Why Vinyl WILL Die ;)

[Jay Pace]

OK, but go back a mere ten years ago.

CD decks in their infancy. No final scratch. No ableton djs. Mp3s still a clunky format. No broadband.

And look where we are now. Now guess where we will be in ten years time.

There's life in the old dog yet, but its an archaic format for those growing up now. The scene can't survive on a bunch of aging vinyl afficionado's. Try explaining to a kid why he has to pay 9 times as much for a piece of plastic than an mp3. For those without the heritage, without the fond memories, vinyl is a clunky obselete format championed by an ever dwindling group of fogeys.

[Martin Dust]

OK, but go back a mere ten years ago.

CD decks in their infancy. No final scratch. No ableton djs. Mp3s still a clunky format. No broadband.

And look where we are now. Now guess where we will be in ten years time.

Like I said, things have to change, but vinyl as a format will be here to stay for a long while yet, just accept that it's not mass market anymore and we'll be fine...

There's life in the old dog yet, but its an archaic format for those growing up now. The scene can't survive on a bunch of aging vinyl afficionado's. Try explaining to a kid why he has to pay 9 times as much for a piece of plastic than an mp3. For those without the heritage, without the fond memories, vinyl is a clunky obselete format championed by an ever dwindling group of fogeys.

I disagree and so do the recent sales figures...

[Jay Pace]

I'm not talking about the present though, I'm talking about its future. Kids aren't buying into it as much, and the older amongst us grow out of it eventually.
So with a high drop out rate at the older end of the spectrum, and a low uptake at the younger end, there's trouble afoot.

There's always a heritage factor. I took home crates and crates of old soul and motown from my dad. Some absolute gems in there. I'll always have love for it, and I know others will. I'm not convinced that the average teenager is that arsed though...

[Martin Dust]

Forget the mass market and the average teenager tho, who is trying to sell them 12"s - I'm certianly not, that's why we do CD's/MP3/WAVs - that market has gone forever and the soon we all accept it the better...

[Jay Pace]

True dat.
Wonder how it will affect the turntable market? Turntables outsold guitars at one point. Loadsa money poured into R&D and now there are zillions of new decks on the market. Who's buying them?

[RDR]

Vinyl won`t die for a while.
Dance music on vinyl will.
Dance music is unfashionable and has a shrinking, aging fan base.
The music doesn`t engage the younger generations in almost any way, and as there are no bands crossing over into dance any more, I can`t see any hope for it.

and who cares anyway, change is to be embraced, in this, the foul year of our lord 2006.

Amen brother... same point as i was making.

Vibrancy comes from the young. if they aint vibing neither is the object.

im not old. :paranoid:

[RDR]

how the **** do you mix stuff you've not heard for a start...

You ARE joking i hope? ..

i dont know where to begin. ;)

[Martin Dust]

Same as any industry, if they sales aren't there - they'll make less and do less R and D, biz 101 says full shelves equals negative equity = bad

[RDR]

Oil is going knowhere for a long time and won't really be a factor in what happens to vinyl, it has never impacted on the price and I don't see a reason why it should start now.

Bang on.

The way i see it is that people get confused between the argument about making money form vinyl sales and vinyl as a format.

Making money on vinyl... good solid money, thats in some doubt - i dont have the personal experience of selling vinyl (YET) to comment on this, but from what pepople have said they find it difficult mainly because of the logistics.

Keeping the format alive. Why not... its a funny old game, minidisc is dying a death.. 8 track did too... CD seems to be under attack.. tape is going.. as the oldest method of reproducing sound, vinyl (Or waveforms captured in the physical analog method) has been around since victorian times (wax cyclinders.. essentially the same method..) It may well be around for ever...

now if only they could make those japanese laser vinyl players cheaper...

[el salvador]

i dont care if the vinyl does die, as long as we can always get new techno sounds somehow.

the king is dead................long live techno

[tonyc2002]

the thing that worrys me is if vinyl does go the way of the dinosaur and mp3 completely takes over the world will it make music less special? will there no longer be a need to search out that "classic tune" from years ago? maybe its a good thing, maybe the mass availability of music will encourage more dj's to create there own stuff just to set themselves apart.

Also i think that the ease and relative cheapness that people can get into music production these days is and will have a major impact on vinyl sales because is someone going to bother learning about making records when he/she can just get it published and sold online and target the giant iPOD generation....i personally would like to support vinyl because A:- ive got shit loads of records, and B:- ive spent a lot of money on them!!!! oh wel fuk it!!!....whatever happens i think the advancement of technology will ultimately spell the end for vinyl (i reckon 15 years tops) and the future probaly lies in hybrid solutions such as final scratch.

[Sunil]

how the **** do you mix stuff you've not heard for a start...

You ARE joking i hope? ..

i dont know where to begin. ;)

Why is he joking?

The author from what I took in from that article is the stereotypical 'cool' DJ priding himself on playing "upfront" music and getting lots of promos... when the fact is he should probably try a bit harder in approaching DJing tham merely playing just the latest tunes he gets in the post. How the hell do you expect to give people a proper set if you're playing four hours of music you only got that week?!

[Dustin Zahn]

Oil is going knowhere for a long time and won't really be a factor in what happens to vinyl, it has never impacted on the price and I don't see a reason why it should start now.

http://www.peak-oil.org/

If you don't believe we're already experiencing the effects of peak oil then you're in la la land. For right now we're okay on vinyl production prices, but the consumer prices are skyrocketing. Not only is vinyl partially made with oil, but the machines that press vinyl rely on it. It's getting costly to operate those machines. Once it's pressed up...the trucks, planes, trains, and boats rely on oil/gas/petrol to get the records from the plants to the shops and finally into our hands. If this scene makes it long enough to the time period where we start having serious global issues...well, I have a feeling importing techno vinyl will be relatively low on the list of priorities for shipping ports.

Let's look at it from your angle now. Say myself and the rest of the scientists are wrong and peak oil is bullshit. Oil is still on the rise everyday and its driving shipping costs up big time. Here in the United States, an imported record costs an average of $12US...probably around £5 if my math is right. Now tack on the U.S. sales tax per state, which is probably an average of 6 cents. Rounding off, you're looking at $12.50 for one record, which we all know there is usually about one decent track on it. It sucks when you drop $25 at the record shop and come home with two tracks. For this reason alone, many people I know have either quit DJing or stopped buying vinyl. The mark up at an average U.S. record shop is only $3 so the only people who are really making any money is the shipping companies, who in return also give a good part of their money to big oil. Economics baby.

[Ritzi Lee]

As long as there are music purists, vinyl won't die.
As long as there are producers making music the oldschool way,
it will always sound great on vinyl....

[Spire]

I heard on the 'net that vinyl sounds way better than MP3s. This got me thinking... I hate how when you go to the movies or IMAX and the voice behind the screen says "Welcome to IMAX! Featuring a four-story high screen and fully uncompressed THX digital audio!" I'm like... wtf? Put the audio on vinyl! This digital shit is too clean! GRRR</sarcasm>

Yeah, digital blows... and it's not cool whatsoever... argh ;D

[Spire]

Oh yeah, buying vinyl is just a hobby like buying model cars or beanie babies. Model cars will be around as long as theres plastic, beanie babies will be around as long as theres beans...

[Jay Pace]

I am committed to playing music on whatever format is deemed coolest.

[eyeswithoutaface]

Oh yeah, buying vinyl is just a hobby like buying model cars or beanie babies. Model cars will be around as long as theres plastic, beanie babies will be around as long as theres beans...

well that's kinda the point, as plastic is one of the lower by products of oil, as i said earlier, fractional distillation, vinyl is made up of the lowest by product of oil, the really crappy residue, kinda bitumen, so when, and this will happen like i said probably not in our lifetime, but with the situation with oil how it is already, globally, in say maybe 50, 60, 100 years no one knows exactly, but there will come a time when the oil literaly runs out, and when it happens, it's the least important products that people will notice dropping off the shelves gradually over the years. It wont be overnight of course, but by logic and todays current climates, it's gonna happen one day. So those model car's will also slowly start to become harder to get hold of as the oil does.

one of the second least important by products of oil in terms of quality is crude oil, mostly used as shipping fuel. So over time there will be less and less shipping options as the fuel becomes more scarce and expensive.

as ive said i really dont see it happening in our lifetime, and i hope it doesnt i'd like to see vinyl survive just as much as the next man.

[eyeswithoutaface]

this debate has got to be in the top 3 ever techno internet debates by now surely? :)

[Spire]

Jay Pace: Then go buy a guitar and get on stage, the chicks won't even care about the fact that you totally suck and your amp's speaker is blown. ;D DJs don't got shit on lead guitarists! Or buy a TC Helicon and sing your way into their hearts...