How many plays can you get out of a good record?

Been playing Muddy Waters on Chess live at Mr Kellys for over 40 years still sounds great.I always use a supper high quality Moving Coil and tonearm.

Under the best of circumstances, quite a few. The best of circumstances are not common. The best of circumstances is a clean dust free record played with a perfectly oriented modern line contact stylus that has been polished to the highest standards.

Assuming you use both sides, a little shorter than McBeth.

@erik_squires 

Aye, now I understand:  Macbeth must've ruined his LP's using an old stylus, prompting this soliloquy!

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

It's not a question of tracking weight, it's a question of mistracking. Too light is as bad for records as too heavy.

I did wear out a copy of Blonde on Blonde in 1966 using my father's old Collaro player that must have been tracking at about 5g.  That was the design weight.  The whole thing started sounding like mush. I guess there must have been swarf.

I bought another one and my own turntable.