[nomowish]

Here is joenyc's response to the article below:Sound quality is not the motive for a return to vinyl, no matter what the vinyl devotees say. The motive is defeating piracy. Vinyl obviously cannot easily be copied. It takes too much effort. MP3s as downloads - well, you have to buy the vinyl to get them; I'll bet duplicating them will become more difficult if you see a return to vinyl. This is a sound business model is what it is. The return to vinyl is also being fueled by the artists themselves. The indie artists are a unique breed to begin with. They prefer vinyl and they are simply pushing the medium they prefer. So, the big labels will go to vinyl just like big brewers went to microbrews. But vinyl will not replace digital media (the days of CDs are definitely numbered; who wants a wall full of CDs?). There is a merging of what is online and what we keep in our homes and on our devices. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

And here's the Wired article: Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/m...eningpost_1029

By Eliot Van Buskirk

 

10.29.07 | 12:00 AM

As counterintuitive as it may seem in this age of iPods and digital downloads, vinyl -- the favorite physical format of indie music collectors and audiophiles -- is poised to re-enter the mainstream, or at least become a major tributary.
Talk to almost anyone in the music business' vital indie and DJ scenes and you'll encounter a uniformly optimistic picture of the vinyl market.

"I'm hearing from labels and distributors that vinyl is way up," said Ian Connelly, client relations manager of independent distributor alliance IODA, in an e-mail interview. "And not just the boutique, limited-edition colored vinyl that Jesu/Isis-style fans are hot for right now."

Pressing plants are ramping up production, but where is the demand coming from? Why do so many people still love vinyl, even though its bulky, analog nature is anathema to everything music is supposed to be these days? Records, the vinyl evangelists will tell you, provide more of a connection between fans and artists. And many of today's music fans buy 180-gram vinyl LPs for home listening and MP3s for their portable devices.

"For many of us, and certainly for many of our artists, the vinyl is the true version of the release," said Matador's Patrick Amory. "The size and presence of the artwork, the division into sides, the better sound quality, above all the involvement and work the listener has to put in, all make it the format of choice for people who really care about music."

Because these music fans also listen using portable players and computers, Matador and other labels include coupons in record packaging that can be used to download MP3 versions of the songs. Amory called the coupon program "hugely popular."

Portability is no longer any reason to stick with CDs, and neither is audio quality. Although vinyl purists are ripe for parody, they're right about one thing: Records can sound better than CDs.

Although CDs have a wider dynamic range, mastering houses are often encouraged to compress the audio on CDs to make it as loud as possible: It's the so-called loudness war. Since the audio on vinyl can't be compressed to such extremes, records generally offer a more nuanced sound.

Another reason for vinyl's sonic superiority is that no matter how high a sampling rate is, it can never contain all of the data present in an analog groove, Nyquist's theorem to the contrary.

"The digital world will never get there," said Chris Ashworth, owner of United Record Pressing, the country's largest record pressing plant.

Golden-eared audiophiles have long testified to vinyl's warmer, richer sound. And now demand for vinyl is on the rise. Pressing plants that were already at capacity are staying there, while others are cranking out more records than they did last year in order to keep pace with demand.

Don MacInnis, owner of Record Technology in Camarillo, California, predicts production will be up 25 percent over last year by the end of 2007. And he's not talking about small runs of dance music for DJs, but the whole gamut of music: "new albums, reissues, majors and indies ... jazz, blues, classical, pop and a lot of (classic) rock."

Turntables are hot again as well. Insound, an online music retailer that recently began selling USB turntables alongside vinyl, can't keep them in stock, according to the company's director, Patrick McNamara.

And on Oct. 17, Amazon.com launched a vinyl-only section stocked with a growing collection of titles and several models of record players.

Big labels still aren't buying the vinyl comeback, but it wouldn't be the first time the industry failed to identify a new trend in the music biz.

"Our numbers, at least, don't really point to a resurgence," said Jonathan Lamy, the Recording Industry Association of America's director of communications. Likewise, Nielsen SoundScan, which registered a slight increase in vinyl sales last year, nonetheless showed a 43 percent decrease between 2000 and 2006.

But when it comes to vinyl, these organizations don't really know what they're talking about. The RIAA's numbers are misleading because its member labels are only now beginning to react to the growing demand for vinyl. As for SoundScan, its numbers don't include many of the small indie and dance shops where records are sold. More importantly, neither organization tracks used records sold at stores or on eBay -- arguably the central clearinghouse for vinyl worldwide.

Vinyl's popularity has been underreported before.

"The Consumer Electronics Association said that only 100,000 turntables were sold in 2004. Numark alone sold more than that to pro DJs that year," said Chris Roman, product manager for Numark.

And the vinyl-MP3 tag team might just hasten the long-predicted death of the CD.

San Francisco indie band The Society of Rockets, for example, plans to release its next album strictly on vinyl and as MP3 files.

"Having just gone through the process of mastering our new album for digital and for vinyl, I can say it is completely amazing how different they really sound," said lead singer and guitarist Joshua Babcock in an e-mail interview. "The way the vinyl is so much better and warmer and more interesting to listen to is a wonder."

[Rob Instigator]

i love that vinyl albums ussually have extra shit inside, from artwork, o liner notes, to pictures, or booklets, or magazines, or CD copy of the album a la shellac or a coupon for a free digital download of the album....

[forkimified]

I miss sides. It`s kind of like you have two mini-albums, and it`s usually ok to start on either one. And you have an opportunity for TWO openings and closings! GO sides!

[Everyneurotic]

vinyl can be ripped and it's not too much of an effort if you have the right equipment.

and there's millions of people who have walls of cds and that doesn't take away from the quality of the music inside, no matter what the format is.

vinyl is beautiful, period.

[Disgruntled Youth]

I love vinyl but even that can be replicated. just listen to the music & is you love it enough, buy it.

[gualbert]

Why would CD disappear when vinyl hasn’t ? I don’t get it.
CDs have many advantage over vinyl : they sound better , they’re cheaper to press , lighter therefore cheaper to send , they’re much more solid ( and a CD player is not as fragile as a turntable ), they’re designed to be handled easily , you don’t have to wipe the dust out of them each time you play them…
As for the struggle against piracy , that makes perfect sense , still I hope there are enough people who enjoy CD to keep it alive.

[Everyneurotic]

Originally Posted by gualbert

Why would CD disappear when vinyl hasn’t ? I don’t get it.
CDs have many advantage over vinyl : they sound better , they’re cheaper to press , lighter therefore cheaper to send , they’re much more solid ( and a CD player is not as fragile as a turntable ), they’re designed to be handled easily , you don’t have to wipe the dust out of them each time you play them…
As for the struggle against piracy , that makes perfect sense , still I hope there are enough people who enjoy CD to keep it alive.

the better sound myth? lie.

cheaper to press and send? true.

much solid? lie.

cd players are fucking fragile as shit, and lasers get fucked at least as fast as a needle in most cases.

easy handle? that's relative.

[PAULYBEE2656]

bring back the laserdisc!

[pbradley]

So...

I should rebuy all my CDs on vinyl?

[PAULYBEE2656]

format is irrelevent thse days..........

[pbradley]

You're irrelevant these days.

Ha! Gotchya. *arm pump*

[gualbert]

Originally Posted by Everyneurotic

the better sound myth? lie.

cheaper to press and send? true.

much solid? lie.

cd players are fucking fragile as shit, and lasers get fucked at least as fast as a needle in most cases.

easy handle? that's relative.

For the better sound , I think it's the case , that's subjective , there is no point to argue about it.

Much solid , I think it's true , but more important , they're better protected ( I got vinyl that are scratched , I just don't know how it happened )

CD players don't last much longer than turntable , but they're all-wrapped , so there's less risk of an accident.

Easier handle: yes , unless you've got hands that are 15 inches large.

[PAULYBEE2656]

Originally Posted by pbradley

You're irrelevant these days.

Ha! Gotchya. *arm pump*

a-ha, touchee!!! well played sir!

[Everyneurotic]

Originally Posted by gualbert

For the better sound , I think it's the case , that's subjective , there is no point to argue about it.

Much solid , I think it's true , but more important , they're better protected ( I got vinyl that are scratched , I just don't know how it happened )

CD players don't last much longer than turntable , but they're all-wrapped , so there's less risk of an accident.

Easier handle: yes , unless you've got hands that are 15 inches large.

i've actually have albums i didn't like that much when listened on a cd, but then i got the vinyls and loved them.

i know people who leave cds lying around and get all scratched up...actually, whenever i don't store a cd in it's case right away and leave it somewhere, it gets scratched up; of course, a cd scratch is not as dramatic as a vinyl scratch but still, i know people who have bought 4 or 5 copies of the same cd because of scratches.

and well, turntables, unless you play football with them, what's the risk? most of the timeyou don't even have to move the sucker at all.

and it's not that difficulat handling vinyl once you get used to, it's not like you need to carry more than one at a time.

[the ikara cult]

Bring back Minidisc!

[Norma J]

I have noticed alot more people these days are talking vinyl, among the young that is. So I can believe the uprise.

[Green_mind]

The uprise sounds good to me, they'll never get rid of cds though, unless the porn industry gets involved somehow.

[Norma J]

True. Compact Discs aren't going anywhere. And I for one am glad of that.

[m1rr0r dash]

 

wax cylinders, baby.

[PAULYBEE2656]

shellac rocks!