Vinyl – Up the hill backwards

My late Dad was a James Last listener. I think I developed a respect along with a wry amusement for the album covers.

The percentage of music sales on vinyl continues to rise. I saw one comment that this amounted to the fetishisation of analogue and retro rather than an indicator that vinyl is a superior music delivery format. It’s not. It’s now just a niche product. A hipster lifestyle accessory or hardcore high end audiophile dependable. The number of new vinyl releases, even if reissues of classic albums easily dwarfs the piecemeal pure audio offerings from Blu Ray audio. I was surprised how fast vinyl sales (at least in the US) fell away as soon as CD was introduced.

It is rumoured that a classic workhorse of the music DJ is to stop being manufactured in February 2010. The Technics SL1200 series of vinyl turntables first saw the light of day in 1972 as a Hi-Fi turntable with an improved MK2 model released in 1978 and soon became the DJ’s dependable favourite. It is widely considered to be one of the durable and reliable turntables ever produced. The British Science Museum even has one amongst it exhibits of technology items that have shaped our world.

Much beloved of Hip Hop DJ’s due to the direct drive motor (rather than the belt drive of most Hi-Fi turntables) which easily leant themselves to the 80’s scratching phenomena. Highly accurate pitch controls made them an ideal tool for mixing too.

But demand has been falling as digital decks have become more sophisticated and as vast libraries of sound can now be stored on small memory cards, hard drives and laptop computers.

It is thought the SL-1200 and SL-1210 models will stop production in the new year. Their durability is almost their weakness as there are probably enough working models in circulation to satisfy its increasingly minority niche position with demand no doubt easily satisfied by the second user market.

If the rumours are true it will truly be the end of an era for many.

Photo by johanlundahl under this creative commons license

On this day in 1949 the 45 rpm vinyl record format was introduced by RCA. The previous year the 33 rpm vinyl record, which gave a longer playing times per side than the existing 78 rpm format was introduced.
The 45 rpm record would remain largely unchallenged as a portable audio format until Philips invented the compact cassette in 1963 though the cassette would not take off as a quality portable medium until Sony invented the Walkman (originally called the stowaway in the UK) which hit the consumer market in the early 80’s.

Cassingle
The cassette however remained largely a medium for self transcribing of music from radio and vinyl though pre recorded cassette and ‘cassingle’ sales boomed in the 80’s despite the introduction of the digital CD in 1982 which saw rapid adoption throughout the 1980’s.

CD In Decline
And now the CD itself is in decline with a 10% drop in sales last year as digital downloads continue to grow as does the availability of free music both illegally and legally.

Vinyl Rebirth
Oddly actual vinyl sales have increased, the only physical music format that has done so, as a generation that grew up with CD’s embraces the previously unknown experiences of owning a and playing a LP and 45 rpm record.

Clearly retro sells and the 45 might yet outlive the CD as a physical format that sells.

Attempts to introduce new physical music formats continue.

A collection of modern vinyl playing turntables

Time’s article of vinyl resurgence

Photo by Kurtrik under this creative commons license

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The music industry is to try yet another physical music format with the unholy marriage of the CD and analogue vinyl. The vinyl disc with have a standard CD on one side and a vinyl record on the other. The obvious shortcoming being that whilst the CD side can hold up to 70 minutes of audio the restricted size of the disc will mean that barely 3 minutes can be squeezed onto the vinyl side so it’s going to be more suited to tracks that fit that length. The first artist to release on the VinylDisc format will be Fightstar ,the group that features the posh and heavily eyebrowed former member of busted. A limited 3,000 disc run will be available with each VinylDisc costing £2.99.

My only concern is that whereas the common shorthand for Compact disc is CD, does this will mean that the shorthand for VinylDisc will be..er..VD. Hmmm

More formats? Read about the Ringle

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I was interested to read that the artist Spencer Graham is looking for owners of New Order’s Blue Monday 12″ Vinyl record the iconic 1983 article that allegedly cost more to produce than what it was originally sold for due to the design famously fashioned like a large floppy disc of the time (oooh when floppy discs were actually floppy). Sadly I think I sold my near perfect original on eBay many years ago. Those of us that still own a beloved copy can send a hi-res photo of themselves with said vinyl article which will form the basis of an ongoing artwork, possible exhibition and book.