“the format still represents only 12 percent of physical album sales”
August 7, 2016 7:53 AM Subscribe
What It Takes for an Independent Record Store to Survive Now [Pitchfork Media] Even as legacy music shops continue to shutter across the country, Midwestern institution Used Kids has managed to stay afloat for the last 30 years and counting. How do they do it?
i don't know - i'm getting the feeling that the vinyl resurgence, such as it is, is going to be soon over - sound quality is not as good and records have not held their value
a lot of the people who are now buying up records are going to realize that - and they're also going to learn that records are bulky and inconvenient as hell to move around
i had 4 to 5 thousand records and i've gotten rid of all but 500 of them in the last 2 years - it's just not worth it to me
posted by pyramid termite at 8:53 AM on August 7, 2016 [5 favorites]
a lot of the people who are now buying up records are going to realize that - and they're also going to learn that records are bulky and inconvenient as hell to move around
i had 4 to 5 thousand records and i've gotten rid of all but 500 of them in the last 2 years - it's just not worth it to me
posted by pyramid termite at 8:53 AM on August 7, 2016 [5 favorites]
Music Millennium in Portland (which I visited as a tourist) is amazing. Gigantic CD store, with a totally separate room dedicated to vinyl that contained so many new releases I felt like I was back in the 80s.
I don't know how record stores survive, but I know that visiting them is always a great experience for me. "Back in the day", there was more than once that I would be browsing and something would be playing that I ended up buying because it was Just So Fucking Great.
Hastings stores across the region where they exist used to be like this, but it's all comic book culture bullshit now and the music has slid so far to the side that I don't even bother going there anymore.
posted by hippybear at 8:58 AM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
I don't know how record stores survive, but I know that visiting them is always a great experience for me. "Back in the day", there was more than once that I would be browsing and something would be playing that I ended up buying because it was Just So Fucking Great.
Hastings stores across the region where they exist used to be like this, but it's all comic book culture bullshit now and the music has slid so far to the side that I don't even bother going there anymore.
posted by hippybear at 8:58 AM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
Used Kids is a great, canonical record store - it feels like it was the epicenter of the middle-Ohio 90s indie rock scene, with bands like New Bomb Turks & Gaunt hanging around, and Dayton mainstays like Cage, Swearing at Motorists, GBV, Breeders, & Brainiac too. Although it purports to, the article doesn't really address how they've managed to stay afloat. The answer can't just be vinyl - I've seen many vinyl-heavy record stores close. As much as I love record stores, and as vital as they were to my life for many years, I don't understand how they stay in business.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 9:00 AM on August 7, 2016
posted by Frobenius Twist at 9:00 AM on August 7, 2016
The article kinda buries it, but: selling turntables and audio equipment, switching from a mainly-used-records model to one that includes a lot of new stuff, doing a lot of online selling, and buying stock in a way that tries to anticipate people's tastes.
Most of the indie record stores I visit, the ones that seem to be thriving anyway, are doing most of those things.
posted by box at 9:25 AM on August 7, 2016 [17 favorites]
Most of the indie record stores I visit, the ones that seem to be thriving anyway, are doing most of those things.
posted by box at 9:25 AM on August 7, 2016 [17 favorites]
Having someone buy you out and assume a ton of debt probably helps keep a record store from going under. Reading between the lines of the article, you have to assume the new owner is independently wealthy... if he's pouring all the profits of Used Kids back into the store, he's paying his rent with something else. Could be as simple as a spouse who has a very lucrative job and believes in the mission of keeping the record store open.
That said, they're clearly doing a lot of smart things to stay afloat... diversify your stock by adding turntables and other hardware, turn around high-value items quickly online, and move to somewhere with lower rent (shopping strips near campus are notoriously bad for retail... high rents, no parking, and students are in fact perpetually broke).
posted by lefty lucky cat at 9:26 AM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
That said, they're clearly doing a lot of smart things to stay afloat... diversify your stock by adding turntables and other hardware, turn around high-value items quickly online, and move to somewhere with lower rent (shopping strips near campus are notoriously bad for retail... high rents, no parking, and students are in fact perpetually broke).
posted by lefty lucky cat at 9:26 AM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
selling turntables and audio equipment, switching from a mainly-used-records model to one that includes a lot of new stuff, doing a lot of online selling, and buying stock in a way that tries to anticipate people's tastes.
There's a very small record shop near me that I love, and I'm always worried about their survivability. This describes their business plan perfectly though. I'm glad to hear that the're doing things right and may be around for a while.
They have a small stock, but can talk enthusiastically about every item in the shop. This also allows them to curate fun displays, like the "dad rock" crate and provide recommendations of things you've never heard of before but turn out to be exactly what you want.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:32 AM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
There's a very small record shop near me that I love, and I'm always worried about their survivability. This describes their business plan perfectly though. I'm glad to hear that the're doing things right and may be around for a while.
They have a small stock, but can talk enthusiastically about every item in the shop. This also allows them to curate fun displays, like the "dad rock" crate and provide recommendations of things you've never heard of before but turn out to be exactly what you want.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:32 AM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
I did quite a bit of US travel in the Naughties, not just to the usual coastal cities, but right throughout the country. One of my favourite things to do during those trips was find a independent record shop wherever I happened to be and ask the owner to recommend two or three CDs by local musicians who "played anything a bit rootsy".
Once I got the idea into the guy's head that my tastes ranged beyond mainstream rock, he'd always have something interesting to suggest. I discovered some great music that way, from bands and solo performers I'd never have had a chance of hearing about any other way. Try it yourself while there's still enough good record shops around to make it possible.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:48 AM on August 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
Once I got the idea into the guy's head that my tastes ranged beyond mainstream rock, he'd always have something interesting to suggest. I discovered some great music that way, from bands and solo performers I'd never have had a chance of hearing about any other way. Try it yourself while there's still enough good record shops around to make it possible.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:48 AM on August 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
I still have a lot of CDs and records with $1/$3/$5 Used Kids stickers on them from the late 90s/early 2000s when I was in Columbus. Something about digging through a completely disorganized stack of stuff only to come across an item that you just HAVE to have (and for only $3!) is amazingly satisfying and an experience I miss a lot now that I can find basically everything on Spotify at the push of a button.
posted by zempf at 10:03 AM on August 7, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by zempf at 10:03 AM on August 7, 2016 [7 favorites]
Every once in a while I think about getting a turntable to try to play all those records that I've had stored in various garages since the '90s but then I've have to get a receiver and speakers and find enough flat space somewhere in the house to put them and I go back to listening to music via Google Play.
posted by octothorpe at 10:06 AM on August 7, 2016
posted by octothorpe at 10:06 AM on August 7, 2016
(U-Turn turntable plus Schiit preamp plus Audioengine powered speakers make a nice compact budget-audiophile setup (and, as a bonus, the speakers also accept USB audio in). There are a million other options, of course, but that's a good one.)
posted by box at 10:40 AM on August 7, 2016 [16 favorites]
posted by box at 10:40 AM on August 7, 2016 [16 favorites]
One of my little work-from-home fun job ideas is "turnkey vinyl for newly-rich wannabe cool" -- setting up a guy with a nice-size room and say $100k to burn with a very nice turntable, amp and speaker rig and shelf system, and with a tastefully curated 5,000 LPs and singles. Ten clients a year at a 25% markup and you're sitting pretty.
posted by MattD at 11:15 AM on August 7, 2016 [13 favorites]
posted by MattD at 11:15 AM on August 7, 2016 [13 favorites]
One of my little work-from-home fun job ideas is "turnkey vinyl for newly-rich wannabe cool" -- setting up a guy with a nice-size room and say $100k to burn with a very nice turntable, amp and speaker rig and shelf system, and with a tastefully curated 5,000 LPs and singles. Ten clients a year at a 25% markup and you're sitting pretty.
I already have the perfect name: turnbnb
posted by Fizz at 11:27 AM on August 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
I already have the perfect name: turnbnb
posted by Fizz at 11:27 AM on August 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
Turnblr
posted by benzenedream at 12:15 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by benzenedream at 12:15 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
As someone who has grown their collection to ~5,000 records over the past 25 years, that's a lot to curate for a turnkey service based on a customer's current tastes.
posted by rhizome at 1:16 PM on August 7, 2016
posted by rhizome at 1:16 PM on August 7, 2016
turnt, surely
posted by aydeejones at 1:30 PM on August 7, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by aydeejones at 1:30 PM on August 7, 2016 [11 favorites]
Oh, man. My partner used to work at Used Kids in the 1990s and when we went back there, over a decade after he left Columbus, the employees circled around me like sharks, making sure I was good enough for their boy. The store and the staff truly had that dysfunctional/grungy family vibe that to me is 100% Ohio and 100% real. Even if I hadn't known it when I walked inside, I would have left knowing it was an institution because that place was truly all about the music.
posted by mynameisluka at 1:49 PM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by mynameisluka at 1:49 PM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
The biggest problem I have with record stores is that it's increasingly difficult for me to walk into a store and actually buy the thing I wanted to buy. Nice to see Used Kids gets it to an extent (though the Pitchfork story using Spoon's back catalogue as an example of this doesn't fill me with hope).
Of course, the second biggest problem I have with record stores is that vinyl is king and CDs are dead, and bully on you if you even think to ask about the latter anymore. I get the whole "tactile experience" and "rich sound" arguments, but listen, I can't archive that shit on my computer and put it on my phone. Sell me vinyl via Bandcamp, where I'm guaranteed to get FLAC files as well? I will give you all the money. Sell me vinyl with a piece of paper inside that probably connects to some shitty website with mistagged MP3 files in a ZIP archive that you can only download once and then the code expires, and also I don't get to know until after I crack the thing open? You can keep your "tactile experience," thanks, I'll continue to rip stuff off CDs.
(ask me about the time I bought two Cocteau Twins re-releases on vinyl and got a code for WAV files from one and MP3s from the other, because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
(also get off my lawn)
posted by chrominance at 1:50 PM on August 7, 2016 [8 favorites]
Of course, the second biggest problem I have with record stores is that vinyl is king and CDs are dead, and bully on you if you even think to ask about the latter anymore. I get the whole "tactile experience" and "rich sound" arguments, but listen, I can't archive that shit on my computer and put it on my phone. Sell me vinyl via Bandcamp, where I'm guaranteed to get FLAC files as well? I will give you all the money. Sell me vinyl with a piece of paper inside that probably connects to some shitty website with mistagged MP3 files in a ZIP archive that you can only download once and then the code expires, and also I don't get to know until after I crack the thing open? You can keep your "tactile experience," thanks, I'll continue to rip stuff off CDs.
(ask me about the time I bought two Cocteau Twins re-releases on vinyl and got a code for WAV files from one and MP3s from the other, because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
(also get off my lawn)
posted by chrominance at 1:50 PM on August 7, 2016 [8 favorites]
Speaking s someone who left her record store job after fourteen years in early March (the store sold), I can tell you assuredly that a) the vinyl thing is a total bubble and 2) what you really need to keep a physical record store afloat in 2016 is a reliable secondary source of monthly income for yourself (so you can eat, pay rent, get medical care, etc) and a trust fun/investment portfolio/ rich spouse/friendly relationship with your creditors so you can pay staff, pay shop rent, keep lights on and meet order minimums in order to stock the absurdly overpriced new releases and even more insanely expensive, yet utterly superflous "prestige vinyl reissues." And even with both of those things, you'll probably not break even because you're also listening to new releases on Spotify IN THE STORE because the labels don't even bother to send you promos anymore.
It's possible I'm a little bitter.
posted by thivaia at 1:53 PM on August 7, 2016 [20 favorites]
It's possible I'm a little bitter.
posted by thivaia at 1:53 PM on August 7, 2016 [20 favorites]
Used Kids moving is really sad for me. On the one hand, I'm glad they can stay open because they really are an institution. When bands from out of town would play Columbus, they'd all go record shopping at Used Kids. It was famous.
But it's just another reminder that that stretch of High Street is dead right now. And not dead in the sense of "it was so much better back in my day". Dead in the sense that OSU and the city have eminent-domained five entire blocks of the eight or so blocks of High Street that run along campus, evicted all the small businesses (including Columbus's other good record store, Johnny Go's House o' Music, Johnny Go being the erstwhile music critic for our alt-weekly, until that died a couple years ago), boarded up all the storefronts, and posted demolition noticed on them. Literally dead. Used Kids was a block north of all that, but I guess the wave hit them too. There is, at this point, literally nothing on High Street that I remember from my undergrad years (98-02). Well, there's still the McDonalds and the Starbucks...
posted by kevinbelt at 2:44 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
But it's just another reminder that that stretch of High Street is dead right now. And not dead in the sense of "it was so much better back in my day". Dead in the sense that OSU and the city have eminent-domained five entire blocks of the eight or so blocks of High Street that run along campus, evicted all the small businesses (including Columbus's other good record store, Johnny Go's House o' Music, Johnny Go being the erstwhile music critic for our alt-weekly, until that died a couple years ago), boarded up all the storefronts, and posted demolition noticed on them. Literally dead. Used Kids was a block north of all that, but I guess the wave hit them too. There is, at this point, literally nothing on High Street that I remember from my undergrad years (98-02). Well, there's still the McDonalds and the Starbucks...
posted by kevinbelt at 2:44 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
By the way, Bela Koe-Krompecher, one of the former owners of Used Kids who made a couple appearances in the article, has a blog. He's from my hometown, and he's a lecturer in my wife's graduate program, although I don't know him. It's a fascinating read if you're interested in regional music scenes in the mid-90s.
posted by kevinbelt at 2:50 PM on August 7, 2016
posted by kevinbelt at 2:50 PM on August 7, 2016
A) Vinyl is not just a dead medium, it's 4 dead media ago (vinyl > cassette > CD > Mp3 > streaming). The great-granddaddy of dead media, if you will.
B) I get some people buying and listening to vinyl in a semi-ironic, look how much time and cash I have on my hands way, sort of like riding one of those bicycles with the big front wheel. I don't get it being a 'thing' beyond that.
C) I especially don't get 25 year olds go on about something that was dead and buried when they were still listening to Barney CDs.
D) Yes it's sad to see somebody's store go under, especially if it used to be relevant. But it's basically like seeing paper-and-film-photography stores go under. Sort of nostalgic, if you actually lived through their heyday, but ultimately, what you gonna do? Go back to listening to music on physical media / taking pictures on film? No effing way.
posted by signal at 3:28 PM on August 7, 2016
B) I get some people buying and listening to vinyl in a semi-ironic, look how much time and cash I have on my hands way, sort of like riding one of those bicycles with the big front wheel. I don't get it being a 'thing' beyond that.
C) I especially don't get 25 year olds go on about something that was dead and buried when they were still listening to Barney CDs.
D) Yes it's sad to see somebody's store go under, especially if it used to be relevant. But it's basically like seeing paper-and-film-photography stores go under. Sort of nostalgic, if you actually lived through their heyday, but ultimately, what you gonna do? Go back to listening to music on physical media / taking pictures on film? No effing way.
posted by signal at 3:28 PM on August 7, 2016
There is a LOT of music that is not available on later formats.
posted by rhizome at 3:37 PM on August 7, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 3:37 PM on August 7, 2016 [8 favorites]
but ultimately, what you gonna do? Go back to listening to music on physical media / taking pictures on film? No effing way.
Even while I love my iTunes library, I still want to have physical media for the music I buy. If I have the CD in my possession, it means I'll probably always have the music. Unlike Grooveshark.
I also still buy vinyl. Because it's beautiful and it's fun, and I usually get a digital download so even if I never play the record I know I still have the music.
But even more than that: taking pictures on film. There are photos that are available that have been available for over 100 years simply because they were taken on film. The original source (the negative) is still in existence, and it will be for a long time into the future. It might not be important, or it might be, but that's for the future (or our now) to decide. Digital photos, all it takes is a hard drive failure or dropping your phone the wrong way or any number of other things to go bad for those pictures to no longer exist.
ALSO, there is no guarantee that photos taken today will be viewable in 50 years. It's likely that retrograding of formats will continue to be a thing, but that's no guarantee. There's a whole wealth of online video that is available only in RealMedia format. But can anyone watch it today without jumping through a lot of hoops? No. Photos taken 100 years ago are still viewable.
I get your "current media is teh shitz" mindset; it's very common. But the people who are involved with archiving and preserving the Now for The Future are very concerned with the idea of a Digital Black Hole Of History, and for good reasons.
posted by hippybear at 3:39 PM on August 7, 2016 [25 favorites]
Even while I love my iTunes library, I still want to have physical media for the music I buy. If I have the CD in my possession, it means I'll probably always have the music. Unlike Grooveshark.
I also still buy vinyl. Because it's beautiful and it's fun, and I usually get a digital download so even if I never play the record I know I still have the music.
But even more than that: taking pictures on film. There are photos that are available that have been available for over 100 years simply because they were taken on film. The original source (the negative) is still in existence, and it will be for a long time into the future. It might not be important, or it might be, but that's for the future (or our now) to decide. Digital photos, all it takes is a hard drive failure or dropping your phone the wrong way or any number of other things to go bad for those pictures to no longer exist.
ALSO, there is no guarantee that photos taken today will be viewable in 50 years. It's likely that retrograding of formats will continue to be a thing, but that's no guarantee. There's a whole wealth of online video that is available only in RealMedia format. But can anyone watch it today without jumping through a lot of hoops? No. Photos taken 100 years ago are still viewable.
I get your "current media is teh shitz" mindset; it's very common. But the people who are involved with archiving and preserving the Now for The Future are very concerned with the idea of a Digital Black Hole Of History, and for good reasons.
posted by hippybear at 3:39 PM on August 7, 2016 [25 favorites]
Preach it, Brother hippybear!
posted by ashbury at 3:48 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ashbury at 3:48 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
A) Vinyl is not just a dead medium, it's 4 dead media ago (vinyl > cassette > CD > Mp3 > streaming). The great-granddaddy of dead media, if you will.
Which is actually what I found striking about the title of this post. Most music stores don't even stock cassettes, so 12% seems like a pretty healthy percentage of physical sales for a medium that was already "dead" by the time many of the people in this thread were born.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:05 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Which is actually what I found striking about the title of this post. Most music stores don't even stock cassettes, so 12% seems like a pretty healthy percentage of physical sales for a medium that was already "dead" by the time many of the people in this thread were born.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:05 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
the people who are involved with archiving and preserving the Now for The Future are very concerned with the idea of a Digital Black Hole Of History,
Which is relevant, I guess, if you're an archivist. Me, I listen to music, and don't really stress about where it will be 100 years from now. I couldn't fathom going back to large, physical disks that get scratched / broken / lost / stolen.
Now, sorry but I have to go back to waxing my handlebar moustache.
posted by signal at 4:39 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Which is relevant, I guess, if you're an archivist. Me, I listen to music, and don't really stress about where it will be 100 years from now. I couldn't fathom going back to large, physical disks that get scratched / broken / lost / stolen.
Now, sorry but I have to go back to waxing my handlebar moustache.
posted by signal at 4:39 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
I do look back fondly to the mid-oughties, when I would pick through the cheap bins at Melbourne's great secondhand record stores. My jam then was compilation discs from then-smaller publishers like Secretly Canadian and Kill Rock Stars - their three compilation CDs are still some of the best I can think of, with some amazing bands like Sleater-Kinney and Bikini Kill - and whatever was a couple of bucks and sounded vaguely interesting. I think I discovered more great music in those days than I have in the decade since, with all of it at my fingertips instantly, and I certainly appreciated it more.
These days I check out Rocking Horse and The Record Exchange here in Brisbane very infrequently but I guess I just don't have the constitution for it any more. They have been picked clean a thousand times already and in the case of The Record Exchange are horrible, sprawling, disorganised, shambolic embarrassments, with stale and overpriced stock, the same way Archives is with books.
Secondhand just doesn't have the charm and excitement it once did. Everything halfway decent has already been sold online and is in private collections. Everything else is criminally overvalued.
Still, great times were had.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:41 PM on August 7, 2016
These days I check out Rocking Horse and The Record Exchange here in Brisbane very infrequently but I guess I just don't have the constitution for it any more. They have been picked clean a thousand times already and in the case of The Record Exchange are horrible, sprawling, disorganised, shambolic embarrassments, with stale and overpriced stock, the same way Archives is with books.
Secondhand just doesn't have the charm and excitement it once did. Everything halfway decent has already been sold online and is in private collections. Everything else is criminally overvalued.
Still, great times were had.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:41 PM on August 7, 2016
> I couldn't fathom going back to large, physical disks that get scratched / broken / lost / stolen.
it is fortunate these things never happen to data stored in teh clouds.
posted by entropicamericana at 5:44 PM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
it is fortunate these things never happen to data stored in teh clouds.
posted by entropicamericana at 5:44 PM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
it is fortunate these things never happen to data stored in teh clouds.
I've never had music lost from a streaming service.
I had many records and CDs get lost / stolen / scratched. I finally gave up on them, and threw out, in the garbage, my CD collection. Never regretted it.
I'm not rah-rahin technology per se. Digital music just works much, much, much better than physical media for every single use I personally have.
Good use of the ironic 'teh', though. Clever.
posted by signal at 5:55 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
I've never had music lost from a streaming service.
I had many records and CDs get lost / stolen / scratched. I finally gave up on them, and threw out, in the garbage, my CD collection. Never regretted it.
I'm not rah-rahin technology per se. Digital music just works much, much, much better than physical media for every single use I personally have.
Good use of the ironic 'teh', though. Clever.
posted by signal at 5:55 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
Renting music isn't the same as owning it.
posted by hippybear at 6:00 PM on August 7, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 6:00 PM on August 7, 2016 [9 favorites]
Renting music isn't the same as owning it.
I'm not really all that hung up on 'owning' music. I'm more into listening to it. And for that, streaming is much better than physical media.
posted by signal at 6:11 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm not really all that hung up on 'owning' music. I'm more into listening to it. And for that, streaming is much better than physical media.
posted by signal at 6:11 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
I've never had music lost from a streaming service.
I had many records and CDs get lost / stolen / scratched. I finally gave up on them, and threw out, in the garbage, my CD collection. Never regretted it.
I'm not rah-rahin technology per se. Digital music just works much, much, much better than physical media for every single use I personally have.
Good use of the ironic 'teh', though. Clever.
Who was it that said "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." ?
Whomever it was, it was the first thing that came to mind when reading this comment.
posted by some loser at 6:22 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
I had many records and CDs get lost / stolen / scratched. I finally gave up on them, and threw out, in the garbage, my CD collection. Never regretted it.
I'm not rah-rahin technology per se. Digital music just works much, much, much better than physical media for every single use I personally have.
Good use of the ironic 'teh', though. Clever.
Who was it that said "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." ?
Whomever it was, it was the first thing that came to mind when reading this comment.
posted by some loser at 6:22 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
We had a thread a few months ago about problems with streaming services like Apple and Google replacing your music with music from their libraries, alternative and live tracks lost. Not to mention that once you get outside of a metropolitan area or just about a high percentage of the country once you get out of the Northeast off the West Coast, good luck streaming anything.
You'll pry my albums and CDs out of my cliched but cold dying fingers.
posted by Ber at 6:35 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
You'll pry my albums and CDs out of my cliched but cold dying fingers.
posted by Ber at 6:35 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
Renting music isn't the same as owning it.
You can't OWN music, man.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 6:46 PM on August 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
You can't OWN music, man.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 6:46 PM on August 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
I went to college outside the Columbus area during the mid-90's and spent a lot of time at Used Kids. I never failed to come away with something I either really wanted or that intrigued me enough to take a chance. There were so many great record shops along that strip on High Street during that time.
posted by Falconetti at 7:14 PM on August 7, 2016
posted by Falconetti at 7:14 PM on August 7, 2016
Or, if I was being too subtle -- what Ber said.
posted by some loser at 7:17 PM on August 7, 2016
posted by some loser at 7:17 PM on August 7, 2016
Yeah, that's the problem, you were being too subtle
posted by RustyBrooks at 7:18 PM on August 7, 2016
posted by RustyBrooks at 7:18 PM on August 7, 2016
hippybear: "Renting music isn't the same as owning it."
It sounds the same either way and rented music doesn't take up shelf space.
posted by octothorpe at 7:18 PM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
It sounds the same either way and rented music doesn't take up shelf space.
posted by octothorpe at 7:18 PM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
I think I discovered more great music in those days than I have in the decade since, with all of it at my fingertips instantly, and I certainly appreciated it more.
Yes. Streaming service curation is much closer to mass-market radio curation than to record store curation. Alas.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:17 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yes. Streaming service curation is much closer to mass-market radio curation than to record store curation. Alas.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:17 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
Some people like owning records. Some people don't. I'm friends with both. You can be completely passionate about music and a huge nerd regardless of format. I tend to advocate having some sort of back up plan whether it's for your favorite Spotify playlist or your crate of 78s so you can listen to your Charley Patton no matter what crisis may befall (and Charley Patton is good for a crisis). But I’m accident-prone (the for real reason I don’t own a Kindle is because I’d probably drop it in the bathtub) so my advice may be irrelevant
The format thing is kind of beside the point, though, right? I mean, it certainly plays into to record stores closings. But a lot of the people that are regular customers in small, vinyl heavy record stores are now and have been a niche clientele for the better part of the last twenty years. It was pretty fucking hard to make a go of it in small record stores even when everybody (and I do mean everybody) came in to buy "Kid A" at a midnight madness release party in 2000. It’s just exponentially harder now. And people do it because the stores are full of treasures and lovable (and less lovable) weirdos and other people like you who also wanted to geek out about Rare Soul or Brazilian psych or No Wave or Kendrick or wonderfully stupid international garage rock or whatever happened to be the best thing you'd heard this week or, like, Seriously, this is the best thing ever. At its best, the record store was kind of like some wonderfully noisy combination of library and community center. When I traveled as a teenager and a young adult, I always used to look for the record stores, because I thought maybe I'd find my people there (and often times I did). When I finally started moonlighting at the record store in 2002, I remember running my fingers over the racks of records and feel almost emotional at my good fortune, to be in the center of everything, to be in a place that felt like home.
So yeah, sure, scoff at the sorry old buggy whip manufacturers and their worn-out, sentimental fetishization of material objects and the dusty old shitholes where we dug (and still dig) around in crates under shelves, getting cobwebs in our hair as we sought out that one Holy Grail of a record that every single record person dreams of turning up, even now, when we can listen to 7/10 of it on YouTube on our smartphones as we walk past the block where the video stores and the magazine stands and used bookshops have been replaced by Chipotles and wireless carrier storefronts. Maybe record stores don't make it. All technologies obsolesce, right?. Nothing lasts. And taking the grand view, I can live with that, but I still mourn my shop, and I’d pretty seriously grieve if they all disappeared, even if/when we all collectively decide to go hyperminimalist and stream everything and get all our new music from algorithms. In the meantime I’ll keep blowing too much of my money on LPs (I miss you, employee discount!) at as many little record stores as I can. They may be a losing proposition long term , but they’re also part of who I am and where I’m from and how I created my community. And I have a lot more records to listen to and talk about and seek out before I can begin to think about walking away.
posted by thivaia at 9:21 PM on August 7, 2016 [9 favorites]
The format thing is kind of beside the point, though, right? I mean, it certainly plays into to record stores closings. But a lot of the people that are regular customers in small, vinyl heavy record stores are now and have been a niche clientele for the better part of the last twenty years. It was pretty fucking hard to make a go of it in small record stores even when everybody (and I do mean everybody) came in to buy "Kid A" at a midnight madness release party in 2000. It’s just exponentially harder now. And people do it because the stores are full of treasures and lovable (and less lovable) weirdos and other people like you who also wanted to geek out about Rare Soul or Brazilian psych or No Wave or Kendrick or wonderfully stupid international garage rock or whatever happened to be the best thing you'd heard this week or, like, Seriously, this is the best thing ever. At its best, the record store was kind of like some wonderfully noisy combination of library and community center. When I traveled as a teenager and a young adult, I always used to look for the record stores, because I thought maybe I'd find my people there (and often times I did). When I finally started moonlighting at the record store in 2002, I remember running my fingers over the racks of records and feel almost emotional at my good fortune, to be in the center of everything, to be in a place that felt like home.
So yeah, sure, scoff at the sorry old buggy whip manufacturers and their worn-out, sentimental fetishization of material objects and the dusty old shitholes where we dug (and still dig) around in crates under shelves, getting cobwebs in our hair as we sought out that one Holy Grail of a record that every single record person dreams of turning up, even now, when we can listen to 7/10 of it on YouTube on our smartphones as we walk past the block where the video stores and the magazine stands and used bookshops have been replaced by Chipotles and wireless carrier storefronts. Maybe record stores don't make it. All technologies obsolesce, right?. Nothing lasts. And taking the grand view, I can live with that, but I still mourn my shop, and I’d pretty seriously grieve if they all disappeared, even if/when we all collectively decide to go hyperminimalist and stream everything and get all our new music from algorithms. In the meantime I’ll keep blowing too much of my money on LPs (I miss you, employee discount!) at as many little record stores as I can. They may be a losing proposition long term , but they’re also part of who I am and where I’m from and how I created my community. And I have a lot more records to listen to and talk about and seek out before I can begin to think about walking away.
posted by thivaia at 9:21 PM on August 7, 2016 [9 favorites]
When I was a kid, sometimes on Friday nights or after a long day at work, my dad would come home and turn off the lights. He'd light up a couple of kerosene lanterns in the living room and drink beer and play records and smoke. My brother and I would curl up on the couch or by the heating vents and listen to The Doors, or The Eagles, or We're all Bozo's on this bus, or half a dozen other things until we were pulled of to bed, and we'd keep listening to the sound coming up the stairs until we fell asleep.
I can't imagine that experience is unique, and I've come away from it with a few predictable aesthetic predilections. For one, second hand smoke will always smell like home to me. For another, I love records - screw audio quality - I love the real bass of full size speakers and I love the crackle and pop and skip and someone having dad lick the record to get it to actually play. I love the act of listening to music, not as background, but as a central activity, on a cold night in winter.
I'm just about 30 years old now, and I've got disposable income and a baby sleeping on my legs, and that is my completely anecdotal explanation of the record bubble.
posted by pan at 10:15 PM on August 7, 2016 [7 favorites]
I can't imagine that experience is unique, and I've come away from it with a few predictable aesthetic predilections. For one, second hand smoke will always smell like home to me. For another, I love records - screw audio quality - I love the real bass of full size speakers and I love the crackle and pop and skip and someone having dad lick the record to get it to actually play. I love the act of listening to music, not as background, but as a central activity, on a cold night in winter.
I'm just about 30 years old now, and I've got disposable income and a baby sleeping on my legs, and that is my completely anecdotal explanation of the record bubble.
posted by pan at 10:15 PM on August 7, 2016 [7 favorites]
Data point: I buy vinyl because there is a lot of odd music that cannot easily be found otherwise. It's not a good format. I would not buy any of it new, and stick to CDs for anything past about 1988. I don't need 45s to play. I don't need reissues (unless they don't have a CD edition...grumble). But few people are reissuing Christian folk records, or throwaway 70s pop. I'll look for those.
It will die again. I will become disinterested. That's fine. While there's a little bubble I get social interactions from the like-minded this way.
posted by solarion at 10:20 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
It will die again. I will become disinterested. That's fine. While there's a little bubble I get social interactions from the like-minded this way.
posted by solarion at 10:20 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
I really don't get this "people like to own records," bit, because I don't think it's actually a thing. Where does it come from? Are these people just as happy stopping by Goodwill and picking up an Anne Murray album, doesn't matter which one?
Yes. Streaming service curation is much closer to mass-market radio curation than to record store curation. Alas.
Not the least because the licensing and business models prevent you from listening to whatever you want whenever you want.
posted by rhizome at 10:34 PM on August 7, 2016
Yes. Streaming service curation is much closer to mass-market radio curation than to record store curation. Alas.
Not the least because the licensing and business models prevent you from listening to whatever you want whenever you want.
posted by rhizome at 10:34 PM on August 7, 2016
I really don't get this "people like to own records," bit, because I don't think it's actually a thing. Where does it come from? Are these people just as happy stopping by Goodwill and picking up an Anne Murray album, doesn't matter which one?
If it's a good one and at the right price, yes?
I may be an outlier.
posted by solarion at 10:44 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
If it's a good one and at the right price, yes?
I may be an outlier.
posted by solarion at 10:44 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
How many people would at least dabble in record collecting if not for the fact they live in tiny apartments? Unless you own or rent a home, just where do you stash your permanent media? That's the real obstacle, because it not only reduces your customer base, but it also reduces just much money your existing customers can give you.
In the year 2016, we can now add space to the list of privileges.
posted by Beholder at 12:06 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
In the year 2016, we can now add space to the list of privileges.
posted by Beholder at 12:06 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
To me, the whole pro-physical media side of the argument is an exact analog of, if we were discussing movies, people were arguing for VHS tapes and LaserDiscs, how there's a difference between renting and owning a movie, how what happens to movies a hundred years from now, how cool it was to hang out in video rental stores, how you can't get good Netflix streaming in some parts of the US, etc. Which all might be true, but I'm still not buying a VHS deck any time soon.
posted by signal at 5:02 AM on August 8, 2016
posted by signal at 5:02 AM on August 8, 2016
i'm getting the feeling that the vinyl resurgence, such as it is, is going to be soon over - sound quality is not as good and records have not held their value
a lot of the people who are now buying up records are going to realize that - and they're also going to learn that records are bulky and inconvenient as hell to move around
Especially in the age of soaring house prices and runaway gentrification; those who haven't made it onto the housing ladder will find themselves moving to increasingly more cramped premises, shlepping along their collections of 180g luxury-vinyl rereleases of classic albums, at least for the first few moves. After that, future archaeologists will be able to identify the point in history by the layer of grooved vinyl and cardboard in the landfills.
posted by acb at 5:06 AM on August 8, 2016
a lot of the people who are now buying up records are going to realize that - and they're also going to learn that records are bulky and inconvenient as hell to move around
Especially in the age of soaring house prices and runaway gentrification; those who haven't made it onto the housing ladder will find themselves moving to increasingly more cramped premises, shlepping along their collections of 180g luxury-vinyl rereleases of classic albums, at least for the first few moves. After that, future archaeologists will be able to identify the point in history by the layer of grooved vinyl and cardboard in the landfills.
posted by acb at 5:06 AM on August 8, 2016
It sounds the same either way and rented music doesn't take up shelf space.
Rented music can disappear, if the artist/their management/the record label decide to be assholes and demand a steep increase in royalties or they pull it. And the music industry, with its strict copyright laws and encultured cocaine dependency, is structured to encourage this sort of brinkmanship.
Nowadays, my preference is to buy things on Bandcamp, and download the FLAC and 320kbps MP3s (the former go on a large NAS, the latter go on a small SSD-enabled Linux box running MPD and attached to speakers).Failing that, I buy a CD, rip it and add it to the overflowing pile of CDs in my tiny flat with a weary sigh. I use Spotify, but if I like something enough to listen to it more than twice, I buy it.
posted by acb at 5:11 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
Rented music can disappear, if the artist/their management/the record label decide to be assholes and demand a steep increase in royalties or they pull it. And the music industry, with its strict copyright laws and encultured cocaine dependency, is structured to encourage this sort of brinkmanship.
Nowadays, my preference is to buy things on Bandcamp, and download the FLAC and 320kbps MP3s (the former go on a large NAS, the latter go on a small SSD-enabled Linux box running MPD and attached to speakers).Failing that, I buy a CD, rip it and add it to the overflowing pile of CDs in my tiny flat with a weary sigh. I use Spotify, but if I like something enough to listen to it more than twice, I buy it.
posted by acb at 5:11 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
I get your "current media is teh shitz" mindset; it's very common.
This is a central complaint among many pursuits: a tension between folks who want to use the bleeding edge technology of whatever they are using, and retrogrouches who claim that some older tech is better for potentially marginal reasons. In the middle are the bulk of the population, who want something that is fit-to-purpose and reliable.
(I say this as a fountain pen collector)
But the people who are involved with archiving and preserving the Now for The Future are very concerned with the idea of a Digital Black Hole Of History, and for good reasons.
This is a real issue, and a legitimate one, though I'm more of the mind that there needs to be an effort to incorporating archiving and futureproofing into our systems rather than simply go all film-and-vinyl (not that you were suggesting that).
I will note that "digital media becoming unavailable and creating a dark age" was a minor point in Seveneves.
posted by MrGuilt at 6:10 AM on August 8, 2016
This is a central complaint among many pursuits: a tension between folks who want to use the bleeding edge technology of whatever they are using, and retrogrouches who claim that some older tech is better for potentially marginal reasons. In the middle are the bulk of the population, who want something that is fit-to-purpose and reliable.
(I say this as a fountain pen collector)
But the people who are involved with archiving and preserving the Now for The Future are very concerned with the idea of a Digital Black Hole Of History, and for good reasons.
This is a real issue, and a legitimate one, though I'm more of the mind that there needs to be an effort to incorporating archiving and futureproofing into our systems rather than simply go all film-and-vinyl (not that you were suggesting that).
I will note that "digital media becoming unavailable and creating a dark age" was a minor point in Seveneves.
posted by MrGuilt at 6:10 AM on August 8, 2016
Related articles about the obvious superiority of the cloud over physical media:
- Netflix’s catalog has shrunk 31.7% in less than two and a half years.
- Digital natives prefer reading in print.
Netflix’s catalog has shrunk 31.7% in less than two and a half years.
This article raises a great question, now that Netflix (and Netflix clones) killed video stores, just where are people supposed to get their movie fix once popular streaming services abandon any content they don't own?
posted by Beholder at 7:25 AM on August 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
This article raises a great question, now that Netflix (and Netflix clones) killed video stores, just where are people supposed to get their movie fix once popular streaming services abandon any content they don't own?
posted by Beholder at 7:25 AM on August 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
I really don't get this "people like to own records," bit, because I don't think it's actually a thing. Where does it come from? Are these people just as happy stopping by Goodwill and picking up an Anne Murray album, doesn't matter which one?
Usually it's an actual record store, but Goodwill will do, and speaking for myself and about half of my peers, this is something we've been doing about once a week for the last 25 years. And many of us at some point decided to cut out of the middleman and just got a job at a record store to save time and money. Well, not money.
You can tell who is like you the first time they visit your home. People without the bug, it's like the first time they step inside the TARDIS. Oh my god, you have so many records, how do you find the time to listen to all these, etc. Fellow travelers will see your record collection, and say nothing. But all conversation from that point onwards will be a question of figuring out how soon they can reasonably abandon social norms and just stand in front of it for ages, looking. For the former, they're amazed at the forest. For the latter, it's all about the trees.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 7:31 AM on August 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
Usually it's an actual record store, but Goodwill will do, and speaking for myself and about half of my peers, this is something we've been doing about once a week for the last 25 years. And many of us at some point decided to cut out of the middleman and just got a job at a record store to save time and money. Well, not money.
You can tell who is like you the first time they visit your home. People without the bug, it's like the first time they step inside the TARDIS. Oh my god, you have so many records, how do you find the time to listen to all these, etc. Fellow travelers will see your record collection, and say nothing. But all conversation from that point onwards will be a question of figuring out how soon they can reasonably abandon social norms and just stand in front of it for ages, looking. For the former, they're amazed at the forest. For the latter, it's all about the trees.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 7:31 AM on August 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
You can tell who is like you the first time they visit your home. People without the bug, it's like the first time they step inside the TARDIS. Oh my god, you have so many records, how do you find the time to listen to all these, etc. Fellow travelers will see your record collection, and say nothing. But all conversation from that point onwards will be a question of figuring out how soon they can reasonably abandon social norms and just stand in front of it for ages, looking.
At some point, I'd like to live in a house with ample shelving that I could fill with my collection of books, records and the odd DVD, like the bower of a media-consuming creature. Though living in oligarchical-age London and being constitutionally averse to living in car-dependent suburbia or instant-coffee-and-TV small towns, that goal is looking further and further away.
posted by acb at 8:14 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
At some point, I'd like to live in a house with ample shelving that I could fill with my collection of books, records and the odd DVD, like the bower of a media-consuming creature. Though living in oligarchical-age London and being constitutionally averse to living in car-dependent suburbia or instant-coffee-and-TV small towns, that goal is looking further and further away.
posted by acb at 8:14 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Beholder: the answer to your question is basically two-fold:
(1) pay-per-view/pay-per-download from Apple / Vimeo / Amazon or from your cable or satellite provider -- the libraries there are huge and include all new releases and an ever-increasing amount of old releases
(2) the studios and networks will continue to build out their in-house, own-content streaming and download services with monthly fees, delivering them in four ways -- set-top-box "On Demand" for cable subscribers, "TV anywhere" online access for cable subscribers (e.g., HBO Go), cord-cutter online access (e.g. HBO Now), and "fuck you" streaming services where even if you pay your cable company for access to the network you still have to pay more (e.g., "CBS All" where Les Moonves is betting on how badly he can soak nerds for Star Trek).
I do find it interesting that Amazon is willing to live simultaneously in the streaming (Prime) and pay-per-download worlds. It gives them a rather stark advantage over Netflix which has given zero indication that it would go that way.
posted by MattD at 8:47 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
(1) pay-per-view/pay-per-download from Apple / Vimeo / Amazon or from your cable or satellite provider -- the libraries there are huge and include all new releases and an ever-increasing amount of old releases
(2) the studios and networks will continue to build out their in-house, own-content streaming and download services with monthly fees, delivering them in four ways -- set-top-box "On Demand" for cable subscribers, "TV anywhere" online access for cable subscribers (e.g., HBO Go), cord-cutter online access (e.g. HBO Now), and "fuck you" streaming services where even if you pay your cable company for access to the network you still have to pay more (e.g., "CBS All" where Les Moonves is betting on how badly he can soak nerds for Star Trek).
I do find it interesting that Amazon is willing to live simultaneously in the streaming (Prime) and pay-per-download worlds. It gives them a rather stark advantage over Netflix which has given zero indication that it would go that way.
posted by MattD at 8:47 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yes. Streaming service curation is much closer to mass-market radio curation than to record store curation. Alas.
Not the least because the licensing and business models prevent you from listening to whatever you want whenever you want.
To the first comment, the goal of streaming services is that you get to curate your own music. If you want curation, blogs and publications like Pitchfork, along with DJs of every type, all do curation on the major streaming services, I don't think it's very similar to mass-market radio unless you look at the big mainstream playlists.
To the second, I think that's only true if you're not paying for the service and are a free user. As a paying user, I can play whatever I want from Tidal or Spotify as long as they have it, whenever.
posted by cell divide at 9:43 AM on August 8, 2016
Not the least because the licensing and business models prevent you from listening to whatever you want whenever you want.
To the first comment, the goal of streaming services is that you get to curate your own music. If you want curation, blogs and publications like Pitchfork, along with DJs of every type, all do curation on the major streaming services, I don't think it's very similar to mass-market radio unless you look at the big mainstream playlists.
To the second, I think that's only true if you're not paying for the service and are a free user. As a paying user, I can play whatever I want from Tidal or Spotify as long as they have it, whenever.
posted by cell divide at 9:43 AM on August 8, 2016
I think a lot of this, besides the standard hipster BS, comes down to collectors vs. non-collectors.
I personally don't collect anything, have 0 souvenirs from the 40+ countries I've visited, etc., and having neatly arranged plastic discs sitting on my shelves would give me precisely 0.0 warm fuzzies.
I do like to buy comics, because I feel that reading them on paper is different from reading them on a tablet. So I get it, sort of, but there's some strange justifications about access, archival, etc. in this thread.
It seems silly to disparage 'teh cloud' (did I get the ironic spelling error right?) because most people prefer to have instant access to millions of songs, automatic recommendations, hundreds of personal, curated and or automatic playlists, etc. It's like complaining about cellphones or computers or Pokémon Go. People have voted with their money and their attention span and their culture.
If you like to buy vinyl, or cassettes, or super-8 footage, or Commodore 64 floppies, more power to you, but a few collectors playing around with obsolete formats won't really have much of an impact on the general culture.
posted by signal at 9:55 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
I personally don't collect anything, have 0 souvenirs from the 40+ countries I've visited, etc., and having neatly arranged plastic discs sitting on my shelves would give me precisely 0.0 warm fuzzies.
I do like to buy comics, because I feel that reading them on paper is different from reading them on a tablet. So I get it, sort of, but there's some strange justifications about access, archival, etc. in this thread.
It seems silly to disparage 'teh cloud' (did I get the ironic spelling error right?) because most people prefer to have instant access to millions of songs, automatic recommendations, hundreds of personal, curated and or automatic playlists, etc. It's like complaining about cellphones or computers or Pokémon Go. People have voted with their money and their attention span and their culture.
If you like to buy vinyl, or cassettes, or super-8 footage, or Commodore 64 floppies, more power to you, but a few collectors playing around with obsolete formats won't really have much of an impact on the general culture.
posted by signal at 9:55 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
To the first comment, the goal of streaming services is that you get to curate your own music. If you want curation, blogs and publications like Pitchfork, along with DJs of every type, all do curation on the major streaming services, I don't think it's very similar to mass-market radio unless you look at the big mainstream playlists.
So, either you just upload everything you have and let an algorithm (heavily weighted by label negotiations with the services) guess what else you'd like, or you go with a giant stream of everything that some distant tastemaker (undoubtedly also influenced by marketing concerns) assembles. That is the mass market model.
Record store curation is when you go somewhere that has a bunch of stuff grouped loosely by genre but also you can ask a real, knowledgeable human being "Hey, I liked this thing I got last time, what else is like that?" and you can have a conversation about the actual merits of the things. Once the record stores close, the only place to get that experience will be a library. Which is fine, libraries are great, but something very real will have nonetheless been lost.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:04 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
So, either you just upload everything you have and let an algorithm (heavily weighted by label negotiations with the services) guess what else you'd like, or you go with a giant stream of everything that some distant tastemaker (undoubtedly also influenced by marketing concerns) assembles. That is the mass market model.
Record store curation is when you go somewhere that has a bunch of stuff grouped loosely by genre but also you can ask a real, knowledgeable human being "Hey, I liked this thing I got last time, what else is like that?" and you can have a conversation about the actual merits of the things. Once the record stores close, the only place to get that experience will be a library. Which is fine, libraries are great, but something very real will have nonetheless been lost.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:04 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
Signal: Do you buy the monthly issues of each comic you like, or do you wait for the TPB to come out? If it's the monthly issues, are they an exception to your collection-free ways, or do they go straight in the recycling as soon as you've read them?
I ask because comics buying often comes with a particularly virulent strain of the collecting bug, and I'm wondering if you're immune to that too.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:05 AM on August 8, 2016
I ask because comics buying often comes with a particularly virulent strain of the collecting bug, and I'm wondering if you're immune to that too.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:05 AM on August 8, 2016
Paul Slade: I occasionally buy paper copies of things I really like, usually after reading them in digital form. They go up on the bookshelves in my house, together with all the non-comics books I used to buy pre-kindle and I now keep around mostly for nostalgia and aesthetics and left-wing intellectual cred. I don't buy any monthly comics, just (some) TPBs and one-shots.
posted by signal at 1:09 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by signal at 1:09 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
I like and collect records, and if you all give it a bit a thought I think you'll see why my preferences and experiences should be universal.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:13 AM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:13 AM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have been struggling with my collection (my hoard?) of CD's and vinyl for the past several years. Most of them are in a 5 x 10' storage space far from my apartment. I only have so much space and I don't want my walls to basically be completely full of media. So the ripping process has been time consuming.
One of the nice things that having a collection of music visible in my living space is that when friends come over, it's right there. They take a look. It sparks conversations. Maybe not always, but frequently. I like that your eye can catch the spine of a record and you go "Oh yeah! Let's play that one. I forgot about it." But far more frequently I end up spending a lot of time trying to decide what I feel like hearing. That's not fun.
Having media instantly accessible on a device, no matter where I am, is a big paradigm shift. That and things like Spotify's new music playlists. It's curated. It's the audio equivalent of the same conversation I like from visible media.
The amount of rare material I own outweighs the decision to ditch 100% of my collection. It's a weird problem I honestly never thought I would experience.
Big media collection = big hassle, is I guess what I'm saying. No matter which format: it's a pain in the ass.
posted by adamd1 at 10:40 AM on August 9, 2016
One of the nice things that having a collection of music visible in my living space is that when friends come over, it's right there. They take a look. It sparks conversations. Maybe not always, but frequently. I like that your eye can catch the spine of a record and you go "Oh yeah! Let's play that one. I forgot about it." But far more frequently I end up spending a lot of time trying to decide what I feel like hearing. That's not fun.
Having media instantly accessible on a device, no matter where I am, is a big paradigm shift. That and things like Spotify's new music playlists. It's curated. It's the audio equivalent of the same conversation I like from visible media.
The amount of rare material I own outweighs the decision to ditch 100% of my collection. It's a weird problem I honestly never thought I would experience.
Big media collection = big hassle, is I guess what I'm saying. No matter which format: it's a pain in the ass.
posted by adamd1 at 10:40 AM on August 9, 2016
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I have to admit, I've spent many an hour in one of my local record shops, the Village Idiot. The owner is a rock and roll refugee from Toronto who came to London for love. When he told me his story I swear he was going to start crying, even though the bad stuff had happened years ago. His knowledge is encyclopedic and he also sells above and beyond vinyl and cd's, including but not limited to stereo equipment, instruments, knick knacky stuff.
I love going to this place. It's cozy and feels like somebody's attic.
posted by ashbury at 8:51 AM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]