Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/29/after-28-years-sony-resumes-v.html
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I never say recods have better sond qualiy.
The magic of a record player, in my opinion, is that it focuses your attention. The turning disk is like a campfire.
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Might be why most vinyl comes with mp3 download codes these days. Hell, I’ve seen Amazon auto-rip the last few records I’ve gotten from them.
You can also mitigate the damage to a disc by using a halfway decent record player with a magnetic cartridge.
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It’s the ritual as much as it’s the music.
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I’m waiting for the time when 5.25" floppies make a comeback. The data on them is just so much warmer than on USB sticks, you know?
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The firm will resume in-house domestic vinyl production at a Japanese factory south-west of Tokyo by March 2018.
I should ask some of the older folks I know if this is a mothballed facility being brought back or an existing Sony facility being repurposed.
FWIW, Tower Records in Shibuya is actually selling records again.
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“no metadata; no controls; fiddly hardware”
There is metadata; it’s usually printed on the back of the album covers. And what good is anything without fiddly hardware. My turntable has controls–you move the arm, the record starts spinning. What more do you need?
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[quote=“TheGreatParis, post:3, topic:103782”]The magic of a record player, in my opinion, is that it focuses your attention. The turning disk is like a campfire.[/quote]That would explain why laser turntables still don’t seem to have caught on.
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I do think there’s room for improvements to be made for a new high quality physical format, but considering that LPs are ubiquitous but still niche it’s a bit of a hard sell.
Hmmm. . . to my knowledge Sony didn’t mothball any equipment, it was sold off or scrapped-- since the machines were no longer being built the remaining plants like Rainbow, Hub Servall (R.I.P.), Alpha, etc. would buy up old equipment and cannibalize it when needed (in fact when Hub closed their equipment was bought up I think by a European company, maybe GZ.) If you license a vinyl reissue from Sony they actually get it pressed at URP and you are essentially buying finished product off them. Since Third Man built a new pressing facility with new equipment I’m hoping Sony does the same instead of increasing production at United which typically has at least 200 separate titles waiting in line to be pressed at any given moment.
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You know what I care about more than formats? Record stores.
There’s something charming about not knowing what you’ll find and not knowing what you’ve bought. Shopping for music digitally is certainly more honest and serves the average consumer much more effectively. But for the record shop craphound, the digital music marketplace becomes a case of “why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?”
I personally view the resurgence of vinyl as the final death spasm of the brick ‘n mortar record store. It should not surprise you that, in an effort to capitalize on this trend, record stores are squeezing out their ancient CD collections to make room for vinyl.
In truth, there are an awful lot of vinyl records that have never been remastered and made available in digital format. In deeper truth, there is an unimaginable leviathan of Compact Disc offerings that never have and never will see a vinyl pressing. By jamming both formats onto the sales floor, you end up with a paradoxical shrinking of available titles.
Now you have two copies of Autotune’s Greatest Hits taking up space once occupied by Köyhät Ritarit & Primo – Karhujuhla/The Bear Feast on vinyl and the entire back catalog of X-Legged Sally on CD. That gets the consumers back in the record store to consume the shop and then discard it (as consumers are wont to do), while sending the music craphound off to the blogspots – where recorded music already enjoys Star Trek’s post-cash economy.
Also, who pays $30.00 for new music? I’d barely pay that for rare old music. It’s a slow death, that’s fer sure.
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Vinyl record with modern storage? Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U6hcNJ5DF0
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I am told by a usually reliable source that it is difficult to stem and seed a quarter ounce on an mp3. Whatever that means.
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Album prices are ridiculous. I very rarely buy music, except by a select few artists i follow.
Going off on a random train of thought but the idea of a Library dedicated to music popped into my head. Never heard of one, no idea how uncommon it is but a quick search pulls up one at UCLA
Yes. Use a good cartridge and replace the stylus periodically. The entry level stuff from wallyworld, target, and their ilk is murder on records and sounds like shit. Also, keep the records clean, store them vertically, keep them out of sun and heat, and touch them only by the edges and the label. Easy enough, and worth the time it takes!
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speaking of which, I think I’ve hit another sweet spot as regards music. I’m 49, but only listen to mp3s. There is a lot of blogs that I assume are run by people half my age who are into vinyl from the 70s. They are doing the work of plumbing the depths of 70s vinyl and posting the nuggets to their blogs for my consumption. Thanks, Millenials! I love it.
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And they should bring back incandescent lightbulbs — how else are you going to indicate that a cartoon character has a bright idea?
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Yes, there is that too.
I like the act of cleaning a disk before playing it.
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Thank you, you did jog my memory about the last time I talked to URP about possibly doing a quick job and being told it was beyond impossible due to the queue of existing orders.
Agreed for the same reasons. I enjoy my regular trips to Tower Records in Shibuya. Ended up buying a stack of CDs that I wouldnt have known about otherwise.
And vice versa in some genres. However even if Sony opens a new pressing plant, the capacity of the pressing industry as a whole can in no way be large enough to do repressings to keep things in print. Records are more likely to be first run first served and CDs as the way to buy back catalog or “oh I forgot to get that when it came out”.
I do but thats often the going rate for domestic releases here.
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