Disappointing story about vinyl

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4627278.stm

bit sad really

 

damn kids

 

I have two turntables in my room, 50+ 7" singles all released between 2004-2006 and about 200 12 LPs of mixed vintage. I am 23 now but I first got into vinyl when I bought a Matsui deck from a car boot and plugged into my Radioshack guitar amp!

Just go into any decent record shop and there are selling loads of 7" singles (usualy indie ones). The things I have read also suggest that vinyl sales are constantly on the up although no where near that of CD or downloads.

I have everything on vinyl from Joy Division's original Unkown Pleasures to the Keiser Cheifs I predict a riot. Oh and I will buying Mozza's next album on 12".

 

Those pesky kids will suffer when their hard disk goes moo hoo ha ha ha :JOEL:

Mind you if we have to move house my back will suffer moving 5000+ 12"'s

 

Or if there was a fire. The thing is though a hard drive often won't last more than 3 years, where as the chance of having a fire or all your LPs knicked is slim.

 

I'd say that ole Pete may be a bit out of touch himself to be honest. Its niche for sure, but no more of a niche than it has been for at least the last 10 years. And if the evidence of my eyes when browsing in Selectadisc is to be believed, and Christmas sales - Its Indie kids who incidentally wouldn't touch his (in their eyes) cheesy dance music with a ten foot pole - most likey to become the new generation of music addicts.

Don't get me wrong God bless the DJs through the 90s if it weren't for whom the presses would have closed and we would have no vinyl, but I was fascinated to read in the Observer Music section this morning the following article by Paul Morley:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1689167,00.html

He swallowed the dictionary on this one, but it gives an alternative (and I reckon better informed) view.

PS. Amazing Trade - I didn't realise you were such a whippersnapper. Do you do the mobile thing as well? - how do you do it if you do?

 

Hi,

interesting features.

I don't think Pete Tong is out of touch. It is more niche now than 10 years ago. Less places sell vinyl and less new stuff is sold.

There are a number of people who don't know much about vinyl. It happen to me when I was djing. I was talking to a young lady, around 18 or 19, after one of my DJ gigs at the Leadmill in Sheffield. She was puzzled by the two funny looking objects either side of the mixer.
"What are those things?" she asked.
"My decks." I answered
"What do you mean?" she said
"Turntables." I said with a smile. " For my records."
"What do mean by records?" She puzzled.
After showing her my best 12"s ,she was none the wiser.

I have meet a number of youngsters in this state.

Vinyl is a niche market with small sales. 7" sales are steady with growth but they are very small compared to downloads. The single buying indie kid is a very small faction compared to the MP3/IPod kids.

A lot of kids listen to music but not into collecting things like vinyl or even cd. At the school I teach at, MP3 players are everywhere. It has got so bad that the school has banned them. There are, I'm aware of, a few kids buying singles.

There will always be people buying vinyl but there need to be more youngsters buying the items.

The music scene changes. Indie and guitar music is booming at the moment. A few years ago it was dance music. DJs did help vinyl survive. In the 90s, the sale of Technics 1200/1210 outsold guitars as every wanted be a DJ.

Back then, DJs used nearly all vinyl with the odd cd. Now DJs are using Laptops, computers, MP3 players with vinyl taking a bit of a hammering. A lot of big name DJs are using vinyl less and less. Kids are going to clubs and seeing DJs with laptops and are ok with it. Years ago they would be up in arms about it.

As a big fan of vinyl and of the 7" single, I hope it does survive and more kids discover the power of the vinyl.


SCIDB

 

Mebbe ... or it says a lot about the kind of 18 year old girls who go to your gigs at the Leadmill of course

 

Oi! My sister was at the Leadmill last night to see the Artic Monkeys she knows damn well what a 7" single is. She actually has quite a few of them, although I will admit she has nothing to play them on, its purely a collectors thing.

I also have a mate who has every Joy Division LP ever released, again he has no turntable :

The indie thing all goes back to the punk/indie/alternative scene of the late 70's, vinyl has king so it has become cool to have indie on vinyl.

I am also a bit worried that people don't know what vinyl is, I mean I have never been on a steam train but I still know what one is.

The problem is some people don't question our inventions, even when I was very very young I always asking questions like when was the record invented, who invented the light bulb, when was electricity first used etc etc.

What do these kids honestly think they used to play music on? Have these kids never seen any films with vinyl in it? I can understand many young people never who may have never seen vinyl but I can't believe some don't know what it is.

 

Can someone explain to me why ELECTRONIC DANCE music still sounds better on vinyl than CD? For a fully digitally sourced track, I've found that the bass and pacing on vinyl on dance is still far superior to CD, and I just don't get it...

Plus these people who listen to MP3s and CDs exclusively have never heard what cymbols sound like

 

At some point they'll have enough that the temptatation to actually play the bloody things won't go away.

Dean's point about it being more niche than ten years ago, fewer places selling it now and less of it being sold is an interesting one though.

Way back in 1995, I'd spent a three year hiatus on music buying, simply because I didn't have a CD player and vinyl was absolutely nowhere to be found and practically nothing new was being released on it (unless I wanted dance music ... which I didn't). I gave in and bought a CD player in the end. Now in 2006 I have no trouble finding new releases on the black stuff. So I'm not sure it is less available now than then - I certainly can't believe less is being sold - as back then it was simply nowhere to be found.

 

The last thing I read on the subject was that vinyl sales are increasing every year by quite some margin but its still nothing compared to CDs and download.

I think the 7" format was the fastest growing music format of 2005 apart from downloads.

 

I honestly think that any format that is so nice to use will ever completely die out. Thats why I think CD's will live on. They're the mid point between vinyl and hard drive/MP3. Something you can hold, look at the artwork and arrange nicely on your shelfs is always a winner with me.

 

PS To the person who asked me about the DJ thing I am still doing it I am still at practise stage but I am good enough to play I just don't want to make a fool of myself yet.

I am hoping by summer we will have gigs, if I can get some work for my computer business I want to buy a better turntable, mixer and a basic DJ CD player.

The trick with indie DJ'ing is to built up a story, so you may have some scouse Merseybeat (e.g Beatles, Coral, Zutons) songs played which then may merge into some rarer Oasis song which is influenced by rhe Beatles which in turn could be mixed into the Stone Roses.

It is difficult getting this right, but by the end of the set it starts to transend into pop, e.g Kesier Cheifs, Killers etc.

 

I've only met one person that didn't know what a turntable is and to be fair she isn't the sharpest bulb in the picnic. I don't know where they find these people.

 

That is exactly what I think. I know there will be lots of young people never to have played vinyl but in society it is all over the place.

 

Exactly, as an example Chantelle on CBB didn’t even know what a gynaecologist was, so I suspect that the real issue is that the UK school system has produced a generation of utter brain dead morons rather than vinyl dying.

Tony.

 

:respect:

:lol: Brilliant!

 

What's CBB

Bakc on topic, not the only place where this is being discussed in the last few days look here:

Jeremy Thompson (Sky) asks: Is Vinyl Dead?

http://jeremythompson.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/01/is_vinyl_dead.html

Lots of comments from joe public there of interest and lots of different points of view. Quite interesting how many people only view it in terms of DJing.