Regardless of the well intentioned inflationary comparative offered below I never felt as pinched spending $5.99-$6.99 on vinyl back in the "good old days" as I do now spending $20 and up. Personally I buy all 3 formats regularly without disparaging one format over another - my cd collection exceeds my vinyl even after pretty much mirroring every LP that I own.
My nieces and nephews are perfect examples of how most music is purchased today -their various phones and tablets contain more of their music than their cd collections do, and their cd "collections" are pretty much best-of collections, nothing anyone here would consider a library. They also listen to streamed services instead of radio which I have yet to warm up to. They want XM in their cars and their "stereos" are portables - sheesh!
They enjoy listening to my turntable when they're visiting my house but neither has so far felt compelled to purchase one for themselves.
It is GREAT indeed to see vinyl doing better now, rather heartening indeed - and now reel-to-reel is coming back???
Long were the hours I spent making party reels from my LP collection... |
In late 70's I purchased a number of Mo-Fi's for around $16.00. I also bought two UHQR's at $50.00 a pop. I thought I was nuts then...this was huge money, but I was into the hype of 1/2 speed mastering, virgin vinyl, limited editions. Lps sales today, with claims of pressing plant issues and limited numbers of pressings, likely deserves to be in the $18-25.00 range. I recently read that Acoustic Sounds, along with others will distribute reel to reel tapes starting at $250.00 per. Responses of interest has been favorable. |
@ oblgny
In 1970 the Lp prices were 5.99 to 6.99 each!
Taking inflation into account, Today that is $36.94 to $43.10.
How were Lps cheaper in 1970?
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oblgny...agreed that vinyl prices more often than not exceed cds; and of course, downloads, but many new releases...not referring to audiophile...are priced at $14.00-18.00. Still a higher cost, and yet fully worth it for me. I hope the medium does not slip back into decline. It has become my primary source of enjoyment listening. |
Even with the decline of downloads that medium's sales far exceed that of vinyl's and the reason is obvious - vinyl is more expensive.
A download costs around $10-$12, the same recording on vinyl? Double that.
Vinyl also requires the listener to exercise more care in playback, and storage. I'm probably like many members here who started out with the classic stereo gear of the 70's - a receiver, a turntable, two speakers. That I've stayed with two channel listening since then, and have invested a lot of discretionary income on equipment all along the way, is not necessarily a generational commonality.
I love the fact that vinyl is coming back, but unless my memory fails me I believe vinyl was a helluva lot cheaper back then. Long live it, but $25 for an LP could scare a lot of newbies away. |
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My issue with new vinyl is almost all recordings are inferior to the original pressings. Why? I assume the technology is there to exceed or at least match the first pressings.
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goheelz: As my elders use to say, sometimes "it's better to not say anything unless you have something positive to say". Some people just want to bring others down, I guess.
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Long live the LP / 68 years and counting |
tomcy6...It appears the vinyl revolution may be peaking. Some of the local record stores are bulging with new releases, and a healthier used vinyl section, but I notice some of the titles sitting for months. The owner claims sales are robust with consistent turnover.
I hope the trend continues, as vinyl is my main source of audio. |
Pulled out mu old LP's for the first time in umptteen years and got to say this. They are warmer than even the most recent CD I ahve in the collection. If you can get by the occasional pops |
Well, according to Nielsen, 11.9 million Lps were sold in 2015. That was up 29.8% over 2014, but 2014 was up 52% over 2013. Are Lp sales starting to level off? Time will tell. Cd sales in 2015 were 125.6 million and album downloads were 103.3 million. Down 10.8% and 2.9% respectively.
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Not long ago, I broke a 1K cartridge, and unless I get a spare 1K, it's not going to be replaced. It seems that those days when I had a spare 1K are long gone.
I have my records on reel to reel and hard drive, so the only thing I'm missing is getting down to eye level with the cartridge and seeing how smooth that cartridge glided over a record; plus the audio of course; but as far as the sonics, they're no better than my digital; as a matter of fact, CD's have improved, and digital is just as good, if not better.
Thanks for a very good story
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Thanks for that year-old story. |
