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YOUTUBE and Vinyl are gonna bankrupt me!


I jumped back in to vinyl and boy has music buying become more expensive! Not only because vinyl costs more than CDs or downloads/streaming, but I’m also buying so much more music now.

The biggest dent in my bank account is due to discovering music via youtube. It’s become my main method of music discovery. For one thing, as noticed by numerous music lovers no youtube, their "recommendations" algorithm has really become sophisticated within the past year or two. The recommended music/videos that show up as I follow link to link are absolutely terrific - one gem after another. For another thing, youtube is great for actually hearing rare or under-the-radar music. So many people have uploaded vinyl rips of hard to find albums, and so many alt/non-mainstream music shows up on youtube. And it seems almost everything is available on vinyl these days, especially from new artists.

So I keep going down the rabbit hole, hearing awesome albums which...sure enough...are available on discogs or the artist’s own site.

Recently I’ve been on a binge for late 70’s early 80’s Brazilian and Japanese funk/jazz/prog stuff. And lots of alt-smooth-vibe jazz. Some really great stuff coming out from new artists. I’ve been a music omnivore for a long time, but I’m amazed at how much wild and wonderful stuff there out there that I never even thought to investigate, or knew existed.

It’s a fun time to be a music lover (especially on vinyl).


I’m not a music "collector," or vinyl collector in the sense of "I must have all 3 versions of X album" stuff. I simply order based only on the music I want to hear. But even so my stack of records is starting to reach hoardish-looking levels (well, to me anyway).

I...must...slow.....down.

Tell me I’m not the only one afflicted.
prof
sejodiren's avatar
sejodiren
192 posts
 
Ya know, I looked at the Better Records site.  How do they justify those prices?  Insane....  I sold my collection of about 1200 in 1986.  Because CD's were gaining momentum and I need the cash.  Many of them were 'promos' I received through my job.  I could kick myself in the head now if I could get my leg that high. Every record I owed was mint.  I'd be rich!  Enjoy your addiction....it's a healthy one.
raceone
18 posts
 
Like most, I too can't afford Better Records' Hot Stampers, but I have learned a great deal from Tom and his site. First his hot Stampers have lead me to find so very many great sounding records. Second, I've enjoyed all the equipment, setup, room tuning, and just plain great music recommendations. Forget the prices and just enjoy digging deep into the site!
rbstehno
1,454 posts
 
I like jazz and rock and very few artist new stuff comes out on vinyl. The older stuff you can find on vinyl but I prefer newer stuff. Also with hires/mqa I don’t see a need for vinyl for those albums.
if you think YouTube is good, you should check out roon. Roon gives you equivalent artists, upcoming concert dates, and history of the artist. I subscribe to tidal and the combination of roon and tidal (along with Terabytes of ripped music) its a hard combination to beat. I like vinyl too
prof OP
3,474 posts
 
What are "hot stamper" records?
prof OP
3,474 posts
 


rbstehno,

I've actually found that most of the music I end up liking on youtube can be found on vinyl.  And that includes almost every new artist/new album, whether it's alt-pop, electronic, jazz, smooth-vibe jazz etc.   It seems to me almost everyone is releasing on vinyl these days, certainly many lesser known artists.  (One thing is that I think people in to vinyl are among those who search out a wide array of music and probably discover many different artists, and the other is that I believe vinyl is providing a decent return-on-investment for small artists, vs streaming or anything else.  If they can put out a tangible product like a vinyl record, they like that, their fans like that, and they get paid.  My brother just mastered his first album and even he is putting it out on vinyl).
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