 |
|
|
| |
Interrobang issue for the week of Monday, February 08, 2010
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Interrobang issue for: Monday, February 08, 2010
> > > > > >
Bobbyisms: Enjoying vinyl revival
Bobby Foley
Interrobang
Click to read more Interrobang articles written by Bobby Foley
Published: Monday, February 08, 2010
I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. “You know, these things were brand new when I was getting into the whole music business,” some old guy said to me recently as I was shopping for vinyl records in White Oaks.
He looked like Seymour Philip Hoffman, or like he will look in another couple of decades, and peered at me through his glasses — who he was or why he chose to speak to me out of the blue was beyond me. I made a comment about their sheer collectibility, mentioning digital music and its hold on the industry. “Even CDs are becoming collectibles,” I said. He just grimaced and walked away, shaking his head.
I wasn’t wrong, but I think that the truth lies somewhere in my particular perspective. Digital music sales clocked in at over 25 per cent of total music sales in 2009, despite only being up some 12 per cent from 2008 — in contrast to a 25 per cent increase in digital sales the year before. In their Digital Music Report 2009, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimated that some 40 billion files were illegally shared in 2008, clocking in at a rough 95 per cent of music acquired through the year.
It’s easy then to think that the digital forum has overtaken traditional means of obtaining and enjoying music. It’s also easy to understand how some people could choose to ignore that number.
My point was simply that as digital sales rise, the traditional CD is becoming more of a collectors item, more a novelty than a monopolizing medium. As such, collectors are investing instead in vinyl over modern CDs; in 2009, sales of physical CDs fell eight per cent to 25.3 million units, while sales of vinyl LPs rose 33 per cent from 1.9 to 2.5 million units.
Vinyl never went away; over the years, many albums by artists have been released simultaneously (though in most cases, in limited quantities) as LPs as well as on CD and digitally online. These days, most new releases are pressed to vinyl, making it possible to collect work by current artists as well as classic ones. Want proof? Take a walk through your local record store and count how many godforsaken copies of the Beastie Boys and Nas’ “Too Many Rappers” they have in stock.
Personally, I’ve always had a deep and lasting respect for vinyl LPs; there’s something about them that seems so much richer in sound and value, both tangible and intangible. As I write this, I’m listening to an original 1970 release of Hey Jude by The Beatles, a collection of commercial singles and b-sides released by the label around their break-up. Listening to it and reading up on it is an incredible experience, like touching and hearing a part of history dating back to long before I was born; sure, you can get that feeling with a visit to see old buildings or paintings, but this is indescribable - a seemingly synesthetic experience.
If you truly appreciate music, I’ve no doubt that you’ll enjoy listening to LPs and diving into the novelty and mastery that they represent - there are very few listening experiences like it. I’m going to try to figure out a way to convince Interrobang and the FSU to let me write LPs off as some sort of research expense, but for now, I’m out of words.
| Comments |
| No comments have yet been made about this article. |
| |
| Add your own comment (automatically posted to this web page) |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
