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I try not to be judgmental, but I have a thing for correct nomenclature and proper pronunciations. I’ll let slide anyone who pronounces the “L” in “calm,” and I’ll give a little bit of slack to anyone who initially struggles with “quinoa.” But if you insist that “Uber” (as in “You’ve had too much to drink. Let me call you an Uber”) is pronounced “Yuber,” that’s when the red mist descends.
I also get a little crazy when someone pronounces David Bowie’s last name like it’s the front of a boat. Despite being spelled “Gahan,” the name of the lead singer of Depeche Mode wants you to know that it’s “Dave GAHN.” And the guy out front of Queens of the Stone Age? Contrary to anything you’ve heard, it’s Josh HOMmy. (Trust me. I’ve talked to the man.)
I get even more exorcised when someone insists on using the word “vinyls” when it comes to music pressed onto plastic. This isn’t just a mispronunciation; it’s a modern perversion that’s crept into the English language over the last couple of decades.
English is very strange when it comes to how words are supposed to sound. It can only be learned, though, through tough thorough thought. In most cases, we’ll add an “S” to a word to communicate that there’s more than one of an object. Linguists say that mass nouns are subject to “countification.” But not always.
Vinyl is like deer. We don’t say “Hey, look at that herd of deers!” It’s just “deer.” Type either term into any word processing environment and you’ll immediately be greeted by a squiggly red line beneath it, telling you to smarten up. But too many people new to record collecting insist that if you have more than one vinyl record, you have vinyls. No, you don’t. You have two or more vinyl records.
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I understand how this can be confusing. A “record” is anything that was recorded, be it on vinyl, magnetized cellulose tape, or the amalgamation of plastic and aluminum that goes into the manufacture of a compact disc. When old-school records (read: vinyl) went out of fashion in the ’90s, we still went to a record store to buy our CDs. A CD is a subspecies of record. So is a cassette, just with a more specific name.
I was at a record show last weekend with tables and tables of LPs (long-playing 33 1/3 RPM records) and seven-inch singles (45 RPM records) in a hall that was filled with collectors of all ages. In that community, you will never hear “vinyl” used in its plural form. If anyone did, they’d immediately expose themselves as a hobbyist, a dabbler and a newbie. And if you’ve ever seen the movie High Fidelity, you’ll know how grumpy the vinyl community can be. “Shouldn’t you be shopping at Urban Outfitters for music to play on your portable Crosley turntable?”
To be fair, when the vinyl album was first introduced in 1948, “vinyls” was an acceptable term. After all, the linguistic rules of “countification” applied, right? In fact, if you go back to music magazines from the 1950 and 1960ss, you will occasionally run across a plural form of vinyl. I quote from a Time magazine article published in 1964: “While a few audio purists might quibble over the fidelity of some of the vintage vinyls …”
It’s unclear when the shift to “vinyl” as a plural term happened, but for decades, one had a “collection of vinyl” when it came to music, not a “collection of vinyls.” Even the Oxford English Dictionary defines vinyls only as it relates to the variety of different chemical formulations of polyvinyl chloride.
Why such pushback? Shouldn’t record collectors welcome members into their club in order to help the format continue its resurrection and viability? Well, yes, but we record collectors can be a stubborn and conservative lot — and frankly, a lot of us have been around a long time. One of the many reasons people are attracted to vinyl records has to do with their permanence, the tradition, and the history behind the format. “Vinyls” is a giant peeve amongst those who kept the format alive during those dark years. Despite pleas from sources such as Variety, we will not bend. We are not OK with your new slang.
There’s also been fierce resistance to what’s seen as a hipster influence on our world. Are you trying to be ironic and cool by insisting on saying “vinyls?” Is this your revenge on Boomers and gen X? Ain’t gonna work, fella. We will shout you down. Young people who want to be part of the herd need to know the language if they want to be taken seriously. Imagine going into a haute couture boutique and asking for the latest from VerSASE instead of Ver-SA-chee.
Look, we all make mistakes and there’s a learning curve when it comes to being accepted by a social tribe. So please, going forward, use the following plural options when referring to multiple grooved plastic music storage media: Records, LPs, albums and vinyl records. Heck, I’ll even take “wax” over “vinyls.”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to pick up a case of beer to go along with a nice variety of cheese and a kilo of shrimp that I plan to feed to my sheep. See what I did there?
© 2024 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Alan Cross
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We first heard about the brave new world of “digital” at the end of the 1970s. We weren’t sure what that meant, but it sounded futuristic and cool, especially with music. It held the promise of accuracy and greater fidelity that we could feed to our monster stereo systems. Ry Cooder has gone down in history as the first artist to release a digitally recorded album with Bop Til You Drop in 1979.
The CD came along a few years later, adding to digital’s momentum. Soon, all recording studios began migrating from their giant analogue tape machines and consoles to state-of-the-art hard drive systems powered by software like Pro Tools. By the end of the ’90s, everything was digital: CDs, MP3s, personal music devices and so on. Beyond a few outliers who wouldn’t let go — I’m looking at you, Jack White, Lenny Kravitz and anyone who refused to give up their vinyl albums — analogue music was essentially dead.
It’s all different now, of course. Even though streaming is the dominant form of music consumption, analogue is still very much with us. Artists looking for a particular recording vibe seek out studios still equipped with ancient two-inch, 24-track tape machines. Vinyl sales have been on an upward trajectory since 2008. Even cassettes refuse to go away.
But this yearning for analogue goes deeper and much of it lies with gen Z. The first generation to grow up in an always-on, always-connected digital world, is looking for something more tangible. They’re expressing nostalgia for an era before they were born.
Many late millennials and gen Z (and no doubt the newest cohort, gen alpha) seem to have a thing for the Before Times, an era when things were less complicated, more orderly, less divided and had more substance, and a time when everyone wasn’t glued to their devices 24-7. Today, these generations see nothing but crazy politics, forever wars, the climate crisis, an imbalanced economic system, a firehose of disinformation, and a social media ecosystem — something that’s used by half of all humans on the planet — that’s intent on making them feel inadequate. Now they’re facing a few run by AI.
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In other words, they want some imagined Good Old Days. Young people are feeling stressed out, hopeless, scared and alone. Gen Z’s interest in things they can touch, hold and physically possess is helping them find stability in a turbulent world.
When it comes to music, I’m seeing plenty of anecdotal evidence. Young people have fallen in love with vinyl, scooping up as much as they can afford. Ask any indie record store what they’re buying and they’ll tell you it’s the classics: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd. Any used copy of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours that comes in is sold within seconds. At record shows, that’s the first thing people search for.
Many of these young vinyl collectors don’t have a turntable because they don’t need to. They can lie on their bed examining their new physical album purchase for its artwork, liner notes and lyrics while streaming it. From that perspective, it’s the best of both worlds. It also offers a break from screens. Some have ditched listening on headphones, too, because they can make one feel disconnected.
CD sales are still falling, but the rate of decline may be slowing as gen Z gets into that format, too. For them, the CD is just as ancient as an LP or a cassette, but it’s a real-world object. That’s both a novelty and reassuring. And physical representations of music have given birth to a new type of fandom, status and expression of identity. “I’m willing to spend THIS MUCH on things like records and CDs to prove that I’m a big music fan! I have five feet of shelving to display my music collection!” Trying doing that with Spotify or a hard drive full of digital files.
Artists have been responding to this trend, led by Taylor Swift and her endless issuance of multiple vinyl versions. Physical editions help fuel fandom and superfandom. The Weeknd, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter know this, too.
I spoke at a high school earlier this month in front of about 300 students, a sizable portion of whom were wearing T-shirts displaying the logos of ’90s bands: Nirvana, Rush, Metallica, The Hip, even more niche acts like Suicidal Tendencies. Such retro merch far, far exceeded that of any current artist. When I asked a few of them about their favourite era of music, most of them cited the ’90s.
I also spotted more than one student rocking a flip phone. This desire for feature-free phones has caught the attention of the industry. Earlier this year, The Boring Phone was released and was so successful that a second version is coming soon. “Tired of being controlled by your phone? It’s time for a change. Introducing BP2 (Boring Phone 2) – the next generation of tech that respects your time and attention.” They could have also added, “We won’t harvest your personal data so that we can sell it.”
It’s not just phones, either. Notice that standalone cameras are back again thanks to gen Z? Not just film cameras, either; even the Polaroid camera is a thing again. The somethings grainy, often imperfect photos that result are valued for their realness and authenticity.
We need to pay attention because the market always follows the trends of the youngest generation of consumers. Brands know they need to tap into retro trends if they want to communicate with gen Z authentically. Where the kids go, we all go.
What’s next? A reversal of fortunes for print magazines? A boost to bookstores? A return to big stereo systems in bedrooms? Don’t count it out.
This is going to cost parents a lot, but that’s another discussion.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Alan Cross
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Is collecting vinyl a cool and interesting hobby? Sure. Is it also insanely overpriced, wasteful, and outdated? Of course it is. And I say that having my own stupid record collection.
A massive shoutout to the subreddit, VinylJerk for keep us all honest about listening to vinyl.
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Zach
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Pressing vinyl is a common goal for musicians. And understandably so!
There’s something really special about vinyl. The tangible aspect of it somehow makes your music feel more real. The large packaging gives you more room to create a mood before listeners even drop the needle. And then of course there’s the sonic warmth.
Plus, recent data shows that vinyl sales can play a significant part in a profitable music career. That’s why we’ve worked to find a high-quality, affordable, and dependable vinyl-record manufacturing solution for career-minded musicians.
But before you press vinyl, there are a few things you should absolutely understand!
Vinyl is a unique beast. And sound gets etched in those grooves in a way that requires dedicated mastering. In order to make the most of vinyl’s unique audio properties, have your mastering engineer do a separate master specifically for vinyl.
In fact, knowing you’re going to press your album on vinyl could even impact the way you MIX your music. For instance, it’s often recommended for vinyl that bass and low-end frequencies be centered in the mix. (No hard-panning).
Be sure your engineers understand this relationship between the vinyl format and the audio embedded on it.
To put this simply, vinyl packaging is big! Much bigger than CD. And often with different components than a CD.
The plus side is that you get a bigger visual playground. Which can help to build a more immersive vibe.
The downside is, you may need your designer to create a few more visual assets. Be sure to provide them with detailed specifications for vinyl record design.
If you’ve paid attention to the vinyl industry over the past 5 years, you may have heard that there are often long turnaround times at vinyl pressing plants, due to limited capacity and high demand.
There’s also the matter of approving your test-pressing.
All this means, manufacturing vinyl records usually takes a lot more time than pressing CDs. Plan accordingly, and leave some wiggle room for unforeseen delays.
This is a harsh truth, but needs to be said: Just because you press vinyl doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly have fans or customers.
Most of the vinyl you sell will either move at gigs (so make sure you’re touring!) or on your own webstore (so make sure you’re marketing music online!)
If your existing fanbase is hungry for merch, and you’ve already gauged their interest in vinyl, great! You might sell out of stock before the record is even pressed.
Just don’t expect the format to work its own magic. You are the magic.
There are a lot of options to consider when it comes to this format.
Vinyl comes in different sizes: 7-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch.
You also have options when it comes to weight: 140 and 180g.
And it can also be played at different speeds: 33 or 45 RPMs.
The size, weight, and speed of vinyl will all impact how much music can fit per side, and the fidelity of the audio.
So be sure to understand each of those factors when you decide what’s best for your album.
There’s a lot to understand before you press vinyl. But thankfully all the info you need is easily available.
Plus, if you have great music, fans willing to purchase merch, and the dream to hear your next album on vinyl, then it’s a dream worth transforming into a reality.
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Chris Robley
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Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahan trade covers of their hit songs. The Doors play live to a Swedish audience in 1968…
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Simon Pruitt
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What is old is new again, records stores are making a comeback. Record Store Day shares a celebration day with cannabis community. Like 4/20, it involved by a bunch of afficandios lifting up independent retailers and raising awareness and celebrating the multi-faceted art. Taking a page of Free Comic Book Day, it started in 2007 and is celebrated at retailers around the world. Hundreds of artists participate iby making special appearances, performances, fan meet ups and the issuing of special vinyls. It makes sense they share a day, vinyls and marijuana go together.
RELATED: 5 Morning Activities To Help You Feel Happier
Music and marijuana are a perfect match. Marijuana makes music almost come alive in a 3-D fashion. Marijuana’s properties improves current attention, prevents memory seeking, and helps the mind concentrate on music making it appear more fresh and intriguing. It helps the body concentrate on the current moment. Both marijuana and vinyl are going strong. The legal cannabis industry just hit $29.5 billion for 2023 and the vinyl industry revenues grew 17% to $1.2 billion in 2022. This is the sixteenth consecutive year of growth and accounted for 71% of physical format revenues in physical stores.
Of course, what vinyl pairs best with marijuana? Here are some suggestions.
Pink Floyd’s classic allows the consumer to wallow in philosophy and explore the corners of the mind. While enjoying the plant, thought and preconceived ideas can be taken apart and reconstructed. The song’s rhythm will make feel as if every bone and muscle vibrant and independent.
De La’s beat is great for a happy high. Fully perfected its alchemical balance of fun and wisdom, with a heavy dash of silliness, it lets your soul escape into a colorful playground.
RELATED: Are You Really Ready To Try THC-P
This psychedelic rock band sets the mood perfectly. The main band member, Kevin Parker, shared he has no recollection of creating this song and it was as if someone else wrote it. What more can be said and it is also a great reminder we are always changing and healing from our past.
From Yellow Submarine to All You Need Is Love, the bands songs intertwines with a high and brings you essence to the forefront allowing you to feel, love, thing and be.
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Anthony Washington
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Does vinyl really sound better than a compact disc? This is a debate that is not only very scientific but also very emotional. To explain this is very difficult because the appreciation of audio quality is a very, very subjective thing that involves everything from your emotional state to the health of your ears. But I’m going to try.
If we look at things from a technical standpoint, the audio from a CD is far superior to what we get from vinyl. Again, I said, “From a technical standpoint.” Please hear me out.
The compact disc offers a better signal-to-noise ratio. Rumble — that low-frequency noise that’s not part of the music and is created by the stylus running through the grooves of a record as well as vibration from the turntable motor — is pretty much non-existent with a CD. Because it’s played with a laser, nothing ever touches the disc. And while there is a certain amount of noise from the CD player’s motor, it’s very, very quiet.
Vinyl is also prone to pops from static electricity and clicks from flaws in the surface of the record. And if you talk to engineers, they will tell you that most human ears cannot sense the fact that the digital signal of a CD is broken down into 44,100 segments per second. CDs also use something called “anti-aliasing,” which is supposed to smooth out that tiny jaggedness and (theoretically) non-continuous stream of the digital signal.
Without getting too deep into the weeds, the bottom line is that a signal sampled at 44,100 times per second is indistinguishable by our ears and brain from the same signal delivered by a smooth analogue one. This sampling rate theory was first discussed in a paper printed in 1928 and then proven experimentally in 1949.
Music from a CD should sound the same as music played from a vinyl record. However, vinyl delivers audio in a smooth analogue way with no jaggedness whatsoever. And yes, a properly recorded and manufactured vinyl record can seem to sound warmer and more pleasant. But that has more to do with how the recording was made and mastered — how it was created and prepared — before it was transferred to plastic.
Let’s look at the act and process of transferring music to vinyl, as vinyl has some inherent drawbacks that cannot be overcome.
Music is essentially data. Vinyl is limited in how much data it can store.
When deep bass is committed to vinyl, the grooves that contain that information need to swing out wider to accommodate all the data of deep bass. The same thing happens when louder sounds are committed to vinyl. In other words, both deep bass and louder sounds require more physical space on the surface of the record. This creates a storage problem. The louder the music and the deeper the bass it contains, the less of it you can put onto one side of a vinyl record.
And there’s another limit. If the data pressed onto the vinyl is too loud or too bassy, the stylus won’t track the grooves accurately. It’ll miss bits and might even jump out of the groove entirely. In both cases, music will go missing. To prevent that, bass frequencies need to be held in the centre of the final mix, distributing the force exerted on the stylus as evenly as possible.
The CD, being all digital and read with a laser, has no such issues. You will always, always get deeper, louder bass from a CD than you will from a vinyl record. This isn’t my opinion. It’s a scientific, physical, and engineering fact.
There’s a similar problem with high frequencies. Vinyl can suffer from something known as the “sibilance issue” where higher frequencies are smeared, especially with “s” sounds.
High frequencies are translated to vinyl into grooves with very fine detail, requiring the stylus to navigate some very tight maneuvers many times per second. Really high frequencies can require grooves too small for the stylus to track. It will then just plow through everything, basically surfing on top of the bits that are too small for it to fit into. That results in distortion.
This distortion may also come from the machine used to create the master disc from which the vinyl record is pressed. Tracking the high frequencies means the cutter must move faster. Because the cutter is moving so quickly, it is prone to overheating. Overheating means distortion, and that distortion is transferred to the master plate which then transfers it to all vinyl pressed from that plate. Again, the CD is not plagued by these issues.
So what’s the solution? Back at the dawn of the vinyl record in the 1940s, a group of American engineers developed what’s known as the Recording Industry Association of America Curve. This is a standard way of equalizing the audio — artificially tweaking it — before it’s pressed into a record.
Bass is de-emphasized and high frequencies are enhanced. If this was not done, low frequencies would take up so much space that a side of an album would only store about five minutes of music. The RIAA curve is the thing that allows for about 22 minutes per side.
Meanwhile, boosting the treble greatly reduces the surface noise that’s naturally generated by dragging a tiny diamond stylus through the plastic grooves of a record.
This also explains why all turntables need a special pre-amp (either built-in or an external one). It not only amplifies the tiny voltage that’s generated by the stylus, cartridge, and tonearm, but it also applies the reverse of the RIAA curve, thus restoring the natural sound of the recording.
But even after all this, there is no functional difference between the audio we get from vinyl and a CD. The brain just can’t tell the difference.
So why do so many people seem to prefer — or at least say they prefer — the sound of vinyl over CD? It appears to be mostly psychological. These people love the nostalgia of vinyl and have positive feelings about it — feelings, that colour what they think they’re hearing.
Again, I’m just reporting on the science and neurology. Stop yelling at me.
However, vinyl does have a specific sound and feel that is different from CD, which is very, very real. Music is mastered differently for vinyl than it is for CD and vice-versa. In the case of vinyl, the mastering engineer may also tweak things further to bring out warmth and smoothness by carefully adding mid-range bass and a little trebly sparkle.
CDs can sound awful because of compression, this post-recording practice of making a CD seem louder. We’ve come to know this as “the loudness wars.” This has introduced a ton of distortion to what should be a pristine digital signal. All the dynamics and nuances between the loud and quiet bits of the music have been squeezed out. And yeah, they sound awful.
But the same compression cannot be applied to vinyl because of those physical limitations I mentioned earlier. Music properly mastered to vinyl makes vinyl immune to the distortion caused by the loudness wars. This explains why a CD version of an album may sound terrible, but the vinyl version of the same album can sound much, much better with plenty of warmth and smoothness.
All this also explains why some artists will release versions of their album on several 12-inch 45 rpm records instead of one 12-inch record running at 33 1/3 rpm. Fewer songs taking up more space and running at a higher speed allow the grooves to swing out as much as they need to in order to accommodate more bass. The zigs and zags the stylus must follow to translate high frequencies are far less abrupt. Bottom line? Less distortion and better sound.
So what sounds better, CD or vinyl? Well, it depends.
There are other factors to consider: The quality of your turntable/cartridge, CD player, amp, speakers, headphones, the acoustics of the listening environment, the physical condition of your ears, and the functioning of your audio cortex. Most of all, though, there’s the source material itself.
I have albums that sound great (to me) on CD but lousy on vinyl — and vice-versa. It all depends on how they were recorded, mixed, mastered, and manufactured.
Personally — and again, this is just me — I find many Red Hot Chili Peppers albums unlistenable on CD because of over-compression. But uncompressed from vinyl, all the subtleties come through.
This is an uncompressed, lossless version of Californication more-or-less equivalent to what you get from a vinyl version of the album. Can you tell the difference?
So again, I ask: What sounds better, CD or vinyl? Go with what sounds best to you, keeping in mind that things can change from song to song and from album to album.
See? I told you weren’t going to like the answer.
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Alan Cross
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If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.
With the release of “Bob Marley: One Love” in theaters later this month, House of Marley, in collaboration with the Marley family, is releasing a limited-edition turntable on Wednesday, Feb. 14.
Priced at $249.99, the House of Marley Stir It Up Wireless One Love Turntable is made from solid bamboo-crafted plinth with recycled plastic and aluminum. It’s built with a pre-amp included, while it’s also Bluetooth compatible to play your favorite vinyl records on just about any modern wireless speakers.
Meanwhile, there are only 250 of these turntables available for purchase, so supply is very limited. House of Marley is the maker of eco-conscious and sustainable audio gear, while also celebrating Bob Marley’s legacy of love for music and our planet. Learn more about the company’s products and mission statement here.
Scroll down for more eco-friendly audio and tech items from House of Marley, below:
Positive Vibration 2 Wireless On-ear Headphones
With up to 12 hours of playtime, the Positive Vibration 2 Wireless On-ear Headphones feature a pair of 50mm drivers for clear and rich audio. Right now, they’re on sale for $59.99 (reg. $69.99) and come in signature black (pictured above), silver and denim blue.
House of Marley
One Drop Wireless Charger
Charge your smartphone with the One Drop Wireless Charger, which is on sale for $34.99 (reg. $49.99) — a 30% savings. It’s made from bamboo and Regrind silicon for sustainability. Even its box is made from 100% plastic-free recyclable packaging.
Want more? Check out other audio gear from House of Marley here.
In the meantime, “Bob Marley: One Love” hits theaters on February 14. Go to Fandango for movie tickets and showtimes in your area. Watch the movie trailer, below:
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Rudie Obias
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I know exactly how many single compact discs I bought this year: Zero. None. The only new CDs to enter my collection came as part of big box sets that feature rarities from The Who, The Tragically Hip, Pink Floyd, and a few others. When I wanted to hear any album, new or old, I simply fired up a streaming service.
On the other hand, I lost count of the number of new vinyl records that were added to my collection. Dozens, for sure. Some were brand new while others were bought used at independent shops and record shows. I bought into the vinyl resurrection so hard that I bought a brand new two-channel stereo system with a turntable just so I could listen to my new records.
This seems to mirror Canada as a whole. According to Luminate, the counter of music sales in Canada, the market for compact discs continues to shrink. One of the very last sales reports of 2023 shows that 12.7 per cent fewer compact discs were sold this year with the latest raw number being 1,898,738 units. Think about that for a second: In a country of 40 million, less than two million CDs from all eras were sold across the nation.
Streaming is a big part of this decline. On-demand audio streams in Canada are over 139 billion listens (yes, 139 billion), an increase of 15.3 per cent from 2023. For the week ending Dec. 14 alone, we streamed over three billion songs, 18 per cent more than the same week last year. That’s an all-time high.
Meanwhile, vinyl sales were up dramatically. The latest year-to-date figure I have shows an increase of 25.8 per cent over 2022, with a total of 1,257,435 pieces of fresh vinyl flying out of stores. And because a vinyl album is far more expensive than a CD, the revenue from vinyl sales far exceeds that of compact discs.
One more stat: Vinyl sales have been within 3,000 units of CD sales lately. It’s possible that by the end of the year, thanks to Christmas shopping and Boxing Day spending, more vinyl will be sold in a week than CDs. At this rate, vinyl sales may eclipse those of CDs by sometime next year. The last time that happened was in the very early 1990s. And don’t get me started on the high demand for used vinyl, sales of which are not tracked by Luminate. Anecdotally, it appears that used vinyl far, far outsells used CDs, so, likely, more vinyl records are already being sold than CDs.
Turntables sales continue to do very well, from the cheapest Crosley record players to high-end models from companies like Pro-Ject. Many audio shops have dedicated turntable sections with a dozen or more on display, dwarfing any selection of CD players they might have available — if they have any at all.
Yes, vinyl is booming, maintaining a winning streak that began in 2008 with the inaugural Record Store Day. No one saw this coming.
But how long can this last? If you look out at the horizon, you can see a few storm clouds gathering.
A big issue is cost. In the early days of assembling my record collection, vinyl cost around $7.99 per album, equivalent to almost $25 in today’s money. While it is possible to find a new vinyl album today for that price, most cost well beyond that. A quick tour through Amazon.ca shows that the Tragically Hip’s Up to Here album costs $44.99. A copy of volume one of the Yer Favourites greatest hits collection is an eye-watering $65.99. Most Taylor Swift vinyl is going for beyond $60, too.
That’s a lot of money. No wonder used vinyl is in such great demand. You have to wonder how long people will continue to pay these prices. It’s one thing if you’re a boomer or gen Xer, but if you’re a struggling millennial or a member of gen Z, buying new vinyl probably isn’t at the top of your list of priorities. High prices are keeping the next generation of collectors out of the market, something that spells doom for the future.
History is also repeating itself in reverse. After CDs were introduced, people threw out their old vinyl collections and re-purchased every title on CD, leading to a recorded music industry boom that lasted until the internet ruined everything starting in about 2000. Now people are re-purchasing their collections again, except that this time, they’re replacing the vinyl they had once tossed away in favour of CDs. At some point, this part of the marketplace will become saturated. What then?
Then there’s the issue of streaming. Older music fans have been slow to adopt the new technology, but they’re catching on. And with the sonic quality of streaming and audio devices finally moving beyond MP3 quality to better-than-CD audio (cf. Apple’s Spatial Audio, Dolby ATMOS, Sony 360, FLAC, Hi-Res Audio, MQA, etc.) and thus better-than-vinyl sound, it’s probably inevitable that we’ll see a technological jump that will once again see physical media (i.e. vinyl) go into decline.
Our resurrected obsession with vinyl won’t end tomorrow, next year, or even the year after that. But while the good times are rolling right now, they won’t last forever. You’ve been warned.
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Alan Cross is a broadcaster with Q107 and 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for Global News.
Subscribe to Alan’s Ongoing History of New Music Podcast now on Apple Podcast or Google Play
© 2023 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Alan Cross
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Last weekend, I spent a couple of hours at the semi-annual Downtown Record Show in Toronto. I brought along my usual amount of gambling money, $200, and started digging through the crates and boxes looking for … I don’t know, really. Treasure? Something I didn’t know I needed? A lost record from my youth?
After two hours, I gave up, discouraged. I’d bought two things: a Nick Drake compilation (I’m really trying to up my game when it comes to British folk of the 1970s) and a six-CD set of jazz recordings compiled by the Smithsonian (another weak spot for me). Nothing else I saw really sparked any kind of joy.
Maybe I have too many records already (about 7,000, if you must ask). Maybe the thrill of the chase has worn off. Or maybe I just need some new goals when it comes to collecting. Rather than looking for the same-old, same-old, perhaps I should start searching for more weird and extreme stuff.
I’m not talking about another whacko Leonard Nimoy album (he recorded more than a few like The Two Sides of Leonard Mimoy or Japanese ultra-noise from Merzbow. (You can hear a sample of Merzbow on YouTube, and no, nothing is wrong with your device.) No, I mean something extremely specialized, very rare, and highly personal. Let’s call them “DNA records.”
You can add whatever you want into the polyvinyl chloride used to create a record. There are also ways to press specific substances in the vinyl or into the space between two slabs of PVC.
Take, for example, the brand-new release from Fall Out Boy. Earlier this month, they unveiled a special limited edition of their album, So Much (for) Stardust that they call “Crynyl.” The PVC used in the manufacture of these 50 records contains the actual tears from each of the band members (Crynyl/vinyl. Geddit?) Yes, really emo tears for (as the band says) “maximum emotional fidelity.”
When they went on sale for US$99, they disappeared immediately. I haven’t seen any show up for sale on Discogs.com or eBay yet, but it’s only a matter of time. And when a copy does appear, it’ll have a price tag of well beyond the original price. It was created to be a valuable collectible.
This got me thinking: It’s a record with actual band DNA included. Are there more albums like that out there?
Yes. Yes, there are. Here are some records I’m contemplating for my new most-wanted record list.
When I was a kid, I was fascinated when all the members of KISS dropped some of their blood into the red ink for a comic book they were creating with Marvel. Fast-forward to 2012, when Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips — a band famous for being a little bent — convinced Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Nick Cave, Erykah Badu, and Ke$sha to contribute a sample of their blood for one of the editions of their Record Store Day release, Heady Fwends.
Those blood samples were sandwiched between two slabs of vinyl and the band sold 10 of them to “interested rich Flaming Lips people” for a starting price of US$2,500 (plus $200 shipping). The money went to the Oklahoma Humane Society.
I just checked Discogs.com to see if any copies were available. There’s one — for $16,320.
Even more extreme was Meredith Graves, vocalist of a band called Perfect Pussy. Three hundred copies of a 2014 album entitled Say Yes for Love had Meredith’s blood pressed into the vinyl. (Stereogum.com has more details if you dare wish to know.) Compared to the Lips’ album, this one is a little more affordable with a current going price of $133.
Met Eohippus, a jazz combo from Denver. Blood? Boring. They mixed their vinyl with urine. And hair from … somewhere. A hundred copies of a 7-inch entitled Get Your Hair Wet with Pee were made with copies now trading for around $100.
I’ll pass.
Remember the rampaging Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters? When it came time to release a 30th-anniversary edition of the soundtrack in 2014, Legacy Records packaged the vinyl in a sleeve that smelled of, yes, marshmallows.
Chances are that the candy odour has long dissipated in the decade since it came out — unless you find one still in the shrink wrap. The guide price is around $30.
A group called Drunk & Horny issued a 7-inch single with scratch and sniff cards. The A-side was called Poop Songs, so you can probably imagine what we’re dealing with here.
Maybe that’s why copies can be had for less than $3.00.
Somehow, the band Emperor Yes got their bands on fragments of an asteroid that hit the planet sometime in the 16th century. Those bits were ground into dust and baked into the vinyl of a record entitled An Island Called Earth.
A copy of this meteorite-infused record can be yours for around $300.
Perhaps the densest and most robust of all storage media is human DNA. Think about it: These strands of protein have to store all the instructions to make a human being with a minimum number of mistakes. Although experiments with DNA storage go back to at least 1999, it wasn’t until ETH Zurich in Switzerland figured out a way to store the digital audio of an album in the same form as genetic information, 920,000 short strands poured into 5,000 glass beads. Those beads are then stored in water and theoretically can be archived for hundreds or even thousands of years.
There have been a few cases where music has been converted to DNA. Back in 2015, the Keutzer Quartet participated in an experiment where some of their music was converted to DNA. The following year, Microsoft demonstrated how a music video — in this case, This Too Shall Pass from OK Go — could be stored this way. They later worked with boffins at UCLA to turn their song Hungry Ghosts into DNA’s A, C, G, and T bases.
I’m most interested in the DNA version of Massive Attack’s 1998 album, Mezzanine, the first full album to be converted to this format. If any copies were ever made available for sale, I’ve never found one.
Some years ago, a company called Andvinyly began offering a service that pressed records out of a loved one’s created remains. The audio for the record could be just about anything the deceased or the family wants it to be: the dearly departed singing or speaking are popular choices.
Most are one- and two-off creations and while rare, probably aren’t that interesting to non-relatives and friends.
Then again, you never know what you’ll find at a garage sale.
Alan Cross is a broadcaster with Q107 and 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for Global News.
Subscribe to Alan’s Ongoing History of New Music Podcast now on Apple Podcast or Google Play
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The soundtrack for Kid Cudi‘s hit Netflix show, Entergalactic, is now available on vinyl.
Entergalactic quickly became a global knockout after its long-awaited release in late 2022. The adult animated TV special was lauded as creative breakthrough for Cudi, who created the program and voiced its protagonist, Jabari, a young artist figuring out where love fits into a promising career. The cast includes Timothée Chalamet, Ty Dolla $ign, Vanessa Hudgens, 070 Shake and Jaden Smith.
And as the show’s popularity soared, so did its original music. The Entergalactic soundtrack features 15 songs and remarkable production from Skrillex, Steve Aoki, Dot da Genius and Take a Daytrip, among other renowned artists. Pharrell Williams is even credited as a background vocalist.
You can purchase the Entergalactic vinyl via Amoeba for $29.98. The TV special is now streaming on Netflix.
Scroll to Continue
Side A:
1. Entergalactic Theme
2. New Mode
3. Do What I Want
4. Angel
5. Ignite The Love
6. In Love
7. Willing To Trust
Side B:
1. Can’t Believe It
2. Living My Truth
3. Maybe So
4. Can’t Shake Her
5. She’s Lookin’ For Me
6. My Drug
7. Somewhere To Fly
8. Burrow
Facebook: facebook.com/kidcudi
Twitter: twitter.com/KidCudi
Instagram: instagram.com/kidcudi
Spotify: spoti.fi/3ejTOjK
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Jason Heffler
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Inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s book, Cinema Speculation, I resolved to spend 2023 going deep into the movies of the late 1960s and through the ’70s. Tubi has been my friend for the D-grade grindhouse and horror films that Tarantino loves (I do, too) while other on-demand channels have filled in some gaps.
One of the first things I did was re-watch 2001: A Space Odyssey for the 945th time, paying close attention to the things Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke got right and wrong about the future. Yes, they were pretty optimistic about the future of space exploration, but they viewed things from the space race era, a period when we went from janky rockets that exploded if you looked at them wrong to landing on the moon in less than 10 years. Why wouldn’t we have space tourism, moon colonies, and an atomic power mission to Jupiter overseen by a homicidal AI by 2001?
Both keeping a New Year’s resolution and predicting the future are hard, but I’m going to try to do both.
Resolution: Learn more about the coming metaverse. I’ve had several eye-popping demonstrations of metaverse technology that make me think this will be a big part of the future of music. If I’m going to keep up, I’m going to have to buy some new hardware.
Prediction: I’ll buy Apple’s new AR/VR headset when it comes out, use it for about a week, get bored, and move on to the next shiny object. My wife will then yell at me. I need help.
Resolution: Start buying physical music magazines again. Having electronic issues delivered to my iPad is fine, but paper versions seem to contain a lot more.
Prediction: I used to spend thousands on the monthly editions of Q, Mojo, Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Record Collector, Prog, Classic Rock, and a ton of others. Some are still publishing actual magazines, but given the decline in inventory on magazine racks, they’re getting harder to find. Time to subscribe. I’m already enjoying having quarterly issues of the newly resurrected CREEM magazine show up in my mailbox. I feel good about this one.
Read more:
Alan Cross has seen the future of music and says it’s all about ‘Web3’ and the metaverse
Read next:
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Resolution: Use the record review sections of those magazines to create fresh Spotify playlists. There’s too much music in the universe for anyone to sort through on their own. These review seconds are a godsend.
Prediction: Already started. My Spotify Wrapped for 2023 is gonna be…weird.
Resolution: Cancel reoccurring subscriptions to streaming services I don’t use. During the pandemic, I ended up subscribing to all kinds of services just to keep myself occupied. It’s to the point where I don’t know everything I have. I really need to go through my credit card statements.
Prediction: This is going to be a hassle, but it’s the fiscally responsible thing to do. Have I ever used BritBox more than a couple of times? How did I end up with two accounts for Qello? And who’s idea was it to get AMC+? Does this household really need that much Walking Dead content?
Resolution: Change all those passwords that Google says have been compromised. That seems…important.
Prediction: I must make time for this. I just have to figure out which password manager is best.
Resolution: Expand my musical range. In years past, I vowed to learn more about jazz and opera and failed at both.
Prediction: I’ve given up on opera (I just can’t do it). Country will always be a no-go for me (I’ve tried so hard to no avail) And although I’ve made some headway with jazz (Brubeck, Davis), it’s still a struggle in most areas. Same with a lot of current hip-hop (I’m looking at you, Drake). I am, however, gaining ground with reggaeton and some African music, especially material coming out of Nigeria. It’s an eye- and ear-opening break from Western music. Recommended.
Resolution: Keep an eye on AI-generated music. This is a part of the recorded music industry that’s set to explode.
Prediction: I believe it’s only a matter of time before we have a string of hit songs generated by AI. Computer scientists know that if they can get a machine to create reasonable facsimiles of songs, it will be a major technological breakthrough. HYBE, the entertainment company behind K-pop juggernauts BTS, recently bought an AI firm capable of doing some amazing things with music. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear new BTS material over the next few years while the members complete their national service in South Korea. In the army? No problem. We’ll have AI cover off your parts.
Resolution: Buy more merch at concerts. Especially swag from smaller bands at smaller venues. Merch sales are an important revenue stream. A good night at the merch table and the band can afford to sleep in a hotel instead of begging for space on a fan’s couch.
Prediction: Done deal. Got vinyl for sale at your gig? I’m in.
Resolution: Make time to listen to more of my vinyl collection. There’s no excuse not to. Besides, I’m buying vinyl at gigs.
Prediction: I’m such a big fan of the format and the warm sound it delivers. Instead of binge-watching yet another true crime series on Netflix, my mind will be better served by being immersed in music. I can do this.
Resolution: Clean up my CD closet. I have a small room off my home office with shelves and drawers full of CDs, all long since full. On top of the shelves is a pile of several hundred discs that have yet to be filed anywhere. The only way this is going to work is if I cull my collection. No problem. There are only about 10,000 CDs in there. The good thing is that they’re in alphabetical order. Mostly.
Prediction: For the fifth year in a row, I’ll find some excuse to put it off. Meanwhile, that pile of unfiled discs will just get bigger. Better luck in 2024.
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Alan Cross is a broadcaster with Q107 and 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for Global News.
Subscribe to Alan’s Ongoing History of New Music Podcast now on Apple Podcast or Google Play
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Alan Cross
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Crafters with cutting machines like Silhouette and Cricut, as well as laser cutting machines like the popular Glowforge, now have a safe and eco-friendly alternative to harmful PVC vinyl.
Press Release
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updated: Aug 18, 2021
SUWANEE, Ga., August 12, 2021 (Newswire.com)
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Eco-Friendly Crafts has brought a laser-safe PVC-free vinyl to the United States that provides an eco-friendly alternative to the popular PVC craft vinyls. This further positions the company as a leader among craft supply companies in providing ecologically-safe, green options for the environmentally responsible crafter.
PVC-free vinyl from Eco-Friendly Crafts meets all European Union standards for environmentally-friendly products, which are far more stringent than those in the United States. Perhaps even more attractive is that this PVC-free vinyl is quite affordable. It is, in fact, available at a price similar to that of standard and commonly-available PVC-containing vinyl.
PVC is the most common form of plastic in the world. It’s also the most damaging to the environment. Governments across the world are taking action to eliminate it entirely from production. It contains the toxic chemical dioxin, which is a known carcinogen and has been linked to reproductive problems in lab animals. It also emits phthalates, which are also classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as carcinogens. These chemicals are deliberately used in PVC due to their ability to increase transparency, longevity, durability, and flexibility, exactly what makes the material attractive to crafters.
Says Jill Bridges, owner of Eco-Friendly Crafts: “I purchased a Cricut Maker when they first were released, and followed the advice of fellow online crafters and purchased a box of the popular craft vinyl to start making vinyl decals. When the box arrived, the chemical smell was over whelming. I closed up the box and started researching, and was shocked by what I found.”
After several years of research, Jill and her team uncovered the eco-friendly vinyl the company now carries, and has negotiated it at a price point that allows it to be made available at a very affordable rate, comparable to the vinyl products that are sold at big name craft stores.
Jill goes on to discuss why she realized this offering was so important, stating that not long after buying her own Cricut Maker, “in a un-official Cricut Facebook group, a young mother posted images of the decals she made for her infant son’s cranial orthotic. I realized that getting word out about the risks was urgent, but without an alternative in place most people would simply ignore the risks.”
Now, with PVC vinyl from Eco-Friendly Crafts, that alternative is available.
Source: Eco-Friendly Crafts
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