Vinyl Revival

You know it's not long ago that I was writing about how music consumption had moved on and who in their right mind would pay £18.50 for an album.

Well as I write this I am listening to the excellent Defenestration of St Martin by Martin Rossiter on L.P., for which I payed £17.86.  I joked on Twitter that the last time I received an L.P. through the post it was from Britannia Music Club but I think that it may actually be true.

So am I a hypocrite? Probably yes, but let me explain how it happened...

It's my own fault really for posting that clip from High Fidelity.  It planted the idea in my head so that when I saw the film on Netflix I felt compelled to watch it.  It felt good.  Just the idea of vinyl felt good.  But it was okay, I could resist.

And then there was Rutherford Chang.  Who?  Well I read this article about a guy who was collecting and recording White Albums for an art installation.  And that reminded me that when I car-booted all my old vinyl a decade or more ago I kept one record.  The White Album by The Beatles (okay The Beatles by The Beatles if you're going to be pedantic).  I'd kept it because my mum had bought it before I was even born so it wasn't my record to sell really.  And after reading that I article I really wanted to listen to it.  I wanted to listen to that physical copy of the album that had sat in the cupboard undisturbed for years.

The only problem was that I didn't have a turntable.  I visited a high end audio store in town which only confirmed my opinion of high end audio stores! Snooty staff, ridiculously priced kit (£3000 for a turntable - really? My car is not worth that.) and an intimidating experience.  

I turned to the Internet and there seemed to be a couple of decent entry-level options for around £200.  Even this was too much though, I only wanted to play one record.  

So ultimately I turned to ebay and picked up a Bush MTT1 for £20.  Job done.  It was a bit of a Heath Robinson affair but by connecting a cheap turntable to an old ghetto-blaster which in turn was connected to my iPod dock we had something that just about worked.

I listen to music every day but, other than in the car, it is almost always through a computer and nine times out of ten through headphones.  So straight away this felt different.  There really is something about the physicality of a record and probably a fair dollop of sentimentality in playing a 45 year old record that belonged to my mum too.  Somehow I seemed to listen to the album rather than just the music and yes I am aware of how pretentious that sounds.

So have I caught the vinyl bug?  Yes, I fear so.  I've spent an entire afternoon scouring the charity shops only to learn that there are an awful lot of James Last records that people don't want!  And to complete my High Fidelity cliche I've even found our local Championship Vinyl in Rooster Records.

I still listen to most of my music through the PC and shan't be cancelling my Spotify subscription any time soon.  I will though continue to make select purchases on vinyl but it will only be for a certain kind of record.  So only one question remains, can you lend me £3000 to buy a decent turntable?

Would you pay £18.50 for an album?

The recent demise of the HMV chain of record stores, the last real national outlet for buying music on the high street, has got me thinking.  All the places where I bought music as a teenager are long gone Our Price, MVC, Woolworths, Tower Records and now HMV.  I ought to be nostalgic for them but I'm not.  I couldn't even summon up much enthusiasm for the inevitable 'support you local independent record store' campaign.

Why?

I suppose I have to think about why I used to shop there and why, even though I buy just as much music now as I did in my youth, I haven't bought anything from a record shop in years.  The main reason was that it was the only choice.  You had whatever stock was in your local record shops and that was it.  If they didn't stock it, you weren't getting it.  I can remember finding a review of an album from years previously and deciding that it sounded so good that I just had to get that record (It was 'The Inmates Meet The Beatles Live in Paris' seeing as you're asking).  I had to go to the shop, they looked it up in some big reference book and ordered it.  It took about 2 months to get it!

So yes CHOICE, is the big thing.  The internet has changed music distribution entirely and how can a physical store, even a huge one, compete?  The Tower Records shop at Piccadilly used to be almost a tourist attraction because of the range of music it stocked.  Right now, via Spotify, YouTube or a dozen other services I can listen to practically anything I want.  And that has enabled people to branch out and try new artists and genres in a way that was simply incomprehensible only a decade ago.

Another change has been the COST of music.  Aside from the streaming options mentioned above, if you want to buy music it is quicker and much, much cheaper than ever before.  When preparing for my last show I came across this CD from Travis.  It cost £14 in 2001, that's £18.50 in today's money.  I can buy a brand new copy of that CD from Amazon today for £5.30, or a used copy for £1.27 (download is £8 for some reason).

Travis: Worth £18.50 or £1.27?

Okay, so comparing the price with a used copy may not be a fair comparison but it represents an option that is available to me today that would not have been there a decade ago.

Would you pay almost £20 for an album? No, we have adjusted to a different price range.  I'd baulk at paying more than £7 now unless it was for something really special.  Even then that decision is normally made after giving the album a few listens on Spotify first.  How can a record store compete on cost?  It's not that long ago that HMV were still trying to sell albums for £15.  The surprise is not that they've gone bust but that they lasted as long as they did.

However perhaps the reason most people give for why they love record shops, especially the independents, is the staff.  Building that personal relationship with someone who would recommend new music to you or maybe just a cool place to hang out and listen to something different.  Who wouldn't want to hang out in Championship Vinyl from the movie High Fidelity?

Maybe I just never found the right record store?  But I do know that now with blogs, facebook, twitter and all the other resources of the Internet I can get more interaction and recommendations about music then ever before.  Plenty of the tracks that I play on the shows are from 90s bands that I'd never heard of before people through our facebook and twitter sites recommended them.

So I've got more access to information about new (and old) music than ever before, can purchase or listen to almost any music and at a much, much lower cost than at any other time in the history of recorded music.  So farewell HMV and your ilk but your time has passed.  For a blog that focuses on 90s music it may seem a bit rich but in this instance nostalgia for record shops is over-rated, we've never had it so good.

Of course you may disagree...

Postscript: After watching that clip I too felt the urge to obey John Cusack and purchase a copy of 'The 3 E.P.s by The Beta Band'. Instead I had a listen on Spotify.