It’s probably one of those crafty projects that crop up every now and then, as vinyl albums are so ubiquitous, even now.
Although, newer vinyl tends to be thicker, so I wonder if they’ll be as easy to make into bowls? I’ve only seen them out of older vinyl, so…
I began listening to vinyl again not because I believed it sounded better (the idea of “sounding better” is fraught by all sorts of subjective elements anyway) but more out of the difference in listening habits surrounding vinyl vs. digital/streaming, One day it just occurred to me how radically different the experience of the two were for me. I just find it too easy to jump from one track to another, or one artist to another, or genre, etc. when streaming audio. I recalled my listening habits from the vinyl-only days to be more immersive and richer. There was the tactile feel of the album, the artwork, the liner notes, the order of the music as the artist intended, the attention needed to flip the disc, and even the special care required to maintain the music. There’s something to be said too about accessibility… the search for new music, the hunt, rummaging through bargain buns, borrowing an album from a friend… At first I thought this as just nostalgia (and perhaps it is) but returning to vinyl restored much of that experience. But it’s just so damn costly, and now this…
This! You really do need to be more actively engaged to listen to a vinyl record. But some of this most certainly grew out of the LP era, which made the “album” as a work of art possible.
That is true too. New vinyl will set you back, while you can get streaming for a low cost or free.
If you have not read this book, you should check it out…
Holy crow I couldn’t disagree more. I have tons of vinyl that sounds loads better than their CD counterparts (and I do the whole blu-ray, 5.1 surround sound thing too, so I’m not just a vinyl luddite).
I suspect the CO2 emissions from attending the world’s live music gigs blows that 194ktCO2e for streaming out of the water (and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s an overestimate in itself as there are some pretty funky estimates for the GHG intensity of the internet). The UK’s festivals alone are responsible for 25,000tCO2 per year excluding audience travel (which accounts for about 75% of the total impact of a festival so it’s probably closer to 100ktCO2 per year).
We need to decarbonise everything and music is no exception but, for what it gives to the world, I think we don’t need to worry too much.
Yeah, I have been buying new of the smaller artists I like - some even a bit past their prime and I probably won’t give it much rotation, just to support them. And/or by a shirt. You can still buy used on ebay, but it is more fun to flip and randomly find things.
Ironically, while I don’t collect vinyl, I did just get the new My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult re-mastered Confessions of a Knife and Kooler than Jesus as gifts from my GF. It seems the resurgence of vinyl is both one part a mindful listening experience, and a “new to the consumer” way to collect and enjoy bands they like. Is this much different than my 30+ year old CD? No. But the artwork and pretty colors of the disk are nice to look at. I see why people like this. I swear I am not making this a collection though. It’s a one time treat.
Back to the matter at hand - I feel like art and music creation is a small sliver of the culprit for harming the earth. I suppose we should be mindful, and I’d welcome better alternatives.
Vinyl sounds different than CD or digital download/streaming but the differences boil down to 2 things: 1) mastering for the medium being played and 2) quality and setup of the playback equipment (vinyl or shellac - turntable, arm, cartridge, preamp RIAA or other equalization. DAC for all digital conversion).
I have what most folks think of as a very expensive audio system, about 700 78s, 700+ LPs and 500ish CDs. They all sound good and I play them all for enjoyment. 'Nuff said.
Could not agree more. I live in both worlds of digital and analogue music and it seems that there is so much anger and hate around music transmission formats.
The folk who are anti vinyl are probably more vocal than the people who just get down to loving their music. Anyone over the age of 25 probably can’t hear the difference anyway.
Records facilitated one of the greatest African American music cultures so I suggest that people think a bit harder about the importance of music tech rather than smugly asserting a bias that they literally can’t hear!
I probably can’t, but I’d suggest that others might. Let’s not assume anyone over 25 is an old, deaf codger… if that were the case, there wouldn’t be an sound engineers over 25, and of course there are. “Good” sound engineering comes down to a lot more than just what you can or can’t here.
But yeah… if people prefer one format over another, then do what sparks joy as the kids say… But we should also attend to the ecological issues being raised about mass consumption over all. It’s always a good idea to think about the impact our patterns of consumption has on the planet.
I remember the “this is garbage” stickers.
The articles apparent point that “ephemeralized” modes of media consumption still involve the consumption of resources seems a bit silly, but it’s a good reminder in case we forgot. The internet after all is a series of tubes, (as anyone who has ever installed fiber conduit knows). And all that invisible infrastructure does have to exist somewhere in the physical universe, (even if the “grubby” bits are hidden in the jeffries tubes). With any luck the problem of disposable plastic will sort itself out once production costs are driven 10x (at minimum) when using petroleum for energy becomes a nonsense proposition in the face of all the cleanly available and cheap sources. It would be interesting to tally up the burn difference between a recurring spotify stream-per-listen vs. a locally downloaded high-res bandcamp download that can be re-used on a users equipment indefinitely.
But maybe the question that cuts more to the heart of the matter is - should music be an industry at all? The media company format seems like a bigger unnecessary waste center than the transport medium. Fortunately these days it’s more-and-more possible to interact with artists directly and bypass the intermediaries. On the vinyl question - remember cut-outs? That was a sort legalistic gymnastic to avoid royalties and still sell “destroyed” product (recycling?), but at least the record/tape/cd didn’t end up in the landfill, (was a major digger of cut-out bins as a broke teen). I’ll admit to an irrational affinity for the vinyl medium - it was a major point of early exposure to material that wasn’t otherwise accessible, (and was only available because it was being tossed by the crate-load in the 90’s). There’s a lot of ancillary artistic material beyond the sound-waves that vinyl excels at delivering.
Yep, I’m in my late 50’s and top out about 16Khz. Wasn’t saying this in an ageist way, hearing generally loses top end progressively from the age of eight.
Most of the ‘top end’ sound engineers are 50 and above and I assume are working on experience when it comes to the very high frequencies.
It is interesting that in the field of audio ‘mastering’ (yes, get the irony in the term!) that there are many more women in the industry. Women generally have better high frequency range later in life.
Tangentially, women are better represented in colour correction than other departments in film production.
I have no reason to doubt his numbers; but (at least the ones provided in this article, the book may have what I’m looking for) I’m left somewhat at a loss without two things (A) Context: Vinyl is PVC; but how much of global petrochemical consumption goes to PVC? 1%? 10%? .02%? And what’s the ratio between Vinyl and, say, PVC pipes? (B) Some sense of how much ‘streaming’ deserves direct blame for a given unit of internet energy consumption and how much skims around at negligible marginal cost over infrastructure that is also put to other uses.
The former is probably fairly doable; the latter seems trickier(since availability of streaming music presumably pushes demand curves for cellphones and decent network connections and things around a bit; and it’s nontrivial to divide tech energy consumption into load that can be readily ramped up or down and load where poor power management or other limitations mean that it’s pretty much ‘on’ or ‘off’ and a little marginal decoding makes no difference); but without context it’s just hard to know where on the scale from ‘interesting trivia’ to ‘serious business’ to file the news.
When you are operating on the scale that human civilization is, there’s probably a number large enough to make your brain glaze over attached to all sorts of niche processes and activities one wouldn’t ordinarily think about; enough so that it’s more paralyzing than informative without knowing how it compares to the bigger picture and to the alternatives.
PVC can be recycled into more records and regularly is (the company i work for sent multiple pallets to Brooklyn Vinyl for “regrinds” several years ago.)
But vinyl records are not disposable like plastic straws or cups. You can keep them for a lifetime if you take care of them. Back up a second here: go to the supermarket and consider all the disposable plastic there and how would we move to non-petroleum based packaging. We can do it but we would still keep reusable stuff. Lps are like Tupperware not soda bottles.
Lps have saved music that was lost when mastertapes were destroyed. You might be surprised at how many reissues come from vinyl sources that get cleaned up in Protools. Practically all African recordings and in fact most recordings from the “third world” where mastertapes were reused for obvious economic reasons.
Most of modern human existence contributes to damaging the planet. So much of what we do is unsustanable. Lps and cds are near the bottom.
The Tyndall Centre say it’s 405kt per year:
Thirty four percent of which comes from the venue and 33% from audience travel. Band travel, accommodation, merchandise, and promotions also contribute to emissions.
You know at one point I saved some of my long boxes… not sure if I still have them in a box somewhere…
That’s live music on a huge scale.
Theoretical question: is local live music more environmentally friendly than recorded music?
Paradox: live music artists make most of their income from selling CDs and Tshirts.
In addition to the footprint of shirts/albums/etc to take into account, you have to include the footprint of the venue, and how people arrive at said venue (in my city, that would most likely be by driving, but in places like NYC, that might more likely be public transit.
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