More evidence that LPS are still alive

After 3 days of equivocating, I decided to take one more look at the R.E.M. LP at my local Fred Meyer, and guess what?

It's a 45-rpm release mastered on TWO 180g LPs! That was the clincher. Even though I'm not a huge R.E.M. fan, I wanted to celebrate the experience of buying a new shrink-wrapped vinyl album of a mainstream artist from a mass-market department store in 2008.

Even though it's 45rpm on 180g vinyl, don't expect it to sound like an Analogue Productions release. Even so, it is very quiet, reasonably dynamic, and sounds pretty good, though I'm aware of its digital roots. It also comes with the CD. Not bad for $26.99.

Several bands here in the Twin Cities (including mine) are releasing LP only. Five years ago this would have never happened.

RCA had announced back in the 1980s that by 1987 they would be done making vinyl (boy were *they* wrong). In the course of 27 years, CDs failed to stamp out LPs (no pun intended). Obviously that will never happen either, though that is not to say that LPs will never die- it just that something better than CDs will be required.

I dont understand why any band would only release on Vinyl, sure its cool and exclusive but its also a way of making sure you will never get the music to all those who may want it.

In the future, bands will only release online, by download. The Eagles release of their latest exclusively through Wal-Mart shows that only the bands in control of their own releases will decide how to do it. The internet is cheaper for the record companies, they make more profit. I downloaded a sampler from HDTracks. The quality is excellent. They will soon have 96KHz/24 bit downloads, DRM free. If you want a hard copy, burn a disc. In my view of the future, you can buy the LP for quality and/or buy the download for your computer based system. The production, packaging and distribution of CDs in "jewel" cases will be obsolete, due to cost.

06-17-08: Tgrisham
In the future, bands will only release online, by download. ... I downloaded a sampler from HDTracks. The quality is excellent. They will soon have 96KHz/24 bit downloads, DRM free. If you want a hard copy, burn a disc.

If they start getting the writers and graphics artists involved, they could offer a pdf of cover art and liner notes and recapture something we've lost from the LP days.

That arrangement would be the best of both. I like the sound of 24/96 or 24/88.4 as MLP on my humble Oppo DV-980H. I can't abide 16/44.1, but 24-bit dynamic resolution and 88K or 96K sampling I can live with.

Besides near infinite resolution of LPs, their other big advantage was the visual experience. CDs shrunk that to illegible miniaturization, and downloads eliminated it. If you added in quality commentary and graphics to accompany hi-rez downloads, you could approximate the album experience with the download advantages of portability and robustness.