Vinyl comeback - from theory and charts to reality.

[Marko-V]

I feel the whole talk about 'vinyl comeback' a bit silly because since late 70's I never left the vinyl era & vinyl era never left me. I understand the issue from the music business' and average consumer's point but to me there's nothing new, except that for a couple of years I've seen a small vinyl section at a local supermarket's consumer electronics department... until they close the whole music section, which they will eventually do - many have already done.
Or maybe the whole issue is just some worldwide hipster conspiracy.

[Marko-V]

For vinyl, so many things can go wrong.

Yep. Starting from pressing plant and ending to your turntable components. For thirtysomething years I used consumer level automatic turntables and rarely changed needles. When I finally bought a second-hand Technics and put on my old Stooges and Bowie LP's it was like hearing those records for the very first time.
Talk about the superiority or inferiority of vinyl vs. other formats has rarely anything to do with common sense or what you really hear... it is all about beliefs and personal attitude.
One of the things that I like about vinyls and tapes is the division of the whole product into two (or more) sides; the fact that you actually have to change sides of a record. I believe that albums made for LP format benefit from this so-called limitation: artists need to think more about the track orders, dramatic development etc. I personally listen a lot of albums just one side at a time.

[holy ghost]

I basically stopped buying vinyl between approximately 2003-2008 (give or take, I bought a lot of NWN metal records) when my tastes really shifted from hardcore to "I'm enlightened to anything maaaaan", and I was buying shit that it was impossible to track down original pressings of, krautrock, free jazz etc and just go for the $14.99 CD. The "vinyl resurgence" has been great for picking up classics I like at cheap prices rather than making blind buys. And dare I say it, it's much easier to buy used records now that there's 10 times the record stores and people are dumping their collections. One of the women in my dog park let me come over and pick through her ex husbands collection. A original used "Music of Harry Partch" LP for a buck plus a bunch of other great shit.....

I'm into it. I just bought the Leaf Hound "Growers of Mushroom" LP repress for 20 bucks down the street from my house. That was awesome. And a copy of UFO2 "One Hour Space Rock" for $30. Both new, sound great....

I do hate walking into a store and having to sort through some fuckwad who thinks "Rumours" should be selling for 20 bucks and any metal record is automatically worth 40 smackaroos....

[EXU]

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISEEEEE FROOOOM THE GRAAAAAVE!!!

Have you guys seen this?

https://bandcamp.com/vinyl

Bandcamp is launching a new service that streamlines the financing, production, and fulfillment of vinyl records. With no up-front investment, you can create a vinyl campaign and start taking orders almost immediately. Reach your minimum goal, and we press your records and ship them to your fans.

[PTM Jim]

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISEEEEE FROOOOM THE GRAAAAAVE!!!

Have you guys seen this?

https://bandcamp.com/vinyl

Bandcamp is launching a new service that streamlines the financing, production, and fulfillment of vinyl records. With no up-front investment, you can create a vinyl campaign and start taking orders almost immediately. Reach your minimum goal, and we press your records and ship them to your fans.

Sooo, basically Kickstarter, but for vinyl exclusively. This is cool in theory, but it's 100% going to tie up pressing plants and make vinyl take longer as well as increase the price because simple economics. If there weren't so many stupid emissions laws in Pennsylvania, I would open a plant myself because I know it would do well. The overhead is just too much of a risk.

[GEWALTMONOPOL]

Let's sit back and await one numpty after the other try their hand at pressing vinyl, fucking it up and causing delays from here to eternity.

My advice, if you don't have the money for this kind of operation then go out and earn it like the rest of us. Don't come begging for it.

[EXU]

https://www.reddit.com/r/vinyl/comments/bebq3z/bandcamp_vinyl_pressing_service_is_a_great_way_to/

Seems like they'll be using a Canadian pressing plant (Precision) or maybe some (possibly shady) Czech one, but I guess they'll be buying or building one sooner or later. It will be probably a service for established acts re-releasing stuff and/or archive/live outtakes and/or doing vanity releases... Or maybe just going independent.
But it could be interesting in some other ways too, even for labels.

Without prices and knowledge of pressing quality it is hard to say anything tho.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

There seems to be increasing number of new factories. New gear for pressing vinyl has been made available easier.
In Poland there is at least one place that started pressing. Mobineko had their own place since a year or so. There is fairly new one in Estonia where for example Bizarre Uproar vinyl was pressed. There is fairly new place in Sweden I have been told and in Denmark who contacted me while ago. Also new Italian place focusing on small underground releases is in process of optimizing their production facility. etc. etc.

Places like my45 (ger) that used to be tiny 7" operation, are now handling good quality LP pressing too.

It remains to be seen, how this effects speed and pricing. Basically everything costs the same everywhere. Differences are small. Probably shipping is crucial here, meaning the place nearest you may be cheapest, but it would be also nice if one could test same recording done in various factories and see who does the best job...

It is hard to estimate if price will become any sort of competitive element. It may at least make pressing vinyl faster.

[PTM Jim]

My advice, if you don't have the money for this kind of operation then go out and earn it like the rest of us. Don't come begging for it.

This statement is most truthful. No more panhandling.

[EXU]

There seems to be increasing number of new factories. New gear for pressing vinyl has been made available easier.
In Poland there is at least one place that started pressing. Mobineko had their own place since a year or so. There is fairly new one in Estonia where for example Bizarre Uproar vinyl was pressed. There is fairly new place in Sweden I have been told and in Denmark who contacted me while ago. Also new Italian place focusing on small underground releases is in process of optimizing their production facility. etc. etc.

Places like my45 (ger) that used to be tiny 7" operation, are now handling good quality LP pressing too.

It remains to be seen, how this effects speed and pricing. Basically everything costs the same everywhere. Differences are small. Probably shipping is crucial here, meaning the place nearest you may be cheapest, but it would be also nice if one could test same recording done in various factories and see who does the best job...

It is hard to estimate if price will become any sort of competitive element. It may at least make pressing vinyl faster.

Nonetheless seems like a smart move from Bandcamp. Maybe it will cater more for the hipster market that doesn't even play their vinyls anyway, just a convenient way to fund this kind of option of release for artists that have their publics willing to without resourcing to kickstarter so it doesn't have to be a "big deal".
And for smaller labels, maybe leaving the option for "bancamp vinyl" open would be harmless (if quality is good) for releases that would not get this treatment otherwise.
Idk, I find this intriguint at least, we all know it's not something that isn't provided by other means but to have a big name company attached gives it all a twist.

[Goat93]

There are already several Crowdfunding Platforms who support Music and CD/Vinyl pressing. Since Pledgemusic is Bankrupt, the others are more carefuly, i think.

[NO PART OF IT]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/phonocut-lets-you-cut-your-own-vinyl-records-at-home

Speaking of kickstarter, this thing would be available for 1000 Euro, cutting ten inch discs at home.  Unknown if it is better quality than lathe or not, but apparently not the same process as a lathe cutting, at least.