of cables.
4) I like having a choice aside from just streaming as there have been many times the internet starts to act up as just as I want to listen. And I live in a city that has good bandwidth.
5) True, when buying used, that money does not go to the artist, but he did get paid for that CD originally. Should he get paid twice, three times? I believe there was a lawsuit long ago that tried to stop the sale of used CD's, video, etc. It failed. Also, in many cases I have brought the same album 2-3 times, and also then brought the CD. Then also streaming. How many times should you pay for one piece of music - another discussion thread perhaps? Now I don't get royalties, so my opinion might be different if I was.
Have a great and safe Thanksgiving all. 

Millercarbon,

" The great mass of people abandoned the quality of records for the convenience of CD." (not true)


For the great mass of people, CD was far superior to records, and CD is still far superior to records if you don't have a "high end" analog rig. No, you didn't witness mass insanity, what you saw was reality.

I had a Gerard GT55 and a Shure V15 cartridge, which was in the class of TT's that the masses had, and CD is still far better to that. When "noiseless" CD came out, those in "low fi" (most people) immediately switched over. While those who were in the "high end" said "What's the big deal". No, it wasn't about convenience, it was about superior audio.

When they said "What's the big deal?", I said one of us is crazy. No, both of us were right; it was just that one of us had a high end rig and the other didn't. Today, my cartridge alone, costs twice as much as my entire rig back in the day, and that's not due to inflation. CD still sounds better than a mediocre vinyl rig, and anyone who says different is pushing some kind of agenda.

Supply and demand "always" rules price, not superiority and inferiority; that's the way capitalism works.

Early 80's music was very good. Seemed to me that music group quality went down at just about the time CDs were becoming popular. Maybe just a coincidence. The Columbia record club were sending out cds for ridiculously low priced groupings trying to get everyone to rebuy all their records onto cds. They hoped everyone would forget to cancel or send the card back declining the next month's overpriced selection. 

You really didn't have a choice for while - they weren't making records.  They cost more to make and sold for less. You don't need an MBA to realize that wasn't desired by the music industry.

As soon as they started making records again, I came back and disconnected my CD player 15 years ago because the sound was lifeless. Still play them in my car and Bose radio while washing the car. Never even tried SACDs. Do they still make them?

There is one very important fact that has eluded everyone's assessment of this "CD, Record" thing. Everyone assumes that everyone else saw this thing from where they were positioned. People in the "high end" of analog, had an entirely different perspective than people in the "low end" of analog. What was fact for one person, was fiction for another person.