mp3's killed the black beauty

[Krul]

http://mnmlssg.blogspot.com/2008/01/cis ... s-rip.html

I read this article a couple of minutes ago (got the link via RA) and I have to say that it struck something within me.

I know that the topic of vinyl vs mp3 has been discussed a lot lately, but I just want to say my two cents here because I had a similar experience.

A couple of months ago, the only shop in my town that selled vinyl moved to a bigger town because of the mere fact that I was one of his only customers and the poor guy just didn't have the money to keep the shop open, leaving me to look for my vinyl elsewhere. I had two choices: I could order my vinyl online, which I can't do (yet) since I don't have a visa/paypal/etc. Or I could find another shop in the vicinity that sells vinyl. I haven't found one yet...

I also lost a friend. The guy who kept the shop open was a really nice (but weird) dude from NY who was into psytrance and goa and all that stuff, something which I never would have listened to if he hadn't shown me the good stuff. After a couple of months he became familiar with my taste and when I visited he could immediatly point out a few ep's that I'd like (at least most of the time).

So now I have to drive 30kms to my nearest record shop and I have to depend on the internet to keep me up to date with the latest techno. And while I visit sites and blogs like RA and little white earbuds almost daily, it kinda pains me to know that if I choose to order the record I'll just order something "mainstream" (if techno can be called mainstream here), when maybe my local record shop would have had that one bomb that I never ever heard before.
I cringe at the idea of having to buy tracks from beatport. I mean damn, just look at the top10 downloads... Again, I couldn't because I have no visa, and also I have no idea how to use ableton, or traktor or whatever laptop jockeys use these days. I understand that computers have helped to move dj'ing forward, and that you can do really neat things with cutting and pasting in ableton and all that sh!t, but although a lot of the "big" dj's use laptops to aid them with their job, you're still gonna see plastic spinning right?

I. LOVE. VINYL. I can't stress this enough, Before I got into EDM I already had a whole collection consisting of led zeppelin, the doors and all that stuff that you discover when you're 16 and smoking pot. Yes, I also have all that stuff on my pc, but I still prefered listening to it on vinyl. Because I couldn't press a button to skip to my favorite tracks but had to carefully place the needle on the right place, it kinda forced me to listen to the whole thing (or maybe I was too lazy to move the needle from the pot ) and made me appreciate songs that I would never have liked if I heard them only once or out of their context.
For those who buy vinyl. Take a closer look. Sometimes, if you're lucky, the person who cuts the vinyl adds a (really nice) message for you there besides the usual technical stuff. And fck it, NO laptop looks cooler than my all-yellow-and-black marbled copy of Styrax Leaves 05

It's just really sad to read all this depressing news when you've just started dj'ing yourself and you have a love for vinyl.
What I'm trying to say I guess is that Ron Murphy (RIP) was right. It's not just about the music, it's about the record. And all you laptop jockeys, if you keep this up, we'll see who laughs last in 10 years time when my vinyl is worth hundreds of euros (ok... maybe not ).

thx for reading

[Stan]

I could order my vinyl online, which I can't do (yet) since I don't have a visa/paypal/etc.

I order from www.decks.de.

Advantages :

* Much cheaper than the most Belgian record stores
* I allways choose the payment method "Cash On Delivery"
* You get a € 6 discount for every € 100 vinyl you order
* For Belgium people => transport € 18,90
* Delivery : 4 to 5 days

P.S.: This does't mean I don't go the (local) record shop. I still do that very often.

I. LOVE. VINYL.

fck YEAH !!!!

we'll see who laughs last in 10 years time when my vinyl is worth hundreds of euros (ok... maybe not ).

Last Sunday I've bought a (near) mint copy of "Techno Bert - Neue Dimensione" - I also collect a little bit of Newbeat - (Discogs Link) for just € 2 while it's worth about € 40 to € 50.
I don't think this will ever happen to digital releases.

[Krul]

I'm intrigued, didn't know that decks offered that kind of payment method. So how exactly does the "cash on delivery" method work? Pick it up at the post office? Pay the mailman?

[PsyTox]

pay the mailman indeed.
What I used to do when I still bought vinyl from Decks was save up until it reached 200 euro. Because transport was for free if you spent that much. It's a superb store, and they have a lot, only not everything (for really digging deep, Juno is better, but a lot more expensive too).

Anyway, I hear a lot of people cry about vinyl dissapearing, well, there's a solution: BUY VINYL. But everyone who works in a dj store will tell you the same: a lot of people come in the shop, look around, listen an entire day to records, put greasy fingers on the vinyl, ask for more records to the clerk, grab some flyers and ... leave with nothing. Social aspect of a store is nice, but the bills have to be payed. And too many people eem to think a record store is a bar where you can choose the music

If everyone is so into vinyl and blahblah, then why are sales going down?

Also, the hate towards digital is hilarious. I don't like ableton dj sets and standing around pressing buttons and looking like you're in an internetcafé. I like the feeling of vinyl dj'ing too, but I don't like carrying 60kg of vinyl up and down stairs and having to realize you don't have the track with you that would fit at that moment, and I most of all hate the fact that I have to pay 10-12 euro for one track that I like. Now I buy only the track that I want, and I have found that I still spend just as much on music as before (something of 250 euro per month) except that I get +100 tracks now, where I used to get 20-25 vinyls for the same money with at best 30-40 good tracks. It's just common sense and I think a lot of people are more interested in the format then in the music when it comes to vinyl. Music should always come first.

So, I play with Traktor Scratch, it feels like vinyl, the music sounds the same and I have everything with me. I still buy vinyl mind you, but only when it's not available digitally.

[Celltek]

Very interesting read Krul. I agree with you and I think that the closing of record stores will be an occurance we will witness more and more. Its inevitable because i dont see why any starting out DJ would want to buy expensive records when they can just download them for free and burn them to CD. I have seen it happen. At one point I tried DJ'ing cd's a few years ago when I couldnt afford to buy all the vinyl i wanted. I played 2 gigs and I felt like such a fake, there is no other way to describe the feeling, especially when the dj after me came with vinyls and I had to move out of the booth with my measly CD pouch and headphones. Never again i said and started buying and playing black beauties again.

About ordering at Decks. I have been using them for some years now and I have no complaints. Great overall service and fast! It takes 3 days to deliver to holland! The only downside of using decks is that I cannot further develop my tastes based on 30 second samples. In a store you can listen to so much stuff from beginning to end and the guy in the store will tell you about some new tracks etc and you learn to broaden your tastes and thus your dj set I find that I cant do that online. I need to hear the whole track and make up my mind. So i only buy records that I already know from decks and leave the searching and browsing to the real stores.

my 2 cents

[dsat]

if dj's who run vinyl labels and go through all the trouble of pressing vinyl and are themselves not even playing vinyl, then they shouldn't complain about vinyl sales going down, they should be punched in the face, cuz it's their own damn fault!

if you like vinyl, buy it and play it, it's that simple and simply learn to live with its disadvantages
if you don't want to bother anymore, then embrace the digital, but then don't complain... it's a matter of choice for me

if kids (for whom vinyl doesn't mean sht, cuz they're too young) see everyone playing with laptops, 95% of those will also want to play with laptops, cuz they think it's the thing to do (cuz they want to play minimal...)

so if you're selling vinyl and would want sales to go up, then the least you could do is support the format yourself! otherwise, in the long run only a handfull of people will buy it, and then bye bye vinyl...

mind you, vinyl has been obsolete ever since people started buying cd's (like 87-88?), vinyl was only kept alive because of dj-culture...

i happen to have a deep love for vinyl and would be sad to see it disappear, but i could live with that if nobody was a hypocrite about it
what pisses me off is seeing dj's switch to digital and complain about vinyl going down, again they should be punched in the face (and kicked in the teeth too, nice...)

[Krul]

pay the mailman indeed.
a lot of people come in the shop, look around, listen an entire day to records, put greasy fingers on the vinyl, ask for more records to the clerk, grab some flyers and ... leave with nothing. Social aspect of a store is nice, but the bills have to be payed. And too many people eem to think a record store is a bar where you can choose the music

So true. The guy from the dj-shop also complained alot about this. If you already have only a few customers, it's quite annoying to see some kids walk into your store, go through all your vinyl and leave empty handed. I once saw a guy just take a whole bin, listening to the records and noting down the titles of the EP's. When asked him what he was doing he answered that he was writing down the tunes he liked so he could "find them on soulseek". Now I got nothing against soulseek, but isn't it supposed to be the other way around? :S Anyways, he got kicked out .

I like the feeling of vinyl dj'ing too, but I don't like carrying 60kg of vinyl up and down stairs and having to realize you don't have the track with you that would fit at that moment,

Just think of it as a workout
Nah, I get it. I probably would use Traktor too if I knew hów to use it, but that wouldn't stop me from buying vinyl. Btw, correct me if I'm wrong 'cause I wasn't standing next to the booth, but I didn't see a laptop when you were spinning at 12yrs kozzmozz .

and I most of all hate the fact that I have to pay 10-12 euro for one track that I like.

true, but in return you get a product that was made with love and care, and those 12 euro's will probably support the industry and the people involved a lot more than the digital downloads you buy at beatport. (although I'm not really sure about this, how many of the price of a digital download actually goes to the artist? can anyone answer that?)

At one point I tried DJ'ing cd's a few years ago when I couldnt afford to buy all the vinyl i wanted. I played 2 gigs and I felt like such a fake, there is no other way to describe the feeling, especially when the dj after me came with vinyls and I had to move out of the booth with my measly CD pouch and headphones. Never again i said and started buying and playing black beauties again.

hehe . I think there's a difference between a bunch of copied cd's and beautiful releases like onur özers kasmir (damn, love that art) or the compilations of certain labels, if I'd have a cd-j I'd probably buy the cd instead of the vinyl because of the price tag (although sometimes it's pretty fair, I picked up "Liebe Ist" by Bodzin for a measly 20€).

if kids (for whom vinyl doesn't mean sht, cuz they're too young) see everyone playing with laptops, 95% of those will also want to play with laptops, cuz they think it's the thing to do (cuz they want to play minimal...)

See that's it!
Some kid who's going to a gig for the first time in his life and sees Gui Boratto doing his live set with only a laptop will probably think "sh!t, I got a laptop too!" And then you end up with sloppy mixes containing the top 10 charts and illegally downloaded 120kbs tracks raping the soundsystems (I'm not judging, I download as much music illegally as anybody here, but I won't blow it through any speakers but mine). While the guys who really use a laptop to do their (live)sets probably spent days in front of their pc's adding this or that sound.

thx for the info about decks.de guys, I placed an order today, curious to see how long it will take to get here (I just hope I'll be home when the mailman comes )

[jessejames]

Believe it or not, kids, vinyl sales for 2007 were UP, not down!


http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/01/new ... recor.html


Mind you, the majority were not djs, but rather new music collectors who are discovering vinyl.