What's with all the new colored vinyl?

White underwear? Gee, you're no fun at all...

The Vinyl Me Please (VMP) label does most of its’ reissues in colored PVC, and has many of them pressed at QRP (Quality Record Pressings), Chad Kassem’s in-house Analogue Productions plant. When Doug Sax of The Mastering Lab fame passed away, Kassem bought all The Labs equipment and had it shipped to QRP, where it is now used to make LP’s as good as the world has ever seen and heard.

On their way to me as I type this are two titles from the recent Record Store Day event, both pressed on colored PVC: The Everly Brothers collection entitled Hey Doll Baby, and the Del Shannon album Rock On!, produced by Jeff Lynne and Mike Campbell. Both titles appeal to older buyers, so why it was decided to press them in color mystifies me.

Hey, I've got a couple of LPs that are cut from the center of the disc outward to the edge. One reason for it was to counteract skating forces...which, of course is obviated by the existence of anti-skate.  Another reason was because classical music usually had its loudest passages at the end of the piece, and cartridges were better able to track them at the outside edge. 

The Vinyl LP is not only a growing commodity in the Market Place as a result of the trend for the 'so called' Vinyl Revival, where the Vinyl/TT Source gained attraction beyond the die hard traditionalists. 

There are a ever growing group who are New to Vinyl Collecting.

Limited Editions and Non Black meets their criteria for collecting.

Most importantly is that New Artists selling Hard Media, are aware of this other group of customers and see them as a important group, as one collectors purchase, is equivalent to 10's of 1000's streaming hits in revenues.

I am fortunate to have watched a recent released Vinyl LP appreciate in value from £35 to £600 across a few years, imagine if my copy was still in it manufacturers applied cellophane. 

As a side, my Original 'Pulse' Album is still in the Manufacturers Cellophane, that one is now much harder to crack open. 

I think the colored vinyl is kinda cool and fun. I don’t buy records simply due to color, but some of the etchings and what not are cool additions. Black is boring, but of course gets the job done. My latest Bob Marley “greatest hits” is done in the red, yellow, green color scheme. Love it.